Charles Darwin is to receive an apology from Church of England -126 years after his deathThe Church of England is to officially apologise to Charles Darwin for misunderstanding his theory of evolution - 126 years after his death.
The Church the will address its contrition directly to the Victorian scientist himself.It will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas, calling "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" on the Church.
The apology has been written by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of mission and public affairs.The statement says that Christians, in their response to Darwin's theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy in the 17th century, reports Telegraph.
An article to be posted on the Church's website will say: "Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of 'faith seeking understanding' and hope that makes some amends."
Opposition to evolutionary theories is still "a litmus test of faithfulness" for some Christian movements, the Church will admit. It will say that such attitudes owe much to a fear of perceived threats to Christianity. The apology will be made on Monday 15 Sept.
1 comment:
Hi John
I guess Charles Darwin will be mightily relieved that the Church of England have apologised. Of course its the height of nonsense. The only people who can apologise are the people from that time and in that time. We need to be allowing God to challenge our hearts for our own times and for the ideas and notions that we perpetuate without giving them serious thought in the light of our understanding today.
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