GOOD FAITH FOR THE COMMON GOOD

Good Faith and the Co= mmon Good

Occasional Offeri= ngs from Sam Candler on issues of faith, church, and the world.<= /p>

= WHAT DO GALILEO, DARWIN= , AND LENT HAVE IN COMMON?

Thi= s week, I will be glad to remember the birthdays of Charles Darwin and Galileo Gali= lei, Darwin born on February 12 (1809), and Galileo born on February 15 (1564). = It so happens that their birthdays occur during the Christian season of Lent t= his year. We all know how much controversy their work caused the Christian Chur= ch (and society!), but Christians should be forever grateful for their courage= and their wisdom. In fact, Galileo, Darwin, and Lent have something in common.

&nb= sp;

Both Galileo and Darwin actually set out to be friends of the Christian Church. Educated in an Italian monastery, Galileo intended to join the Camaldolese Order of the Church; but his father had already decided that he would be a medical doctor. Galileo’s interests, of course, turned from medicine = to mathematics and the natural world. With the use of the newly developed tele= scope, Galileo recorded wonders of the natural world—the stars and the heavens—that no one had ever seen. Of course, these were the observat= ions and interpretations that would also change the world.

Gal= ileo would finally be charged with heresy, for adopting the Copernican view that= the earth revolved around the sun. After all, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30= all say something like "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "the sun rises and sets and returns to its place, etc."Was Galileo denying the Bible? = Galileo apparently believed in= some form of biblical inerrancy, but he struggled with interpretation. He wrote = to a friend that the Bible should always be interpreted in the light of what sci= ence had shown to be true.

Cha= rles Darwin, at one time, studied to become an Anglican priest. He, too, was in = love with the natural world and was convinced at one time in the naturalist Will= iam Paley’s argument that design in nature proved the existence of God. L= ater Christians objected to several elements of On the Origin of Species; the book refuted the notion that creatures had b= een individually designed by God, it claimed that the Earth was much older than= the literal biblical account, and in claiming a common ancestor for apes and hu= man, it denied a certain uniqueness to humanity.

How strangely ironic that many in the Church should be blinded to the truth that these two gentlemen showed the world. For, in essence, both Galileo and Darwin were using science to claim that humankind= is not at the center of everything. Our earth is not at the center of God̵= 7;s creation, and our species is not at the center of God’s creation.

Isn’t this what Lent is supposed to teach us? “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” man= y of us heard on Ash Wednesday. Lent is supposed to remind us of humility. The opposite of humility is hubris, to be so self-obsessed as to think we are at the center of everything.

Galileo, Darwin, and Lent all teach us about truth and humility. A holy Lent is about acknowledging the truth of ourselves, and the truth of this beautiful world= , no matter how uncomfortable that truth might be. A holy Lent is also about acknowledging our own humility. No matter who we are, we are not at the cen= ter of everything, and we are not at the beginning of everything. May God bless= the memories of both Galileo and D= arwin, and all who lead us in the paths of truth and humility this Lent.

12 = February 2008

Sam = Candler is Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact him at scandler@stphilipscathedra= l.org.
To read other reflections on Good Faith and the Common Good >>&g= t; .

To b= e added to this distribution list, e-mail the Dean’s office and write “add me” in the subject line.

To be removed, contact us and write “remove me” in the subject line. <= /o:p>