Seminal Ideas Collide with Orthodox Church

Two revelations collided with established church world-views during the past 400 years. The blasts from these collisions signaled the fierce resistance from an opposing forces -- institutional churches. Like a mother grizzly protecting her three month-old clubs, institutional church opposed the revelation to protect their "immature" offspring. But, in time, the church's resistance gave way to these revelations.

The First Blast

The first blast sounded when Galileo Galilee's revealed his insights of the cosmos gleamed from his studies of the heavenly bodies. Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, following two hundred years later, was the second blast.

With the introduction of his telescope to Venice, Galileo studied the moon and the known universe. He saw the mountains of the moon cast shadows on its terrain. He observed the circling moons of Jupiter. He studied the different shadows of Venus.

From these studies, he concluded that the moon was another world and that earth is not the center of the universe -- the authoritative position of institutional church. For his challenge to its authority, the Roman Catholic Church punished him.

On October 31, 1992, four hundred years later, Pope John Paul II issued a declaration acknowledging the errors committed by the Church tribunal that judged the scientific positions of Galileo Galilee. [1]

Pope John Paul II declared:

Paradoxically, Galileo, a sincere believer, proved himself more perspicacious on the issue

The Second Blast to World View

After careful study of the specimens he collected on his historic voyage on the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin introduced a theory that was a resounding blast to prevailing worldview. His theory, easily explained, thus accessible to all postulated that newly created fossils were not the creation acts of a Creator God. These new arrivals were the results of natural selection in existing species. As in the case of Galilee, the institutional church, the Church of England in this case, attacked this messenger with a mother grizzly bear ferocity.

Again time demonstrated the error of church. It recanted [2] and accepted the blessing of this discovery. Darwin was honored with a state funeral and buried in the famed Westminster Abbey near Isaac Newton.

The apology of the Church of England reads:

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.

Conclusion:

The posture of truth grows beyond all shadows into plain view in time.