Christianity, Evolution, and Civil Rights
Oftentimes, I hear people bash Christianity because it is supposedly a patriarchal religion. Christians are painted as women-haters who believe in some outdated 1950s morality. Most of these critics come from the tide of evolutionary postmodernists who also believe that the Bible and Christianity in general are useless. There is a problem here though. For while Christianity is disparaged for their "negative" view of women, evolutionary philosophy deserves a closer look.
Basic evolutionary philosophy teaches a process known as natural selection, or more commonly known as, "survival of the fittest." This "only the strong will survive" mentality permeates evolutionary philosophy. Which begs the question? Why on earth would an evolutionist fight for the rights of women? Or, for that matter, why would they fight for the rights of any down-trodden people? The logical conclusion is that by fighting for civil rights they are simply battling against the interminable wave of natural selection. Evolution will have its way with mankind. In reality, if they really believe what they say, they should do nothing. Why? Because, given the right amount of time, evolution will run its course and eliminate those people anyway. It seems silly to fight this eventual outcome. We should allow everyone to fight for themselves. The strong will live, the weak will be crushed by the machine. And so it goes. My point is that folks coming from an materialistic (evolutionary) philosophy have no basis for promoting civil rights. They lack true motivation. Like I said before, if these people are too weak to stand up for themselves, they should be eliminated, right?
The answer is clearly wrong. The truth is that evolutionary philosophy misses the boat when it comes to the dignity of man. In an evolutionist's view, man is simply another animal with a high level of reasoning capability. Once again, I state the question: Why should we then fight for the right of a weaker animal when, in reality, that weaker animal is robbing me of much needed necessities and slowing the evolutionary process?
The Christian alternative is much more hopeful. Scripture tells of the magnificent dignity with which God has made us. Genesis 1:27 says that we, man and woman, are created in the image of God; therefore, we hold a place of highest value in the eyes of God and in the eyes of one another. So, when we see someone fall, when we hear the oppressed cry out, we are to respond because that person also bears God's image. They too hold a place of supreme value in the eyes of God. Not only that, we know that God so loved the whole world that He sent His Son to die for our sins (paraphrase of John 3:16). If that is true, then each person on this earth has great dignity imparted to them. The Christian, though I will admit we have been woeful, must in every case fight for the rights of our fellow image-bearers. We must love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 19:19), not because it is the nice thing to do. It is because that other person has been adorned with the image of God.
The reality of the situation is this: evolutionary philosophy robs man of his dignity, though its proponents say that it does the opposite, and the Way of Christ restores it. Civil rights ought to be a ridiculous notion to an evolutionist, but it is not. Why? Because people can't live that way. Man was not made to be animals; we were made to bear the image of God on earth.
Basic evolutionary philosophy teaches a process known as natural selection, or more commonly known as, "survival of the fittest." This "only the strong will survive" mentality permeates evolutionary philosophy. Which begs the question? Why on earth would an evolutionist fight for the rights of women? Or, for that matter, why would they fight for the rights of any down-trodden people? The logical conclusion is that by fighting for civil rights they are simply battling against the interminable wave of natural selection. Evolution will have its way with mankind. In reality, if they really believe what they say, they should do nothing. Why? Because, given the right amount of time, evolution will run its course and eliminate those people anyway. It seems silly to fight this eventual outcome. We should allow everyone to fight for themselves. The strong will live, the weak will be crushed by the machine. And so it goes. My point is that folks coming from an materialistic (evolutionary) philosophy have no basis for promoting civil rights. They lack true motivation. Like I said before, if these people are too weak to stand up for themselves, they should be eliminated, right?
The answer is clearly wrong. The truth is that evolutionary philosophy misses the boat when it comes to the dignity of man. In an evolutionist's view, man is simply another animal with a high level of reasoning capability. Once again, I state the question: Why should we then fight for the right of a weaker animal when, in reality, that weaker animal is robbing me of much needed necessities and slowing the evolutionary process?
The Christian alternative is much more hopeful. Scripture tells of the magnificent dignity with which God has made us. Genesis 1:27 says that we, man and woman, are created in the image of God; therefore, we hold a place of highest value in the eyes of God and in the eyes of one another. So, when we see someone fall, when we hear the oppressed cry out, we are to respond because that person also bears God's image. They too hold a place of supreme value in the eyes of God. Not only that, we know that God so loved the whole world that He sent His Son to die for our sins (paraphrase of John 3:16). If that is true, then each person on this earth has great dignity imparted to them. The Christian, though I will admit we have been woeful, must in every case fight for the rights of our fellow image-bearers. We must love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 19:19), not because it is the nice thing to do. It is because that other person has been adorned with the image of God.
The reality of the situation is this: evolutionary philosophy robs man of his dignity, though its proponents say that it does the opposite, and the Way of Christ restores it. Civil rights ought to be a ridiculous notion to an evolutionist, but it is not. Why? Because people can't live that way. Man was not made to be animals; we were made to bear the image of God on earth.
posted by Michael D. Estes @ 5:19 PM
4 Comments:
At 11:34 AM,
Charlie Wallace said…
Sound argument.
At 6:12 PM,
Anonymous said…
Excellent post, Michael. Great job.
At 2:42 PM,
T said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 2:44 PM,
T said…
MikeyMan, I think this is a very perceptive post. And, it is well-written.
If we could get inside the mind of one of the more thoughtful of your opponents, I suppose he could, however, say something like this: "It is the very fact that women are fit to perform these tasks that we fight for their rights." To expound, could it be said, in their view, that it is sociological structures, and not female ineptitude, that has prevented women from thriving? In this case, women could not demonstrate their ability until such structures were subverted. This view would not necessitate that women's inferiority at this societal level stemmed from an inferiority that inhered in every sense of their being but perhaps only from an inferiority in physical strength. That is, perhaps the brute strength of men kept women down, when women were in fact adroit in every other area.
Just a thought…but then, it begs another question that is moral in nature: where does the sense of “ought” come from in saying we should fight for the rights of others?
Anywho, your post was great!
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