Darwin & the New Man
As James Hitchcock argues, though Christians may disagree on the scientific status of Darwinism, and most of us are not learned enough in the subject to venture an opinion, Christians must oppose the materialistic philosophy called Darwinism. Much of the conflict arises not because Christians insist on making scientific judgments but because Darwinists insist on hiding their materialistic philosophy under the cover of “science.”
Christians oppose the philosophy generally known as Darwinism because we believe that man is more than matter, at least matter as described by chemists and biologists. Man has a moral and spiritual nature that is not the product of blind, random biological processes. He is Homo sapiens. Man is most truly man when pursuing wisdom, and for the Christian this means following Christ, who is the wisdom of God, the perfect Man, the second Adam.
To materialists, however, such a moral and spiritual dimension is an illusion. Man, a material being in a material cosmos, is at his best as technological man, Homo faber. (Even the materialist cannot, in practice, avoid judgments like “best” and “worst.”)
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James M. Kushiner is the Director of Publications for The Fellowship of St. James and the former Executive Editor of Touchstone.
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