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Sunday, February 19, 2006

US churches celebrate 'Evolution Sunday' -13/02/06

Nearly 450 Christian churches in the United States yesterday celebrated the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin. The churches say Darwin`s theory of biological evolution is compatible with faith and that Christians have no need to choose between religion and science. Some churches sang praises for "tall boiling test tubes" and "classrooms and labs."

Many churches held adult education and Sunday school classes on evolution, and ministers preached that followers of Christ do not have to choose between biblical stories of creation and evolution. "It`s to demonstrate, by Christian leaders and members of the clergy, that you don`t have to make that choice. You can have both," said Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, who organized the 'Evolution Sunday' event. "Those very shrill, shrieking voices of the Christian fundamentalists we hear so often are not speaking for all Christians," he said.

A variety of denominational and non-denominational churches, including Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Congregationalist, United Church of Christ, Baptist and a host of community churches, participated in the event, which grew out of Zimmerman`s 'Clergy Letter Project', another effort to dispel the perception among many Christians that faith and evolution are mutually exclusive.

Zimmerman got more than 10,000 Christian ministers to sign a letter urging school boards across the country to "preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge."

10 comments:

JR said...

"Those very shrill, shrieking voices of the Christian fundamentalists we hear so often are not speaking for all Christians," he said."
YIPPEE!! Christians are taking back their religion from the fundamentalists. I hope they succeed. It would be a shame if the reputations of good people got tarred with the same feather as radicals. Now if the majority of Muslims would step forward en masse and do the same to reclaim their religion....

CyberKitten said...

It IS good news isn't it. Oh, and apparently Muslims are stepping forward too... at least in the UK. Maybe there is hope for the future after all?

Juggling Mother said...

That's why I kept trying to say it wasn't a "you believe, I don't believe" debate when we were discussing it a few weeks ago, but the shrill fundies seemed to have difficulty with that concept.

Sadie Lou said...

"you believe, I don't believe" debate...

I missed the debate--what kind of debate was it?

CyberKitten said...

Sadie Lou said: I missed the debate--what kind of debate was it?

Mrs A is probably talking about 2 posts I did last month on 'Why I don't believe in God' and 'Things I believe but cannot prove'... Probably.....

Am I right Mrs A? Or was it one of the many other 'belief' debates we have here? [grin]

Baconeater said...

This seems good on the surface, but the reality is that close to 45% of Americans believe in a Young Earth, making evolution impossible. Of those who believe the earth is ancient, many people, including Muslims believe that there were different creation points and that man did evolve from lower life forms (I'm not sure what the percentage is for this belief).

Michael K. Althouse said...

This is encouraging indeed. It helps me to look beyond the stereotypical Christian. I know from stereotypes and that all of a particular group do not fit into the percieved image of that group, yet, it is difficult to view religious fundamentalists beyond what a very vocal minority puts out for public consumption.

It is therefore refreshing to see news that confirms my gut level feeling that most members of any religious sect are much more moderate than those who purport to speak for them.

Just a side thought: I don't know anything about the Christian Scientists, but I always had this view that those two words together created an oxymoron. Maybe not so much?

~Mike

Juggling Mother said...

I was actually talking about the creationism debates on Daves & Simons Blog. Simons went up to well over 100 comments, but he basically just kept coming back with "but I know God exists, so you're wrong" which is a fairly pointless argument IMO. Especiaslly since we were debating the age of the Earth & the posiibility of species evolution, and I don't actually see why that needs to involve God existing at all.

Sadie - you should go check simon out sometime. It might explain my sudden interest & exasperation with blogging Christians - although he's taking a break from blogging at the moment.

Mr Althouse. Christian Scientists are a whole new world of wierdism:-) which has absolutely nothing to do with science, but as a rule, they are happy to accept scientific discoveries under the catchall phrase "but God moves in mysterious ways".

CyberKitten said...

Mrs A said: I was actually talking about the creationism debates on Daves & Simons Blog. Simons went up to well over 100 comments, but he basically just kept coming back with "but I know God exists, so you're wrong" which is a fairly pointless argument

Oh.... THOSE debates. As you know I 'bailed' early from Simon's Blog due to the pain caused by continually banging my head against a brick wall. VERY pointless indeed. Why bother debating a subject if it's beyond debate? I'm impressed by your sticking power though Mrs A.

Paste said...

My head is still hurting! The problem in the western world is as BEAJ says 45% of Americans believe in the young earth which to the rest of us is plain silly, unthinking nonsence.