Evolution Sunday

Genesis 1:1-27, Psalm 8, Matthew 22:34-40

February 15, 2009

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

Before I begin, I need to say two things. First, I am not a trained scientist. Second, I have about 15 minutes to talk about something incredibly complex and about which very faithful and very smart people have written long books. This sermon is intended to continue a conversation, not be the last word on anything!

I want to begin with two quotes. First this: “God’s excellency, wisdom, purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature….I often used to sit and view the moon for a long time; and in the day spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky to behold the sweet glory of God in these things.” (Edwards, Basic Writings, p. 85). Then this: “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on…from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” (Darwin, Origin, p. 459).

The first quote comes from New England Congregationalist preacher of the 18^th century, Jonathan Edwards. The second is the closing line from Charles Darwin’s 19^th century book The Origin of Species. I used them this morning because I want to talk in this short time about what ties science and religion together, not what separates them, how they complement each other, not contradict each other. Both of these learned men, one a man of faith, one who struggled with religion as life went on, see the same thing when they consider this earth: glory, beauty, wonder, grandeur are the words they use to describe it. Our psalmist today used similar adjectives: majestic and glorious. The beginning place for both science and religion in approaching earth and the life on it is wonder, amazement, joyous appreciation, and an understanding that its complexity is a reason for both curiosity and praise. If we start here, then there is no conflict, no division between the explorations of science and the songs of praise of faith. The more scientists and researchers discover about the mechanics of how life on earth evolves and functions, the more amazing and wonderful creation seems. As Francis Collins, head of the government’s Human Genome Project has written, “Evolution, as a mechanism, can be and must be true. But that says nothing about the nature of its author. For those who believe in God, there are reasons now to be more in awe, not less.” (Collins, Language of God, p. 107). Jonathan Edwards looked at the world and saw the hand of God. Charles Darwin looked at life and saw the wonder of a complex pattern. Darwin spoke of the “what,” while Edwards spoke of the “who” behind the “what.” They looked with two different sets of lenses, asking two entirely different and equally legitimate questions, and in the end they both came away amazed. It’s a starting place.

The second place of connection I want to lift up this morning is slightly more complicated. If you have read any of the articles that have come out this month celebrating the 200^th birthday of Darwin (incidentally, he and Abraham Lincoln were born the same day), you have probably seen the little drawing he made of what he called the “Tree of Life.” It was his way of illustrating the truth that he was uncovering that all life on this planet is interconnected. That is one of the most profound concepts behind evolution, that all living things are organically connected to each other. From Gregor Mendel and his pea plants on to the present Genome project, scientists have more and more delineated exactly how those connections work on genetic and subatomic levels. This is the part of evolutionary science that most excites me as a person of faith and most frightens other people of faith.

The poetry of praise we read in Genesis 1 today shows a progression to creation, each part building on the part before, and the description of the creation of life here actually comes close to an evolutionary model: plants then fish then birds then land animals in great variety then human beings. As the story goes on, there is a refrain repeated again and again about how we are connected: “And God saw that it was good.” Each piece of this earth, from water to mountain to life in its unimaginable variety is all seen as good. All the earth, animate and inanimate, has its source in God, says the poet of Genesis 1; all of it is connected; all of it is good. The Tree of Life.

Now seeing this poetically is one thing, but having Darwin and many others put science to this concept and assert that it is organically true, that has troubled some people of faith over the past two centuries. The part of Genesis 1 we did not read this morning, the part about how human beings were given dominance over the rest of creation, has been a more popular idea among many. It is easy for dominance to turn from stewardship into abuse if you do not think you are connected in a literal, not just a metaphorical, way to fish and birds and animals and plants. In recent years we have learned the hard way that what happens to the earth impacts our ability to live in profound ways. In an even stranger twist, some people of faith resisted Darwin’s ideas because they did not want to believe that different human races were made of the same stuff. Remember Darwin’s work was finally published in 1859, at a time when people of African descent were still being held as slaves across this country. The science that Darwin explored convinced him that slavery was wrong. To say that Babz and SreyRam and I, though we are racially different, are not just equal but made of the exact same stuff makes all the racial divisions among humankind the worst kind of lie, and I would say heresy as well, if we understand Genesis 1 as at all reflecting God’s activity and intent in creation. We are all connected. Science tells us how. Religion tells us that this is a gift and a responsibility.

Now I don’t think I have said anything all that controversial this morning, and probably most of you don’t think so either; I’ll find out if you stick around to talk! But there are many religious voices out there saying something quite different. According to a Gallup poll published last week, only 39% of Americans believe that evolution is a scientific fact. Many religious voices in the country loudly proclaim that the science of evolution is an affront to God, and that scientists are making things up to try to destroy faith. Sadly, those are the voices portrayed in the media as the “Christian” point of view. No wonder many intelligent people reject the church as forcing them to deny scientific fact. Jesus called us to love God with all our minds, as well as heart and soul. Galileo, who the church condemned for having the effrontery to say that the earth orbited the sun and therefore was not the center of the universe as religious doctrine had it, put it well centuries ago, “I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” (Collins, 158) Centuries later Albert Einstein wrote “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” This is why I, and almost a thousand clergy of many denominations, committed to speaking on this subject this morning. We represent another religious voice in this conversation which needs to be heard. For me, geneticist Francis Collins sums it up nicely: “Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is most certainly not threatened by science; [God] made it all possible.” (Collins, 233) Amen