Lee Lee: You go to church to learn about God and his plan for your life, not Darwin.

Well, that’s not the only reason I go to church. I go to learn about God, but in a much bigger sense than just His plan for my life. That’s part of it, sure, but God’s much bigger than I am, and since I love Him, I want to learn more about Him than just what happens to pertain to me and my circumstances.

We can’t afford to divorce the workaday world around us from the world the church addresses and pretend that they somehow occupy different arenas and should be treated differently. I don’t want to be a committed Christian on Sunday and a devoted scientist on Monday, for example. I want to be both on both days, using a healthy skepticism to winnow deep truth from deep nonsense while simultaneously praising God for everything He does.

I also go to church to share how God has walked and talked with me, and to hear how He has done that with others — whether those “others” are teenagers, children, the pastor, regular churchgoers, or anyone else. If God has appeared all the more amazing because of a scientifically-based insight into His creation to someone — even the pastor, or even some church celebratory committee, or what have you — why should that alone be enough to mandate its exclusion from the walls of a church?

Or do I misunderstand the thrust of your argument?

Lee Lee: Church is not based on Darwin.

I trust you can see that celebrating someone in a church is different from basing church on him or her. I agree that church is not based on Darwin, but I do not think that alone excludes him from being noticed by a church, nor does it alone keep them from appreciating God for the insight He allowed him to have so that we might all see a little more clearly.

Let me try a different tactic. Would you say that having a special meeting to watch a movie about, say, William Tyndale in a church counts as “[basing] church on” William Tyndale? If not, in what important ways does this sort of thing differ from celebrating Darwin’s birthday in a church?

Lee Lee: It’s a place where people come to worship and to rejoice in God as a family.

Again, no disagreement here. But isn’t worshipping and rejoicing in God based in part on recognizing what He has done and the methods by which He works in people and the world?

Sometimes?

It seems to me that if you’re performing an honest, humble inquiry of the Universe around you, sooner or later you’re going to run into something that upsets your preferred notions about the Way Things Are. If all it ever does is confirm your preconceived notions about your role and position, you’re doing it wrong.

Lee Lee: My Church touches base on that subject, however, it is not necessary to put that much focus on a person when God ultimately was and is and always will be.

Well, of course it’s not necessary.

But I note that permanence is not the basis by which we should judge whether or not gratitude for something (or, in this case, someone) is appropriate. If it were, we’d never thank God for countless blessings we receive here on Earth, and that doesn’t seem right.

How much focus is “that much focus”? I agree that it would be misguided to make celebrating someone — be it Paul, Augustine, Luther, Newton, or Copernicus — about that someone. I tried to make it clear that I understand that people are flawed; what I mean to thank God for is the insight He has given us into Himself through certain individuals.

I’m grateful for the people who led me to Christ, for example, and I thank God for them. In a sense, I celebrate them. But I celebrate them because of the seeds they planted to bring me closer to understanding God, not because I think they were better than the average schmoe somehow.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that people won’t understand the distinction. That possibility is why I’d be reluctant to make it a part of corporate worship.

Lee Lee: He is the main creator and the reason for why we are here on earth.

I’d go one step further and say that he is the only Creator [John 1:3]. For some reason, though, He chooses to work through people — messed up, confused, flawed people. I thank God for using this means to show us His glory, and that He created certain people and certain circumstances to work through.

Lee Lee: All the glory should be given to him only!

No disagreement here.