I'm with Darwin

When I think of Darwin, I think of my brother. This association is partially connected to the fact that my brother was hooked on the “Darwin Awards” books when he was growing up, but mostly because of the way he thought. As a young teenager going through conformation he was the odd man out. He was the only student to ever declare his “statement of non-faith,” as he now refers to it. Our minister described my brother as “marching to the beat of his own drum” back then, and to this day it still holds true. At the time I was so surprised by my brother being an atheist I didn’t know how to react. I imagine that this is somewhat similar to how people reacted to Darwin’s theories of evolution years and years ago.

Today, I stand in the same place that my brother did. The more and more I think about God, Creationism, and organized religion as a whole the more it baffles me. I think back to when I was a small child in Sunday school listening to Bible stories and knowing that I would get munchkin donuts at the end of class was the only thing keeping me sane. I think back to when I was going through conformation and declaring my faith in god because I felt that is what I was supposed to do. Unlike my brother I didn’t have the guts to say what I was really thinking. Now I’m a sophomore in college reading about Darwin’s ideas and somehow it’s all making sense to me now: that religion has never impacted anything in my life up to this point and I don’t think it’s going to change. I’m with Darwin.

The stereotype of being an atheist entails extreme hatred toward organized religions and a turbulent lifestyle, but for me it’s not like that at all. I don’t discriminate against people who are in fact religious and I don’t dismiss their beliefs of the creation story. Learning other’s beliefs has given me a better understanding of other cultures. For example, reading “How to Teach Science to the Pope” opened my eyes to the Vatican’s Academy of Sciences. Brother Guy Consolmagno stated that “The idea that the universe is worth studying just because it’s worth studying is a religious idea. If you think the universe is fundamentally good and that it’s an expression of a good God, then studying how the universe works is a way of becoming intimate with the Creator. It’s a kind of worship.” Even though Brother Guy is very religious he can appreciate science as a type of worship in itself. I agree with him and believe that it’s important to explore the universe, though I don’t believe in a Creator myself.

Another piece that I found interesting this semester was Michael Shermer’s writing entitled Genesis Revised: A Scientific Creation Story. It is a bit satyrical, but overall I would say that it bridges the gap between the Evolutionists and Creationists by bringing in scientific ideas where at the same time explaining God as the creator of the universe. Shermer took something that can be incredibly controversial and turned it into something that everyone can laugh at. It’s a perfect depiction of a contemporary view of creation.

“But there were so many creation stories throughout the world God realized that this was confusing, so he created anthropologists, folklorists, and mythologists to sort it out. But confusion still reigned the valley of the shadow of doubt, so God became angry, so angry that God lost his temper and cursed the first humans, telling them to go forth and multiply themselves. But they took God literally and 6,000 years later there are six billion humans. And the evening and morning were the sixth day. So God said, Thank me its Friday, and He made the weekend. And he saw that it was a good idea” (Shermer 626).

I’m content with my beliefs as they stand today and I am thankful for having finally come to this revelation in my life. I am happy to learn about what other people believe and excited to learn more. I want to further my understanding of other cultures and hope to do so during next semester’s core classes. Until then I’m happy to say that I’m with Darwin. I believe in Evolution. I have no doubts that there will be more discoveries in our world that further explain where we come from, but until then I am content just being.

Appleman, Philip. “Darwin: On Changing the Mind” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip Appleman, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

Mason, Michael. “How to Teach Science to the Pope.” Discover Magazine. August 18, 2008.
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/18-how-to-teach-science-to-the-pope

Shermer, Michael. “Genesis Revisited: A Scientific Creation Story.” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip Appleman, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

"YouTube - Intelligence (IQ) - Religious - Atheist - Democrat - Republican." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .

This is a video that illustrates a survey that was taken across the nation of people's IQs and how it correlates to religious beliefs. Now considering how many people live in this country the numbers are kind of low, but overall I find it pretty amusing.