Dawkins on Evolution

In this video,Richard Dawkins primarily talks about evolution. At the very end, he acknowledges something that is seldom heard on television: the admission that sensible Christians believe in evolution. I would state this a different way: mainstream Christians believe in evolution.

To demand that one believes that God created the universe as stated in Genesis puts human limitations on God. The message of Genesis is we are God's creation. The mechanism of creation in scientific terms was not available to the Genesis writers. Why limit God to the world view of the writers of this ancient text? Modern Christians understand that God is not limited by either time or space. What are eons to humans may well be all one to God.

The media tends to present only the most conservative representatives of Christianity: anti-evolution, anti-gay, anti-Obama, and anti-government. Such conservatives provide the inflammatory sound bites that the media love so much, but they provide only a caricature of Christianity. I would challenge the media to provide true representatives of mainstream Christianity and any other faith.

Richard Dawkins says one thing I totally disagree with in this video. Priests get their beliefs from the Bible, biologists get their beliefs from facts. No one can know the basis of another's belief, not even Dawkins. Yes, for many Christians the Bible plays a key role. For others, faith comes the evidence of changed lives or a personal experience with God. Only the most conservative Christians would say their belief depends only on the Bible.

Christianity is a complex faith founded on a simple command: Love God and love your neighbor. Far too many Christians interviewed by the media or selected as religious pundits are on the fringes of the faith. As the great faiths of the world intersect more and more, it is important that the mainstream of each be portrayed accurately.