Emerging late in the nineteenth century was a movement of a school of ideas known as Social Darwinism. The essential belief was that as evolution affected the physical world so did it apply to the non-material development of man, leading inevitably toward man’s intellectual and social improvement, perhaps perfection. Although the idea has been generally abandoned (dealt death blows by the horrendous wars and depressions of the twentieth century) for other theories, there is a lingering desire in modern searchers of knowledge to relate nearly everything in mortal experience to the concepts of evolving perfection. I read the story of a researcher in the field of art. In many paragraphs the person accented the primary presupposition of her studies – to find the story of the evolutionary development of man and art by connections she could find in the development of art from its earliest sources. If successful she would believe that her evidence would help prove evolutionary theory toward perfection. She already believes that it will, but remains busy in searching for evidence of her faith. She will be disappointed in her lifetime.
It is not my purpose to support or deny the tenets of evolution. That is for the persons who study in the field. Most laymen in any field are unable to make definitive conclusions about that field. They do well to fit their explanations with what they know. For example, even though I had a serious course in the field of evolution while in college, with a major textbook in the field, authored by Lull of Yale, I was not convinced that it, true or false, set aside God’s place in creation. If God did choose this methodology, it is acceptable. I find myself interested in dealing with the current moral/soul condition of human beings rather than how they arrived.
Man’s current condition for both male and female, until it is resolved and changed, is a condition of sin. It is clear that the person is constituted so to be dragged down. His/her condition, habits, treatment of others, with death and enemies to be encountered in nature itself proves that something is evil (unacceptable). This wrong (intrinsic imperfection) is lumped in sum in the word sin. It is here that the debate centers, and should, for man and God. If God lives, as I believe he does, then the main concern of man is not in the way in which man arrived to this point, but where he is going from the present? If God is real, how could he be greater than the God of Christian Scripture? If Scripture makes sense for a holy God, what is my obligation to that holy God? In the discovery that I can do nothing on my own to become acceptable to God, I must follow His plan for rescue from this unsatisfactory condition. I accept the plan of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, that he has provided a forgiveness and love that can be activated for me, and proved in a better performance of my personal and social life. In that application I am promised successful passage through death to immortality. I find that to be an offer I cannot refuse. With Pascal, I bet my life on God. From this position, dealing with the evidence of currency, I leave all other matters to those who wish to follow them through to wherever they lead. For me and nearly all persons of my close fifty-plus family members – we follow Christ. Finding spiritual recovery, I turn with other seeking persons to study the origin, condition and future of mankind to improved ends. The human search is joined with greater enthusiasm when the spiritual search has been resolved for me. With the first settled I have no great concern in time, but only inspiration to follow the second. The great motivator for the second comes from the first, to seek truth. This is partly prompted in the belief that he who made heaven also made earth. Search in the first inspires search in the other. It is life continuity, a challenge for all peoples. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020