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The 200th. anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in February brought with it a healthy discussion about science and faith.
There are Christians who find Darwin’s theory of evolution a threat to what they believe. Some hold to a literal reading of Genesis 1, creation taking place in six days, and the idea that the world is less than 10,000 years old. At the other end of the debate there are scientists who assert that natural selection undermines faith and removes any need for God. Perhaps one of the most prominent is Richard Dawkins, the Oxford evolutionary biologist, who is well known for his view that belief in God is irrational and profoundly harmful to society.
For me Darwin leaves a profound and rich legacy. If we are to find what is true about life, we need to learn to ask open questions, which lead us to that truth. Like Darwin we also need to learn to pay close attention to what we see around us. When we look carefully, I believe we see a creation, which is dynamic and is constantly being renewed. Science and faith are not rival descriptions of the way the world works, or necessarily competing explanations for the mystery of life.
Last week I went for my annual eye test. It included taking digital retinal photographs. I found it fascinating to look at the complex structure of blood vessels and nerves on the inside of my eyes. The fact that I can see anything with them and interpret what I see is, to me anyway, a miracle.
I was recently introduced to the writing of an American poet, Mary Oliver, and a lovely poem, which brings some of these ideas together.
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
The one who has flung herself out of the grass,
The one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
Who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
Into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
How to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
Which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
