In Honor of Darwin’s Birthday
Source of picture and story: Pastor Cwirla
A little story in honor of St. Darwin from a few years ago:
Once upon a time, a man took a long trip
on a boat to a faraway island to look at birds and bugs and think about
the origin of life. He came up with a Theory that nothing became
everything all by itself, and he wrote a book about it.
His friends liked the book very much and began to look for all sorts of
evidence to support the Theory. They searched up and down, high and
low to find all sorts of things that proved how nothing became
everything all by itself.
Soon they all got together and formed a little club called “Friends of
the Theory.” They began to insist that the Theory was the only
possible explanation for all the evidence they had gathered to support
the Theory. They refused to play with anyone who questioned the Theory
or even to talk with them.
“How can nothing do something?” a wise old man once asked, scratching
his head in confusion. "It just doesn't make sense." The Friends the
Theory laughed at the old man and threw stones at him and called him
names. “Religious stupid head,” they yelled, which made the old man
very sad.
Then the Friends of the Theory went to a judge so that no one could say
anything bad about the Theory ever again. The judge ruled the Theory
that nothing became everything all by itself was “science” and not
religious stupid head stuff.
The Friends of the Theory were very happy with the judge. “See, all
the smart people agree with us,” they said. “And anyone who doesn’t
agree with us is a religious stupid head.”
And that, my children, is how everyone came to believe that nothing became everything all by itself.
The moral of the story is: When people believe nothing, they will believe anything.
_______________
For what can be known
about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his
invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have
been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the
things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans
1:19-20)
…and then, in 2005, they found a big old dinosaur bone that was dated back millions and millions of years ago according to the Friends of the Theory. There was one problem: the bone still had soft tissue in it that had not even decomposed. The Friends pretended that this discovery did not hurt their ideas at all and tried to move on without making a big deal out of it. And whoever brings up how silly this makes them look is called religious stupid head.
But let’s not forget that on this date another man was born: Abraham Lincoln, 200 years ago this day. And General Meade, after meeting the President, refered to him as a “gorilla”. Darwin crawled around on that island but Lincoln strode upon the earth.
Pr. Schroeder,
It was McClellan who called Lincoln “the original gorilla.” It may have been in response to Lincoln referring to the Army of the Potomac as “General McClellan’s bodyguard” because McClellan was so reluctant to engage Robert E. Lee, for which McClellan was duly sacked.
Lee Wenskay
Brilliant! Forwarded to my brother who is a science teacher (classical science, not darwinist tripe) who will love it!
Brilliant!
Randy
This is funny and profound, but it can be damning for Christians as well. It is difficult to point the philosophical finger at evolutionists as promoting meaninglessness at a time when Christianity is buried neck deep in pragmatism. If the meaning of life is prosperity and seven day sex challenges, then we have nothing touching the ultimate meaning of life any more than do the evolutionists; the message is still, let us eat, drink, for tomorrow…?” Or in the words of the Pink Floyd song, “Breathe”: “All you touch and all you see, Is all your life will ever be.”
Looking at the current state of the LCMS, I don’t think it has any bragging rights, with its apparent infatuation with Rick Warren and Joel Osteen. I came to Lutheranism and the LCMS in particular because, as Schelling put it, the existential question is best answered by Lutheran orthodoxy. The existential is found in the essential, the objectiveness, of Word and Sacrament. The present only has meaning where it is touched by the eternal; where better to touch the eternal but through the Eucharist? Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t hear Lutherans preach like this. Life doesn’t have meaning because I have a purpose – like a spoon or a hammer; it has meaning because Jesus is. If Lutherans lose their high ground concerning the philosophical questions, any debate about creationism or evolution will be meaningless.