Eyes of Mud and Spit - A Study in the History of the Divided Religious Mind (III)
III — Secularism and the Literalising of the World
Creationism and Darwin — Science’s Conflict with Religion
The question of whether evolution poses a threat to Christianity has been a furious debate in of much of the church ever since the theory was first brought into the public consciousness. The nineteenth century saw both the emergence of this theory as well as the emergence and consolidation of the word “science”, previously a word that simply meant knowledge and was used for a range of intellectual disciplines, to be used for what was previously known as natural philosophy.
The history of Christianity’s relationship to the early passages of Genesis and the age of the earth is somewhat complex. Naturally, before competing theories came along, such a debate existed far more in the world of philosophical abstractions than in evidence and theory, although Christians have dabbled with applying the bible as proto-science. James Usher in 1650 tried to calculate the exact date of creation based on bible texts and decided it was 4004 BC (6 pm on 22 October 4004 BC, to be precise), a rough date still clung to by many young earth creationists.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to This Isle is Full of Noises to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.