A Counterattack on
Darwinism
Per Bingen
(This is one of the presentations given at the European Assembly in Great Britain, August
4-7)
I
take it for granted that you are all familiar with the great Danish
storyteller Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, The Emperor’s New Clothes.
You know the story of the vainglorious emperor, who in his hunt for
beautiful clothing was tricked into believing that he was dressed in the most
splendid clothing ever, woven of the most delicate fabric – when in reality he
was quite naked.
When he showed himself to his subjects, in his imaginary clothing,
everybody praised his new outfit. (You don’t mess with the emperor!) All
except one, a little boy who cried out: “But he is naked!” And then it spread
throughout the crowd: “The emperor is naked!” And so they made him a
laughing stock.
Now this wonderful story has been used by many different people to
illustrate that there are many such emperors out there; they come in all forms
and sizes. Pompous and full of wind, they stand forth with their claim of being
something big and beautiful and important, when in reality they are standing
there completely undressed – to be pitied rather than revered.
One such vainglorious, but naked, emperor – perhaps the greatest of them
all – is the theme of this essay: Darwinism. Furthermore, that we, as New
Church people, should have the role of the little boy who finally calls out and
points to the undeniable fact: This emperor is stark naked!
And then the rest of the crowd, Christians of all doctrines, will reach this
same conclusion – that Darwinism, clad in its imaginatively splendid clothing,
in reality stands quite naked.
But let us start with its birth. When Charles Darwin published his
work, The Origin of Species, in 1859, it came as a culmination of the years of
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