Charles Darwin To Receive 'apology' From Anglican Church

[gi7omy]

The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" on the Church".

 

The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching.

 

The apology, which has been written by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of mission and public affairs, says that Christians, in their response to Darwin's theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy in the 17th century.

 

"The statement will read: Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of 'faith seeking understanding' and hope that makes some amends."

 

Opposition to evolutionary theories is still "a litmus test of faithfulness" for some Christian movements, the Church will admit. It will say that such attitudes owe much to a fear of perceived threats to Christianity.

 

The comments are included on a Church of England website promoting the views of Charles Darwin to be launched on Monday.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...-evolution.html

[BagpiperDude]

This should be removed from this forum. It's offensive to some people!

[Brendon]

What is offensive to these unnamed people?

 

-Is the news story from the TELEGRAPH false or inaccurate?

-Do they not like a church reconsidering its stand on an issue?

-Do they not like Darwin's theories of evolution to be discussed?

-Is there something else which is not obvious to the rest of us?