What would Jesus ask a Darwinian?

Rich Naylor

Before we can consider what questions Jesus might ask a Darwinian, we should take a moment to find out a little about what a Darwinian actually believes and just who Darwin was.

So, who was Darwin?

Charles Darwin was born in 1809. After quitting medicine at Edinburgh, Darwin was sent to Christ College Cambridge by his father to study for the clergy. He developed a passion for natural history at college, and spent most of his time collecting beetles. After completing his studies, when he was 22 years old he was asked if he would like to fill a vacancy as the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle during its 5 year voyage of South America. During his voyage Darwin collected thousands of specimens. He noticed differences between finches collected on different islands in the Galapagos. Darwin wondered how these differences came about, and began developing his theory of transmutation, whereby one species could evolve in response to it's environment, and form a whole new species.

Darwin conducted his research in private, because he new that none of the other naturalists would believe him. By 1842 he had written a comprehensive draft of a book describing how evolution could occur by processes such as natural selection. Darwin believed that animals evolved according to strict laws of nature set down by God during Creation. He thought that natural variation would produce some individuals that were better suited to a particular environment than others. Since only the best suited individuals would survive and reproduce, nature would effectively be selecting for the best suited species in each environment. Consequently any environmental changes would result in the evolution of different species.

Now Darwin faced a dilemma. Should he publish his work? Darwin was afraid of being heavily criticised by his colleagues, scorned by the church and labelled as an atheist. He also new that the "trouble making atheists would use it for their own evil agendas". Consequently Darwin held off publishing his book for almost 20 years, and only finally published it when a young naturalist named Alfred Russell Wallace came up with a very similar theory.

A Darwinian is an advocate of Darwinism, which is a belief in the theories of Evolution and Natural Selection proposed by Charles Darwin. Most Darwinians, however, dislike the term Darwinism because it implies that evolutionary theory is a doctrine or belief rather than fact.

So, what would Jesus ask a Darwinian?

Here are three key questions Jesus might ask:

1) Is there really no more to life than reproduction?

Evolutionary theory predicts that we shouldn't be wasting our time with anything that doesn't directly result in producing more offspring, in order to pass on as many of our genes to the next generation as possible.

2) Is there no higher purpose to our lives?

If we are just machines for passing on DNA (as suggested by Richard Dawkins) why do we care about each other, enjoy playing games or watching the sun set? And why do we long to be remembered after we die?

3) Does Darwinism actually disprove the presence of a God?

Many atheists say that it does (just as Darwin feared), but science can only shed light on phenomena one can observe and measure, so is faith really within the scope of scientific understanding?