RESPONDING bluntly to Dave Goldsbrough’s provocation, Christians accept that much is mystery, where as Darwinians are inclined to think they know everything.

The atheist taint and much folly in scientific method and economics originated with the atheist philosopher Hume (1740).

Before him, Bacon (1604) founded modern science and the industrial revolution with the proposal that we should get to know God through his works as well as the Bible, exploring the riches he has already given us to find new livelihoods for those left unemployed by the Tudor land-grabs.

The Christian attitude to Darwin is post-Baconian, whereas Genesis was long pre-Christian. Cardinal Newman had already written The Development of Doctrine before Darwin set out in the Beagle.

Realising that life has evolved, we Christians have been challenged to rethink how creation worked.

My own take is that a supremely intelligent God wouldn’t make things the old way, with his hands. He would automate the whole process, provide the necessary energy and sort out the inevitable physical imperfections afterwards.

Pre-Einstein, Darwin assumed the universe was eternal. The Big Bang finding suggests the Gospel story may be literally true: God died that we might live.


DAVE TAYLOR
Malvern Link