Darwin Versus Christ

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“I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of Natural Selection, if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent. . . .

If I were convinced that

I required such additions to

the theory of natural selection,

I would reject it as rubbish.”

Slide 52

Evolutionary thinking undermines the Bible

“The struggle for life and elimination of the weakest is a horrible process, against which our whole modern ethics revolts. . . . I am surprised that a Christian would defend the idea that this is the process which God more or less set up in order to have evolution.”

Slide 53

Slide 54

Evolutionary thinking undermines the Bible

Message of the Gospel

“Many if not all of the miracles happened according to law; their miraculous nature

comes from their meaning or significance. The every-day miracles of the Gospels — turning the water into wine and feeding the five thousand and even raising Lazarus — can be explained as the enthusiasm

of the moment. . . .”

Slide 55

. Message of the Gospel

“People’s hearts were so filled with love by Jesus’ talk and presence that spontaneously and out of character they shared their food.

To think otherwise — to think that Jesus actually turned loaves and fishes into a banquet — is if anything a bit degrading, making the Redeemer a kind of high-class caterer. Lazarus and the ruler’s daughter were more than likely brought back from trances.

Slide 56

“In fact, even the supreme miracle

of the resurrection requires no law-breaking return from the dead. One can think Jesus in a trance, or more likely that he really was physically dead but that on and from the third day a group of people, hitherto downcast, were filled with great joy and hope. . . . It is from this regeneration of spirit that true Christianity stems, not from law-defying physiological reversals in the early hours of a Sunday morning. .

Slide 57

“. . . There are quite enough problems with the authenticity of the miracles because of the ambiguous (perhaps corrupt) nature of the biblical texts, making them dubious as a matter of pure reason, without the added difficulties of science and its commitment to law. If you are prepared to accept the miracles (as law-breaking miracles) despite these difficulties, I doubt that science is going to make much difference anyway.”

Slide 58