Insight on the News

Evolution’s “Black Hole”

“That the serpent of creationism would be smitten by the righteous staff of science was really no surprise,” wrote D. P. Doyle, director of education policy studies at Washington’s American Enterprise Institute. His article in the Los Angeles Times went on to observe: “Indeed . . . science everywhere reigns supreme. Our material abundance, our war machines, our computer toys, the air waves trembling with phantom TV images, the poisoned atmosphere and polluted water all bear mute testimony to the role and place of science.”

Yet when it comes to scientific support of evolution, Doyle asked: “In what way is scientific evidence overwhelming?” His answer: “Of course, science simply beats creationism all hollow when it comes to describing dinosaurs, meteorites, fossils and big bangs. But at the center of the scientific enterprise is a nagging doubt, a sort of spiritual black hole.”

This “spiritual black hole” exists because “any thoughtful person must, in the face of physical reality, wonder if there is any larger purpose to life,” explained the researcher. Though “science can explain how the world works,” Doyle warned: “At issue is the more important question about man’s role in the universe, man’s sense of purpose, his vision of a moral order​—or, more important, the possibility of a moral order. The scientific evolutionists, who rail against creationism with the enthusiasm and finesse of Goliath, are in mortal danger of missing this critical point.”

Jesus’ “Mistake”?

A review of the recent book Christians and Politics by Haitian theologian Fritz Fontius appeared in the periodical Fraternité Matin of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The review observed:

“The pastor recognizes that what is remembered about Jesus Christ himself is the image of one who ‘scrupulously kept separate from politics.’ . . . After him, his apostles, particularly Paul and Peter, preached the same attitude of the nonpolitical Christian. It could also be mentioned here that Jesus’ attitude originated from the mistake he made in believing in the imminence of the end of the world. All his efforts turned to heaven. Today Jehovah’s Witnesses perpetuate the same error.”

It is gratifying to know that Jehovah’s Witnesses are considered to be in such good company when making this so-called mistake, or error. Certainly it is true that belief in a coming end of the world’s political systems affected how Jesus and his disciples viewed politics. What apparently escapes the Fraternité Matin book reviewer is that Jesus “scrupulously kept separate from politics” primarily because his “kingdom is no part of this world,” whose ruler he identified as Satan.​—John 18:36; 14:30; Matthew 4:8-10.

The determining factor in the political neutrality of true Christians then and now is that they are also ‘no part of Satan’s world.’ Rather, their allegiance is to God’s kingdom as the only government that can truly solve human problems.​—John 17:16; Matthew 6:33.

Government “Trembling”

Under the headline “The ‘Rock’ of Government Is Trembling All Over the World,” a Washington Post column noted that recent military conflicts worldwide “reinforce the idea that events are out of control.” The newspaper then drew attention to a published political analysis by Horace W. Busby, a former presidential aide and political consultant. Busby observed that “since the 1960s, governments everywhere, West and East, have begun not to work.” Using problems in the United States to illustrate, he asserted that “the institutions within the system are tending to paralysis, unable to address or deal successfully with an increasing number of decisions critical to orderly governance.”

This explains why observers with knowledge of God’s purpose soon to replace such “trembling” governments with a global kingdom that really works do not continue to support futile efforts to prop them up.​—Daniel 2:44.