Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

Happy belated 200th birthday Charles Darwin! The cover of today’s order of service gives us an insight into the controversy surrounding Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859 when it was first published.

In response to the controversy, Darwin wrote, “I see not good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone.” Nevertheless, he knew that all hell would break loose when he published his ideas. That was the sole reason why he delayed publishing his manuscript, Origin of Species, for twenty years. He fully understood the uproar it would cause, not only within the religious community, but also within the scientific community.

Many people clearly and simply did not like the idea that human beings could possibly have descended from some ape-like creature. Darwin never stated plainly in his book that humans evolved from some ape like creatures but it was implied.

Twenty-one years before it was published, Darwin entered many observations, notes and the ideas and concepts that he entertained in notebooks and lettered them. Darwin wrote in his notebook “C” in 1838, “It not being just a matter of mocking birds, rabbits, and skinks. It was the whole natural world. But Man – wonderful man,” he was trying out (his) ideas on this most dangerous point, “But Man – wonderful man, is an ‘exception.’” Then again, he added, man is clearly a mammal. He is not a deity. He possesses some of the same instincts and feelings as animals. (then accepting what he knew in his heart) Three lines below the first statement about man, Darwin negated it (trying to exclude humans from evolution), concluding firmly that, no (no, no, no), ‘he is not exception,’ from that terrible insight, despite pressures and implications, Charles Darwin would never retreat.” (P.37, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, David Quammen) He accepted his own clear and inevitable conclusion; man is an animal and evolved, as have other animals.

Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford, one of Darwin’s most vocal opponents wrote, that Christianity “was utterly irreconcilable with the degrading notion of the brute origin of him who was created in the image of God.” Another Bishop’s wife (the Bishop of Worcester) had a more honest reaction to Darwin’s theory. She said, “Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known.”

The uproar caused by Darwin’s publication, meant that copies of his book, Origin of Species, were burned and Darwin himself, was condemned from pulpits around the world. A number of well-known and highly knowledgeable paleontologists such as Richard Owen in England and Louis Agassiz in America responded with equally bigoted and vehement attacks on Darwin’s ideas. In fact, at first, a significant majority of scientists opposed Darwin’s ideas.

Thankfully, over the years, the scientific community generally accepted Darwin’s views. We compare Darwin’s theory of evolution to Newton’s theory of gravity in overall significance to science. Can you imagine where science would be today and where medical science and practice would be today, without the knowledge that evolution opened up and generated?

There are many in the world and in our country who continue to deny the truth of evolution for religious reasons. It seems in direct opposition to the stories in the Hebrew Scripture if you read them literally rather than as meaningful myths that have come to us from ancient times.

There are those in our country who deny the truth of evolution for political reasons, even some of those running for president last year. They feared that some would not vote for them if they were to say that they accepted evolution as the best way to understand the origin of life, and how we came to be the human beings that we are today.

A recent survey states that even though majorities in every major religious group say that scientific advances help rather than harm mankind, 65 % of white evangelical Protestants reject the idea that we and other living things have evolved over time. They believe that life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time. Only 51% of all Americans believe we have evolved over time. Do they not know about all the scientific breakthroughs that are dependent on the assumption of evolution? However, even though 62% of Americans are fully aware that scientists largely agree about evolution many continue to disbelieve in it.

Fortunately, I am among more than 11,000 clergy who have signed a letter trying to make it clear that we celebrate Darwin’s 200th birthday this month and we do not have to choose between religion and science. Rather, we are celebrating Darwin’s birthday and we are celebrating evolution, as his gift to the world of science and religion.

A little about Charles Darwin. You can read my sermon dated April 15, 2006, about Darwin. Go to our UUCWC web site and find it among the older sermons section. The title is, “Charles Darwin and St. Francis of Assisi.” In that sermon, I talk about visiting Darwin’s home, Down House, during the summer of 2005. Standing in Darwin’s study where he wrote Origin of Species, was the highpoint of my stay in England. Darwin sat there doing his experiments, pondering their implications and writing down his ideas. He knew as he wrote his words and thought about evolution, that his beloved wife Emma was somewhere in the same house, busy taking care of the household. He also knew that she would be saddened and disappointed when his ideas were published.

For me, going to Darwin’s house was a pilgrimage to a holy site. Scientific knowledge has always excited me. Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s I learned that science was the way to gain an understanding of what was true and what was false. It was the way to improve our individual and collective knowledge. Science and the scientific method led me to evaluate my religious views bringing me to Unitarian Universalism. I firmly believe that science helps us better understand our world, our bodies, our selves, life in general and, yes, religion and spirituality.

“Thank God for Evolution!” I agree with Michael Dowd. Darwin’s theory of evolution has and will continue to enrich our understanding of life, religion and spirituality. Just think about all the wonderful knowledge discovered by trial and error, observation and experimentation. Trial and error led to early discoveries like the fact that a round wheel makes moving something heavy much easier. The scientific approach has also demonstrated that we really can lower our heartbeat and blood pressure by practicing various forms of prayer or meditation.

I want to understand better how life and the universe began. We look at some interesting animal and we wonder how that life began. We look at a newborn child and we wonder how that life began. At night, we look up at the stars and we wonder how the universe began. I can accept that life just might have come about as a cosmic accident. Because of that, I do not despair nor do I think that religion and spirituality losses its appeal or meaning. If life, yours and mine, happens to be a cosmic accident, does not that make it even more special and marvelous? Since we humans have evolved from simpler life forms, thoughts of the spirit of love and compassion that define this community need poetic description. We look into another’s eyes and see beauty, truth and love that guides our behavior as it did Darwin’s.

His understanding of human life from an evolutionary perspective did not prevent him from being devoted to his wife Emma who had written a letter to Charles at the beginning of their marriage about her belief in God and how she worried about his soul. He saved that letter for forty years. He could not pretend to believe as she, but he honored her and her important presence in his life. At some point, he wrote a message on the bottom of her original letter. It was discovered after his death. To his wife, Emma, he wrote, “When I am dead, know that many times, I have kissed and cried over this. C.D.” For me, both spirituality and science help me live a better, more meaningful life and a more compassionate life.

When children and adults ask questions about the universe, about society and about life itself, we need the very best scientific truth available. We need the very best stories, myths and poetry to help us understand the subtleties of our feelings, our loves and our hopes. Many find comfort and meaning in the poetic images of a God who cares for them. Neither Charles Darwin nor I would argue with them.

Charles Darwin was able to combine his scientific approach with a poetic appreciation for the beauty and intricacy of the natural world. Darwin wrote, “Delight itself… is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration. … To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again.” (The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, p.13)

Darwin slowly and steadily built the theory of evolution by open and honest observation, careful scientific analysis and his own creative and courageous insights until he came to the inescapable conclusion that human beings are closely related to the other animal life forms and we too have evolved into our present form. His wonder and fascination with everything in nature, the animals, plants and the geology is what led him to his conclusions about natural selection.

Like his book, Origin of Species, Darwin’s disbelief in Christianity developed slowly. His scientific studies and his patient reflection was the environmental pressure that helped his beliefs evolve to the point where he no longer believed in miracles. Then he came to a point where he no longer believed in a personal god. Like natural selection, Darwin gradually accepted the full implications of the evidence he had accumulated. It happened slowly, but eventually it was complete. Darwin preferred to refer to himself as an, agnostic, a word coined by his good friend and defender T.H. Huxley. Darwin liked the term agnostic because the word atheist was a far aggressive for him.

Finally, at the age of 50, 150 years ago, Darwin was ready to publish his book. He ordered 1,250 copies for the first printing. Darwin was fiscally conservative and felt that was a very optimistic number. To his surprise, several days prior to the official publication his book was offered to booksellers only, yet 1,500 copies were ordered. He immediately ordered a second printing. Soon, The Origin of Species became one of the most influential books written. Charles Darwin became one of the most important men of his day and remains so.

The freedom that Unitarian Universalism has given me and gives to all of us is the permission to explore scientific, theological and spiritual truths without the fear of crossing some doctrinal line where we will be condemned for questioning some truth. We need not believe in a personal god who created us in his very likeness to sense that life is a sacred gift. We can rejoice in life, in love and in beauty, singing Alleluia to the spirit of life that flows through us all and all of nature without the fear that some all-powerful deity will stoop down and strike me dead.

What better way to close my sermon in celebration of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday than with the words Darwin used to close his book, “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”