535 churches gear up for Evolution Sunday

Statements in blue are my additions.

535 churches gear up for Evolution Sunday
'You can still believe that God is the creator and accept evolutionary theory'

Hundreds of churches across the globe will mark Evolution Sunday Feb. 11 with sermons and educational events dedicated to the idea that religion and science don’t have to be sworn enemies.

So far, 535 congregations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Virgin Islands, and five foreign countries are scheduled to participate, including Norman Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Local author and Norman Unitarian Universalist member Susan Cogan will speak on “Why Darwin Matters,” a talk that will focus on the validity of evolutionary theory.

“It’s a way to fight back,” Cogan said. “It’s a way to show that you can believe in God and accept evolution. Jas 2:19 ... the devils also believe, and tremble. The scientific debate has kind of been forced into a political and religious one.”

The church also will host “Darwin Day” Feb. 12 which will feature a screening of the 1960 film “Inherit the Wind,” which portrays a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial.

Cogan created an educational display on evolutionary theory for the Norman Public Library in January that also will be featured at the church during the event.

A hot-button issue since Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of the Species” was published in 1859, evolutionary theory has crossed over from science class to Sunday school as a popular sermon topic in recent years.

Results of a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey released in August 2006 found that about 40 percent of a cross-section of Christians from various denominations said the debate on evolution had been addressed in some form from the pulpit of their church.

Evolution Sunday is the brain child of Michael Zimmerman, a biology professor at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. The second annual event has grown by about 11 percent this year, Zimmerman said.

“These aren’t all churches on the east or west coast, or big cities. They are mostly from rural areas and the Midwest,” Zimmerman said. “The fact is that the vast majority of clergy members accept evolution and don’t want creationism taught in schools.”

Zimmerman’s efforts to get clergy members active in the public debate on evolution began with the Clergy Letter Project in 2004, an online letter that has been signed by more that 10,000 American clergy members from all denominations. The letter was meant to refute claims by creationists that evolution conflicts with Christian beliefs.

“They want to set up a false dichotomy that if you believe in the Bible then you can’t believe in evolution,” Zimmerman said.

The letter states: “While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook.” The letter goes on to state that “the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist.” ... but not in the form of evolution.

Eighty-seven clergy members from Oklahoma have signed the letter so far, according to the Clergy Letter Project Web site.

Local signers of the letter say the point of the letter is to reconcile evolution with faith in the public debate over evolutionary theory.

“I think it’s perfectly consistent with religious conviction,” said Tom Boyd, David Ross Boyd emeritus professor of philosophy and religious studies. Boyd, who signed the Clergy Letter, also is an ordained Presbyterian minister. “You can still believe that God is the creator and accept evolutionary theory, but if you take the Bible as an inerrant historical text, then, well, a lot of Christianity is split along that fall line.” Christianity is not split here. Those that call God a liar are not Christians.

Zimmerman said the clergy members who back Evolution Sunday and the Clergy Letter Project come from many different religious traditions and social and ethnic backgrounds.

“I have tried to come up with something all of these people who have signed have in common,” Zimmerman said. “And the only thing is that they are all ordained and they are all deeply spiritual.”