Required reading
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (Vol 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 1 (Origin of man) by reading up to the heading '3. Antiquity of man'.
My summary
Today we begin a new volume from Hodge. It commences with a study of anthropology.
Firstly Hodge briefly states the Scriptural doctrine of the origin of man.
Then the rest of the reading gives an overview of alternate views of the origin of man, particularly that of Darwinian evolution. Hodge rejects Darwinism because it:
(i) shocks the common sense of unsophisticated men to be told that the whale and the humming-bird, man and the mosquito, are derived from the same source;
(ii) is founded on the assumption of an impossibility;
(iii) is thoroughly atheistic;
(iv) is a mere hypothesis, from its nature incapable of proof.
What grabbed me
I liked Hodge's unabashed comment that Dawinism is atheistic: 'Thirdly, the system is thoroughly atheistic, and therefore cannot possibly stand. God has revealed his existence and his government of the world so clearly and so authoritatively, that any philosophical or scientific speculations inconsistent with those truths are like cobwebs in the track of a tornado. They offer no sensible resistance. The mere naturalist, the man devoted so exclusively to the study of nature as to believe in nothing but natural causes, is not able to understand the strength with which moral and religious convictions take hold of the minds of men. These convictions, however, are the strongest, the most ennobling, and the most dangerous for any class of men to disregard or ignore. '
I'm sure we could testify that the advance of atheism today has a lot to do with the propagation of Darwinism.
Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 1 (Origin of man).
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment