Lincoln & Darwin, Their 200th Birthday

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth . . . Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth" (Genesis 1:1, 26 RSV).

The great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, and best articulator of the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, share the same birthday, February 12, 1809. A quote from each man is revealing. In them we see the implications of the logical consequences of their different faiths.

First, a quote from Lincoln's second inaugural address, spoken near the end of America's costliest war, the Civil War:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds . . .

Now a quote from Darwin found on Google's Brainy Quotes:

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races through out the world.

The legacy of Lincoln is that the preserved Union became best nation in the history of the world. Treating people, no matter who they are, as God's creation and worthy of love, had a great deal to do with America's strength and goodness.

The legacy of social Darwinism is grim. Sigmund Freud, Margaret Sanger, Hitler, Stalin, etc. followed the logical conclusions of social Darwinism and the result has been a story of pain, blood and death.

Oh yes, Darwin was a man of faith. Though his disavowed faith in the God of the Bible, he adopted faith in nature, about which knowledge is not absolute. I'm sure that when he met God, who has absolute knowledge, there was weeping and gnashing of teeth!

Which birthday do you want to celebrate?

Grace&Peace,
Tom