Many take time on this highest of Christian holidays to worship and reflect on the great sacrifice our Lord and Savior made to spare our unworthy souls from an eternity of fiery torment (have you accepted Him?) Beth and I decided to break with tradition this year, so we went to the Darwin exhibit at the Natural History Museum (insert sign of cross here).

Blasphemous? Maybe. But, it really was an excellent exhibit. It demonstrated what kind of man Charles Darwin was and how deliberate and thoughtful he was about his theories. A tedious and meticulous observer, Darwin wanted to explore every possible angle of evolution because he knew how controversial an issue it would be. That (and wanting time to grow a really authoritative beard) is why it took him twenty years to publish the first of his theories. The end of the exhibit even addressed the issue of “intelligent design” and how it undermines science by excusing what we don’t full understand as unexplainable.

Although I consider myself a Christian, I’ve never been much of a Church-goer. I’ve always thought that ritualistically attending a monotonous lecture in an ordained building once a week was – just like fluoridated water – another form of mind control. The great outdoors has been the church for me because that’s the one that God built. Personally, I always thought evolution and natural selection were common sense. Never once have I really thought these ideas had to be at odds with any Christian teachings. And besides, Darwin and Jesus really had a lot in common. Nobody like what they had to say when they where alive and they both had beards.

Happy Easter, by the way.