Marx, Freud, and Darwin have been dead a long time but their disciples still advance their cause. This past week, our local newspaper (The News Tribune, March 21, 2012) ran an editorial from the Detroit Free Press. It was entitled “Evolving Opinions on Evolution.” They were reacting to a reposting of a Gallup Poll that was taken two years ago on the bicentennial celebration of Darwin’s birthday. The poll showed that only 39% of American’s “believe in the theory of evolution.” The Detroit paper found it “alarming” that so few believe Darwin’s argument presented in his “Origin of Species”—a belief that all life forms descended from a common ancestor. And Darwin’s idea of a “common ancestor” wasn’t Adam—it was some kind of primordial “goo.”
The editorial board was quick to point out that the more educated one was the more likely one is to believe in evolution. The Gallup Poll showed that 24% of those with a high school or lower education thought Darwin was correct; whereas 53% of college graduates and 74% of postgraduate degree-holders did. They also pointed out the opposite correlation among those who attended church regularly; just 24% of those who attended weekly said they believed in evolution compared with 55% of those who said they attended church seldom or never.
The Motor City editorial board showed their pro-evolutionary colors when they said, “Virtually everything biologists have discovered since either confirms or refines his [Darwin’s] theory of natural selection” and that there has been a “scientific consensus that has endured [for] more than a century.” I didn’t know that; and I went to graduate school, too! But I’m also one of those who attend church regularly—I guess that cancels out any “smarts” I may have picked up.
The editorial ended this way: “The good news, according to Darwin, is that nature favors adaptations that enhance a species’ survival…not only is our species’ eyesight improving, but also its capacity to acknowledge what our eyes see.” I guess the problem, according to them, is that we just don’t acknowledge what is readily apparent. Does that mean they believe more college degrees and less church will open our eyes?
“Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20), wrote the inspired apostle. Therefore, be careful if you go to college; be on your guard if you don’t go to church very often, too. You may be earning a degree in foolishness—one that actually believes great-great-great-great-great grandpa was an ape. And the Detroit Free Press thinks that’s wisdom?
Pastor Rich Hamlin
March 22, 2012