This is the event at which I’m speaking on Friday evening:

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This article by first published in Idea magazine and on Culturewatch. © Tony Watkins 2009

Image courtesy Icon Film Distribution © 2009

As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, his influence on the world is as enormous as ever. Whatever you think of his ideas, there’s no doubt that they have shaped science and profoundly affected many aspects of contemporary culture. Darwin’s meticulous work established the natural sciences as a serious scientific discipline for the first time. If this was Darwin’s only legacy, he would still be a towering figure in the history of science. But for most people, his name is linked only with On the Origin of Species.

The new film Creation tells the story of how Darwin finally came to publish it in 1859, and the struggles that led up to that point. He had arrived at the essentials of his theory at least seventeen years earlier, but kept his ideas to himself and a few friends. One reason he delayed was because he wanted much more supporting evidence. Earlier evolutionary ideas had been highly controversial; Darwin feared the response to his work, so he wanted to be sure he was on solid ground. He spent eight years studying barnacles.

Creation shows that Charles Darwin was also concerned about upsetting his wife, Emma. She knew his Christian faith was dwindling, and was concerned that his scientific desire for hard proof was making things worse for him. The film also stresses two other factors: the ill health that plagued him for the second half of his life, and his grief over the death of his beloved daughter Annie, shortly after her tenth birthday in 1851. This event brought to a tragic climax Darwin’s questions about the place of suffering in God’s creation and he eventually became an agnostic.

Image courtesy Icon Film Distribution © 2009

But he never saw himself as at war with God, much less that his ideas had killed God, as Thomas Huxley claims in Creation. The initial disagreement over On the Origin of Species was not primarily about what theological implications it may have had, but about whether or not the science was true. There were Christians and scientists on both sides of the debate.

A supposed conflict

From the beginning, though, a small minority was appalled by Darwin’s ideas while another minority seized upon them to support atheism. Today Darwin has become the focal point of a supposed conflict between science and faith, which he would have had no time for. He saw no reason for animosity between science and religion. Towards the end of his life, he wrote, ‘It seems absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent theist and an evolutionist.’ Some people flatly deny Darwin’s statement. Many atheists – the best known being Richard Dawkins – maintain that evolution by natural selection in a godless universe is the only rational belief. Meanwhile, some Christians insist that belief in God is inconsistent with belief in evolution.

Between these two are many shades of opinion. Some Christians argue for intelligent design, for example, while others accept evolution as God’s means of creation and see no conflict with the Bible. And Darwin’s influence has gone far beyond biology, often in ways that he would object to. The concept of the ‘survival of the fittest’ has been used to justify various theories in the social sciences – anything vaguely to do with some kind of evolution. This nexus of ideas has become known as ‘social Darwinism’, though it has little or nothing to do with Darwin’s biological theory.

‘Survival of the fittest’ wasn’t even Darwin’s phrase, though he later adopted it. It was coined by economist Herbert Spencer in arguing for laizzez-faire free-market economics. Today, pundits discuss the credit crunch in Darwinian terms: if some businesses go to the wall, that’s just tough, because the fittest will survive.

An error in reasoning

Darwin’s ideas have been used to justify racism, though he was vehemently opposed to it, and eugenics, though he objected to any kind of government coercion. But these views don’t come out of Darwin’s work at all. They result from a basic error in reasoning: attempting to derive moral ideas of how human society ought to be from Darwin’s description of what he believed the biological world is like.

Whether or not ‘Darwin’s big idea’ is right, we must realise that it is rather limited. Yes, after 150 years it’s still a powerful theory for explaining biology, but as these misuses of it show, there are more important things at stake. Questions of morality and meaning are much more fundamental, but science can say nothing about them. Morality cannot be derived from biology, so where does it come from? It must come from something beyond us if it is to have any objective value. Otherwise society is at the mercy of its strongest members.

Atheist followers of Darwin believe that his ideas destroy the uniqueness of human beings, and that the meaning of life becomes merely passing on our DNA. Yet we instinctively feel that life is more than this. But where do meaning and purpose come from? Why, like Darwin, do we seek truth, rejoice in beauty and love deeply? The answer to these questions is the one that Darwin gave up on because of his grief. Only the existence of God allows for objective morality. Only God gives human life real meaning. Only God can make sense of suffering; without him it is utterly meaningless. And only God can account for the very existence of life.

Posted via email from Tony Watkins

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I recently interviewed Nick Spencer for a one-off Culturewatch.tv video on Creation, the forthcoming film about Charles Darwin. Nick is the author of Darwin and God.

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Nev Pierce has written a piece about Creation in the LA Times.

. . .

Darwin’s continuing relevance is one reason why “Creation” has been selected to open Toronto, which usually kicks off with a home-grown picture. “It’s a bit of a tradition for us to open with a Canadian film, yes,” said festival co-director Cameron Bailey. “But we haven’t always done it. We just thought ‘Creation’ was a film that spoke to our times. That tension between faith and reason was something we began to see in a number of different films, and it crystallized beautifully here, especially in that debate between a husband and wife who happen to see the world in completely different ways. It’s still pressing.”

. . .

via latimes.com

Good article in LA Times on ‘Creation’ movie by Nev Pierce, Editor-at-large for Empire magazine (and a friend of mine from some years ago). Read it here.

Posted via web from Tony Watkins

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via damaris.org

Charles Darwin: eminent scientist, loving husband, grieving father. The film Creation explores the different sides to the man who some believe had ‘the biggest single idea in the history of thought’. Even today, Darwin’s legacy is at the centre of contemporary debate about our understanding of who we are and what it means to be human. This film explores the implications of Darwin’s theories, and the way that tragic events in his family life influenced his doubts about God.

Starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connolly as Charles and Emma Darwin, Creation is based on the book Annie’s Box by Randall Keynes (Charles Darwin’s great-great-grandson). It is an emotional journey into the grief that shaped one of the great scientific minds of the last 200 years. See the official film website.

In association with Icon, Damaris are also providing the following resources to help churches, schools and community groups make the most of this movie when it is released on September 25th.

Damaris’s Creation resources will include:

• A special episode of Pollard on Film on the theme of why should we believe anything at all? (available 4th Sept)
• A special episode of Culturewatch TV on the real Charles Darwin (available 4th Sept)
• Church service outline featuring footage from the film (available 28th Aug.)
• Café-style Church meeting outline featuring footage from the film (available 4th Sept)
• Three sets of notes for House Group meetings on different themes (first two available on 11th Sept.)
• A Film and Focus event, with leader’s guide and full publicity material (available 11th Sept)

Posted via web from Tony Watkins

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Posted via web from Tony Watkins

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The findings of the biggest research project ever carried out into UK public opinion on evolution and the origins of living things was published back in March by the religious think tank Theos. The full findings of the research, conducted by polling company ComRes, are published in report entitled Faith and Darwin. There are some interesting results:

Posted via email from Tony Watkins

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Creation (dir. Jon Amiel) distributed by Icon Film Distribution, 2009.
This article was first published in Evangelicals Now (September 2009).
© Tony Watkins, 2009

*

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Charles Darwin has massively influenced the modern world. 200 years after his birth, his struggles leading up to publishing On the Origin of Species are explored in a new film, Creation, starring Paul Bettany as Darwin.

The title is surprising but apt, since the film is partly about the creation of his book and partly about his doubts that God directly created every distinct species. But above all, it is the story of Darwin’s struggles over one particular aspect of creation: suffering.

Creation doesn’t tell the story in chronological order, indicating Darwin’s inner turmoil. His disquiet is partly intellectual. His meticulous explorations in the natural world have led him to conclusions that don’t mesh easily with the predominant views of his day.

We see Darwin deeply concerned about what effect publishing his ideas will have on his devout wife, Emma. But it is not simply a question of religion versus science. A two-hour film inevitably simplifies complex issues, and Creation doesn’t reveal that On the Origin of Species brought Darwin into conflict with some of his fellow scientists, nor that there were Christians who accepted his ideas unhesitatingly.

Darwin stumbles repeatedly over the problem of suffering. He is troubled by nature ‘red in tooth and claw’, and he presses his friend, the local vicar, on the question of why God created 900 species of intestinal worms. Much more personally, Darwin is torn apart by grief over the death of his much-loved daughter Annie, aged 10. Their relationship forms the heart of the film.

Creation is not a story of a man who has set himself to be at war with God. We see Darwin’s unease at his friend Thomas Huxley’s truculent insistence that Darwin’s ideas have killed God. Rather, it is a touching portrayal of a man whose faith is crumbling in the face of unbearable heartache. And no one gives him anything like a satisfactory answer. He is simply told that God moves in mysterious ways.

Darwin’s enormous passion for science is evident, and he is driven to discover truth. How sad, then, that he finally rejects the most important truth of all because no one helps him to see that God understands our pain, having suffered to reconcile us to himself. There is mystery in suffering, but only in relation to God can it have any meaning at all.

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Five weeks today sees the release in UK cinemas of Creation, a film about the life of Charles Darwin directed by Jon Amiel (The Core, Entrapment). The screenplay is by Jon Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), based on the book Annie’s Box by Randall Keynes (Charles Darwin’s great-great-grandson). It stars real-life husband and wife Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Charles and Emma Darwin, and is an emotional journey into the grief that shaped one of the great scientific minds of the last 200 years. See the official film website.

Icon Film Distribution has commissioned Damaris to produce resources related to Creation, which you can find more information about at www.damaris.org/creationmovie. The resources will include:

• A Film and Focus event, with leader’s guide and full publicity material (available 11th Sept)
• A special episode of Pollard on Film
• A special episode of Culturewatch TV on the real Charles Darwin (available 4th Sept)
• Church service outline featuring footage from the film (available 28th Aug)
• Café-style Church meeting outline featuring footage from the film (available 4th Sept)
• Three sets of notes for House Group meetings on different themes (first two available on 11th Sept)
• Open access Tools for Talks resources with downloadable clips from the film and suggestions for use in your meetings (available 4th Sept)

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Books

Denis Alexander and Robert White, Beyond Belief (Lion, 2004)

Denis Alexander, Rebuilding the Matrix (Lion, 2001)

David Atkinson, The Message of Genesis 1–11 (Bible Speaks Today) (IVP, 1990)

RJ Berry, God and the biologist – faith at the frontiers of science (Apollos, 1996)

Henri Blocher, In the Beginning (IVP, 1984)

William Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design, (IVP (USA) 2004)

William Dembski, Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing (ISI Books, 2004)

Michael Denton, Evolution: a theory in crisis (Woodbine House, 1996)

Philip Duce, Reading the mind of God – interpretation in science and theology (Apollos, 1998)

Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial (IVP, 1993)

Derek Kidner, Genesis (TOTC) (IVP, 1967)

Kevin Logan, Responding to the Challenge of Evolution (Kingsway, 2002)

Ernest Lucas, Can We Believe Genesis Today? (IVP, 2001)

Paul Marston and Roger Forster, Reason, Science and Faith (Wipf & Stock, 1998)

Alister McGrath, Dawkins’ God: genes, memes and the meaning of life (Blackwell, 2004)

Andy McIntosh, Genesis for Today: Creation and Evolution (Day One, 2001)

Del Ratzsch, Science and its Limits (IVP, 2000)

David Swift, Evolution under the Microscope, (Leighton Academic Press, 2002)

David Tyler , The Guide: Creation – chance or design?

Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution

Gordon Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary Genesis 1–15 (Word, 1987)

David Wilkinson, The Message of Creation (Bible Speaks Today) (IVP,2002)

David Wilkinson, God, Time and Stephen Hawking (Monarch, 2001)

David Wilkinson and Rob Frost, Thinking clearly about God and science (Monarch, 2000)

Websites

American Scientific Affiliation – www.asa3.org

Answers in Genesis – www.answersingenesis.org

Answers in Science – chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience

Biblical Creation Society – www.biblicalcreation.org.uk

Christians in Science – www.cis.org.uk

Creation and Evolution – www.creationandevolution.co.uk

Creation Science Movement – www.csm.org.uk

Evolution (secular site with lots of information) – www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution

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