Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

A lot of people have spoken out on the resignation of Dr. Bruce Waltke (check out John Hobbins’ round-up).  You can see that I have written in support of him.  But, what no one has really been asking is what do monkeys think.  If the theory of evolution is correct, then they are in fact our distant cousins.  So, I asked them:

Okay so maybe this is a poor attempt at satire.  Enough human beings have called the stance of RTS fundamentalist.  I just thought it would be funny if a monkey did too.

* I was hosting this video on YouTube, but I thought it best to move it to my own server, so that I can define what I mean by religious fundamentalism. By this I am not referring to the denial of evolution, but to the insistence that if one accepts evolutionary theory that he or she cannot teach at particular institutions or worse yet questioning the religious faith of that person.

* This video was created using Career Builder’s Monk-e-mail – http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/default.aspx . They in no way approve of the contents of this message.

I agree with Darrel Falk here (of course I accept an evolutionary understanding of the origins of human beings, so I guess I would agree).  Kudos to Bruce Waltke for being open and honest.  I particularly like the final assessment (though I’m no longer an evangelical, I was one), also cited in the Inside Higher Ed piece about Waltke’s resignation:

Decades from now, when the Evangelical Church has come to terms with the reality of evolution, we hope she will look back at those who were the pioneers on its journey toward a fuller understanding of the manner by which God has created. I could list other pioneers, a number of whom are good friends and colleagues. Right there alongside them will be Dr. Bruce Waltke who, in the latter phase of an extremely distinguished career, had the courage to tell the Church what it needed to hear. The fact that he did so with a remarkably gentle spirit of love will be a reminder to all that the real battles are won when we simply live the reality of the Gospel. To do this—in the face of adversity—is the ultimate in courage.

How many of us compromise in this type of situation and try to squeeze our beliefs into a confessional statement rationalizing the whole time: “I believe what that statement says, I just use different words.”