I wonder if anyone’s shown up so far to picket this flick.? It concludes a four-day run at the RPL Theatre tonight with a 9 p.m. screening.
If not, will anyone show up tonight, I wonder? It is Sunday, after all. Sunday being the traditional day of rest and worship by Christians in emulation of God resting on the seventh day after labouring for six to create all existence. Us included. And all other life on Earth. Although under Christian belief we’re the only ones created in God’s image. Which makes us pretty special.
Yeah, we’re pretty heavily integrated into the web of life on Earth. And we look, act and behave similar to a whole pile of other animals. But we’re a step or two above them. Not Gods ourselves, admittedly. But made in His image. His children. And thus entitled to exercise dominion over all the beasts, fish and plants that God placed on Earth for our benefit.
Or not.
That was what Charles Darwin eventually concluded after several decades of intensive research into the biological origins of different species of animal life on Earth. In 1859 he published On the Origin of Species to immense scientific acclaim, and immense controversy in the large and influential Christian community.
Governed by the principle of natural selection, which tends to preserve and promote any improvements in genetic fitness that species make, we humans hadn’t been created by God in His image. We’d evolved from a lower form of primate.
Now, personally, I think monkeys are kind of cool. Yeah, they don’t have our creature comforts. But they can do a lot of the same stuff we do. And they don’t have to constrain themselves with all the social codes and conventions that tie us down. If they want to take a crap, then pick up their poo and throw it at someone. they do. Us? No way. You’d be hauled off to jail for sure.
Still, going from God the Father to a chimp as the primogenitor of humanity was a leap a lot of people weren’t interested in making. Heck, there’s still millions out there who are fervent Creationists. It’s not a huge movement in Regina, not like it is in the American Bible Belt, but pockets of support exist. Pretty much anytime we run something poking fun at Creationist beliefs and advancing the scientific view on the origins of life we get an indignant letter to the editor or two.
So they’re out there. And some hardcores might decide to do a little muscle flexing like 200 or 300 did with their Stations of the Cross procession through downtown Regina on Good Friday.
Starring Paul Bethany and Jennifer Connelly, Creation examines the inner turmoil Darwin experienced before deciding to publish his theory of evolution, and his relationship with his wife Emma. Here’s the trailer (YouTube)