Personal Transformation Opportunities: Thank You Evolutionary Scientists!

Thank You

Evolutionary Scientists!

No that's not tongue in cheek. I'm serious. I want to thank the evolutionary scientists. You've picked up the slack where too much of Christianity left off. The discoveries you are making, even ones that turn socially accepted concepts on their heads, really contribute to our knowledge in human anatomy, human sexuality, human love, the role of relationships to our health, and many other areas of science, psychology, sociology, etc.

Lately I've read about love's hormonal and chemical side (not sexual love - but relational love between a man and a woman). Along with this I hit on evolutionary psychology articles taking a scientific look at the same relationship. Sure, I don't always agree with what you think the research results mean, how you apply it. And, yes, I come to the information with a radically different set of assumptions. But, the raw data, and what the data, approached scientifically says to you--well, I find that very exciting.

You are adding so much to our knowledge base. And much of that data transcends culture, race, economics, and certainly politics. We are gaining insights that challenge the expectations and "known" truths of our culture and society. We are being made to think again -- not just chalk one up for us, for how right we are. And that's true of whatever camp of ideology we come from.

So, isn't that destroying my "biblical" world view? Absolutely not! Which brings me back to my first point.

You've brought us back to where we of the Christian world started. We called science the discovery of the wonder of God's work in creation. No, I'm not asking you to believe in creation. But, when evolutionary think started intriguing human minds and it's presuppositions threatened our belief systems, too many Christians started fighting against evolutionary science.

Decades now -- approaching 150 year, maybe past that mile marker -- so much Christian scientific work has gone into disproving your worldview that we stepped away from developing a deeper understanding and appreciation of life as it is. We used to find those discoveries exhilarating. They informed and transformed our understand and sharpened our morality and compassion. Then, suddenly, nothing seemed to matter to those of the Christian worldview except tidbits that might undermine the theory of evolution.

True, scientists with a Christian worldview did continue to do outstanding work in many fields. They got excited, but the average person on the pew (or claiming Christian faith but allergic to the pew) lost that connection.

So, thank you evolutionary scientists. I'm working on some projects for which understanding the hard wired facts of our hormones and chemicals, our innate psychological and social drives, show promise. There is promise for understanding previously unproven contributors to the depth and durability of our primary relationships. There is promise of help in empowering our young men to escape sexual addiction as the basis of their sex drive and learning to approach sex more realistically. There is promise for understanding the interplay of our thoughts with our health, our social experiences with our mental and emotional responses.

Yes, there is promise of helping us be healthier in our grasp and practice of religion, even for living out our faith. And that's pretty shocking to a child of the 60's.

So, thank you, you evolutionary scientists. Thank you for adding hope back to my world.