Darwin’s contribution to humanity

by Letters Editor · Published August 11, 2011 · Updated August 5, 2011

From Pat Dacey, Johannesburg

Charles Darwin was neither a theologian or philosopher, but a naturalist who devoted his life to the study of plants and animals. He often referred to �our Creator� and thus could not have been an atheist. His huge intellect enabled him to garner an understanding of how all living organisms have derived from a common ancestor.

The recent advent of molecular biology points accurately to Darwin�s astute observations. Bacteria, which were prevalent on our young planet for the first two billion years, live today in our bodies as mitochondria and in plants as chloroplasts, converting the sun�s energy into organic food, and releasing oxygen as a byproduct which sustains most life forms on earth, including us humans.

St Augustine�s thoughts on creation are interesting but tell us very little. The late Archbishop Denis Hurley was more accurate in his special Christmas editorial that appeared in The Southern Cross in 2002 (reprinted in 2009). But Belgian Fr Georges Lamaitre in the 1930s presented a theory to eminent scientists in America (including Einstein) that 20 years later became known as the Big Bang theory, being widely accepted today. Fr Lamaitre was also a scientist.

It was only after the �dark ages� that education in Europe began to take hold which produced exceptional people such as Faraday and Volta (electricity), Pasteur (antibiotics), Roentgen and the Curies (X-rays), Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo (astronomy), Newton (gravity), Lyell (geology), Lamarck and Wallace (naturalists), and many others whose contributions to humanity are well documented.

Let us not forget what Jesus said when he pointed to the head of Caesar on the coin. Religion and science both have their places and for either one to downplay the relevance of the other is fruitless.