My Dad, the dEvolutionist

Not long ago, I was having a conversation with my Dad about the history of the world and life in general, when it occurred to me to ask where the great minds of our time are. Where are the Aristotles, Galileos, and Newtons of our age? My Dad replied (only half jokingly) that maybe people are devolving.

From a creationist's perspective, that would make perfect sense. If God created a world without blemish, which was later ruined by sin, introducing mortality (Romans 5:12 : Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned), it stands to reason that people started out as good as they were going to get, and that decay, disease, and pollution are actually weakening the genetic makeup of each successive generation.

While it is fun to speculate about sin's effect on the physical world, my conversation with my Dad got me thinking about the planet's spiritual evolution. It is interesting to note that just a few short decades ago, Christians and non-Christians alike were in general agreement about what behavior constituted evil. Fast-forward to today, and the only thing you will find general agreement about is that there are as many moralities as there are people.

We are often surprised by the rapid decay of morality in our world, but we shouldn't be: This too, was laid out in the Bible nearly 2000 years ago in Romans 1:28-32 : Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

While the state of the world is indeed, sad; it isn't nearly so sad as the Church's response to it. We spend so much of our time trying to fight the symptoms of devolution, rather than sharing the medicine that is capable of reversing our spiritual genetic decay forever:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11).

I'm reminded of a recent commercial that tells us we "catch a cold not a mucous." Like mucous, popular Christian targets like abortion, same-sex marriage, and banning prayer in public schools are just symptoms of a disease for which Christ is the only cure.