Edit: After spending hundreds of hours looking for them for my research, all evening primroses are beautiful to me; however I will concede that the last photo I posted is lacking in the aesthetic department. Here is a better one:
Hard to believe itâs been 50 years since John Conway first produced his digital Game Of Life.
John Conwayâs Game of Life
The Game of Life is not your typical computer game. It is a cellular automaton, and was invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway.
This game became widely known when it was mentioned in an article published by Scientific American in 1970. It consists of a collection of cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply. Depending on the initial conditions, the cells form various patterns throughout the course of the game.
I spent many hours playing with it as an undergrad, completely fascinated with its many unexpected patterns and behavior. If anyone wants to fool around with it here is a nice online version with lots of helpful starting patterns.
I had a lightbulb moment this morning. Hopkinsâ poem is a response to Darwinism. Because of course it is - only written 18 years after the Origin of the Species.
I had studied it in college, but I donât remember discussing this aspect. But the poem really emphasized the difference in worldviews.
Underlying Darwinâs beautifully written sentence about God using evolution, is a tragic ugliness: âThus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.â
Hopkins thought much differently. The poem shows that in spite of manâs âprogressâ God renews and freshens creation in order to proclaim His character. A Darwinian worldview is God using death for animal and human progress. Itâs not surprising then I like the poem, as I also like to illustrate Godâs character in poetry by appreciating beauty in nature.
This is why I tried to explain that I view evolutionary creationism as illogical and not compatible with Godâs character; ultimately I view evolution/death as progress versus death as ugliness as the result of sin as two fundamentally different ideas about who God is and who He says He is in the Bible.
I have yet to distinguish current evolutionary thought from Darwinian evolution because Iâm not familiar enough with each.
The difference is in how we view death. If we view it as the result of our sin, then doesnât that give God more glory for enduring it?
Death as the result of sin: God sacrificed himself for the ugliness that we brought on the world, and itâs the sacrifice thatâs beautiful not the death.
Death as a pattern: Christâs death itself was beautiful.
The Bible passage says the cross was shameful and something to endure.