{"id":16937,"date":"2011-04-19T12:38:36","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T17:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?p=16937"},"modified":"2017-05-03T19:02:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T00:02:46","slug":"did-darwin-kill-god-conor-cunningham-on-creationism-and-darwinism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/19\/did-darwin-kill-god-conor-cunningham-on-creationism-and-darwinism\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Darwin Kill God? Conor Cunningham on Creationism and Darwinism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Wherever did the idea that evolution is a problem for the Christian faith come from?\u00a0 The standard narrative simply presumes the conflict was automatic.\u00a0 The contemporary creationist view is taken to be the standard view of pre-Darwinian Christianity and contemporary Christians who do not espouse that view are seen as compromising their faith with science.<\/p>\n

This is all non-sense.\u00a0 Creationism is an entirely modern phenomenon, one that holds a picture of God that is very difficult to square with the broader Christian tradition.\u00a0 Intelligent Design, which tries to reconcile God and modern science, is perhaps even worse in this regard.\u00a0 Its attempt at reconciliation makes a mockery of science and theology.\u00a0 In my view, that is the necessary outcome of trying to reconcile two things that are not at odds.<\/p>\n

I wrote a paper a few years back about creationism and ID as bad theology, not just bad science.\u00a0 I had toyed with the idea of turning the basic ideas in it into something for publication, but now that Conor Cunningham\u2019s Darwin\u2019s Pious Idea<\/a> is out, that seems superfluous.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I will probably share it here at Vox Nova in the near future.<\/p>\n

In any case, Cunningham\u2019s basic ideas have been turned into a one-hour BBC special that I thought might be of interest to our readership.\u00a0 Cunningham shows that the standard narrative we have been given about evolution as a challenge to the faith is historically untenable and theologically suspect.\u00a0 While a one-hour popular special will obviously be forced into superficiality at points (e.g., many Catholics would like more nuance on what it means to read the Bible \u201cliterally\u201d), I suspect Cunningham\u2019s book goes into much more depth.\u00a0 Though I have not yet read it, the endorsements<\/a> alone (from luminaries like Slavoj Zizek, Charles Taylor, Robert Sokolowski and Stanley Hauerwas) give one reasons for hope.<\/p>\n

Here is a quote from the special to whet your appetite:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my contention that Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution did not challenge God in the 19th century, nor did it challenge God in the 20th century, despite claims made by creationism.\u00a0 The only reason people thought it did was because of the noise, furor, and cacophony caused by creationists.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t think that creationism is a true heir to the Christian tradition.\u00a0 Rather they are a modern anomaly, an aberration, a product of 20th century anxiety.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The special is here broken into 4 parts.\u00a0 The final 3 are below the cut off.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zuGnTRYvBtc&feature=related<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=le9TqH2gRyQ&feature=related<\/a>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0OmcFwOiFxs&feature=related<\/a>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SM5M1252lcc&feature=related<\/a>\n

As a complete side-track, is there anything that so clearly demonstrates the proximity of societal collapse as the commentary available under videos such as this on Youtube?\u00a0 Egads.<\/p>\n

\n

Brett Salkeld<\/a> is a doctoral student in theology at Regis College in Toronto. He is a father of two (so far) and husband of one.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wherever did the idea that evolution is a problem for the Christian faith come from?\u00a0 The standard narrative simply presumes the conflict was automatic.\u00a0 The contemporary creationist view is taken to be the standard view of pre-Darwinian Christianity and contemporary Christians who do not espouse that view are seen as compromising their faith with science. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2991,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350,142,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brett-salkeld","category-creation","category-evolution"],"yoast_head":"\nDid Darwin Kill God? 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