Mcleod Russel Carbon Resources

[Brook Mithani]

Thescientifically aware section of the South African population is increasing. Many are being exposed to the concept of Darwinian evolution. Exposure has generated a religious sub 'people group' who have problems with Christianity because they have been influenced by the naturalistic element in Darwinian philosophy. Christian antagonism towards evolution has often prejudiced them unfavourably towards the gospel. Recent discoveries concerning the fine-tuning of the universe have now presented a window of opportunity for overcoming this. It may enable the church to 'fine-tune' its missionary approach to present them with the gospel in a more acceptable manner. It is suggested that Paul's Areopagus speech provides a model for such cross-cultural evangelism. A section is included at the end, describing some objections that have been raised against the cosmological fine-tuning apologetic.

This article aims at demonstrating how a multi-disciplinary approach to Practical Theology may aid the church to fulfil the missio Dei. The church is created and sent into the world by the Trinity, and thus its identity is missional by its very nature (Bosch 1991:392; Ott, Straus & Tennant 2010:197). The missiological question in this case is, how can the church co-operate with God in sharing the gospel with those who have an epistemological view based on Darwinian naturalism, which profoundly differs from that found in the Christian paradigm?

This is an important question because a significant section of the educated section of the South African public believes in Darwinian naturalism which is prejudicing them against even considering the gospel. There is every indication that the proportion of the population that hold these beliefs will increase in all cultural groups as the quality and extent of scientific education expands since Darwinian evolution is now taught at secondary school level in South Africa (Tucker 2012:219). Bosch's (1991) Transforming mission has recently been criticised for not being African enough and not dealing with post-modern and/or African issues (Botha 2011). Yet this is due, in part, to the Christian national educational policy of the National Party which suppressed the teaching of much modern knowledge and ideas. This means that South Africa is still playing 'catch-up' in dealing with many modern issues, such as Darwinian naturalism (Lever 2002:40ff.).

The author defines Darwinian naturalism as the belief that everything in the universe can be explained by scientific and naturalistic principles. This belief stems from the perception that science has the ability to explain all of reality. Furthermore, because Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has been scientifically proven, our existence is deemed as having been explained satisfactorily as far as it can be. Thus Darwinian naturalism may be defined as the belief that '... the world of nature should form a single sphere without incursions from outside by souls or spirits, divine or human' (Lacey 1995:604). This means that the reality we experience is all there is, which is a metaphysical assumption (Nrnberger 2010:15) and may be classed as a 'religious idea' (Ruse 2003:1527).

The case for Darwinian naturalism being a religious idea is strengthened because it appears to have originated out of a metaphysical assumption. The British historian Matthew (1984:467) claims in The Oxford illustrated history of Britain that Darwin's On the origin of species, first published in 1859, '... was not a bolt from the blue, it fitted naturally into ... a corpus of writing on evolution'. In fact, the theory of Darwinian evolution was not a spontaneously generated idea that was gained from looking at the empirical evidence in the natural world but rather a long-held idea looking for empirical evidence and support in the natural world!

... is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or ... can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible. (pp. 28-33)

The missional process of the church sharing the gospel with Darwinian naturalists is sometimes hindered by the inability of the church to break out of its own traditional paradigms and interpretations of Scripture in order to effectively engage the world and make disciples. This would appear to be the case with many congregations in South Africa. Three main attitudes appear to characterise the attitude of the majority of members in most Christian churches in South Africa towards evangelising Darwinian naturalists. These may be called 'disinterest', 'sharing the plan of salvation' and 'attacking Darwinian evolution'.

The first attitude displays a complete ignorance of the problem and sees no reason to embark on any such missiological endeavour to share the gospel with Darwinian naturalists. It is seen as an unimportant sideshow. Perhaps many with this attitude are still living in the pre-apartheid era when Darwinism was not taught in schools (Wilmot & Wilson 2002:2).

The second attitude appears to be that Darwinian naturalists will be converted if the gospel alone is proclaimed and shared without any reference to what Darwinian naturalists believe. Whilst this may work in a few cases, it is not only a deficient missionary strategy but is geared towards a rapidly disappearing society where the majority had been exposed to the gospel through previous church connections. Therefore note need be taken of Glasser's (2003:11) comment:

Only if the church understands the full biblical revelation of God concerning the mission of God's people, stimulated by confronting Scripture with today's questions, will they ... offer to God the devotion of heart, strength, time, and resources essential to its completion. (p. 11; italics added)

The third attitude demonises Darwinian evolution and sees it as a major threat to Christianity. Lever (2002:31) attributes this mainly to developments in the three Afrikaans Reformed churches, stating that, '[a]s early as the 1920's they officially opposed Darwinism, seeing it as no more than a hypothesis, and a far-fetched one, at that' (Lever 2002:11). Whilst the majority of Reformed ministers in South Africa now seem to accept evolutionary Darwinism because they perceive that there is much scientific evidence that supports it and that it does not conflict with the biblical creation narratives (Van Dyk 2013:9), anti-evolutionists seem to be in the majority in the country and amongst lay membership in churches. As a whole, 'folk psychology' still rebels against the Darwinian message (Lever 2002:36, 37, 51).

As Van Dyk (2013:1) comments, radical creationist views are prevalent in South Africa. These are evident from the regularity with which southern African theologians and clergy are confronted by questions from ordinary or lay people regarding the age of the earth and biological evolution'. This tension has further been fuelled by the painful history of the so-called conflict between science and religion. Whether such a conflict is real or not, the idea that it exists has entered into common mythology. The tension has influenced such widely publicised atheists such as Hitchens (2008:26, 78) and has hardened the attitudes of many Darwinian naturalists towards the gospel.

The watershed we face today presents us with a choice, either to slip down the slippery slope towards increasing conflict with vast numbers of people raised in our scientific and technological generation, or to be prepared to re-interpret our understanding of key passages in the Bible. (p. 7)

If it is accepted that Darwinian scientific naturalists constitute an unreached people group with different epistemological presuppositions from Christianity, then one key biblical passage that presents a model of how the church can effectively reach out to Darwinian naturalists in mission is found in the method adopted by Paul in Athens, as recorded in Acts 17:16-34. This may be summarised as a pre-evangelistic, apologetic approach, laying the foundation for more direct evangelism.

Acts 17 describes Paul's brief ministry at Athens in which he applied a balance of both apologetics and evangelism to an environment saturated with mainly by Epicureanism and Stoicism. Two problems with this record must be dealt with before proceeding.

The first problem is the authenticity of the Acts 17 speech. Dibelius (1956:155) has questioned its historical setting and whether it is actually Pauline. I would, however, accept Marshall's (1980:238ff.) arguments that, although Luke may have coloured the speech with his own language, it is essentially authentic and historical. Even if Dibelius' arguments are correct, the recorded speech is still a masterpiece of apologetic evangelism and provides an excellent model of this genre.

The second problem is whether or not it was a successful approach and has something to teach us. Ramsey (1962:252) argued that Paul's use of philosophical reasoning and pagan sources contributed to its ineffectiveness. This led to him being disappointed (Ramsey 1962):

... and perhaps disillusioned by his time in Athens. He felt that he had gone at least as far as was right in the way of presenting his doctrine in a form suited to the current philosophy, and the result was little more than naught. (p. 252)

However, although Paul's approach to evangelising in this environment may not be a holistic missiological paradigm, it does offer one example of an approach that yielded some results (Rost 2004:114). These included the conversion of Dionysius the Areopagite, Damaris and others. As an Areopagite, Dionysius, a quite distinguished person, must have served as an archon in Ephesus. Furthermore, Paul successfully countered Stoic and Epicurean metaphysics with a thoroughgoing Christian alternative, thus demonstrating the use of an apologetic approach (Rost 2004:134).

It is particularly appropriate because Epicureanism is a materialistic philosophy (Bruce 1954:350, 351; Marshall 1980:283-284) which has many similarities with scientific naturalism. Epicurean philosophy was founded upon reason. Its adherents believed that only perceptions by means of the sense organs could provide the source of what is true and real. This Epicurean cosmology taught that the world was the result of the random motion and combination of atomic particles that are still constantly in motion (Cressey 1985:340). When these atoms collided, they formed the larger objects visible to man. Existence was totally material, and therefore, death is the end of existence. Numerous gods might exist as superior life forms (composed of atoms), but they have nothing to do with this world. They did not create the world, nor do they intervene in this world by means of miracles, which thus do not happen. They also do not guide its destiny, resulting in the absence of teleological providence and everything being a matter of chance (Rost 2004:116, 117, 124, 125).

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