A recent Gallup poll found only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.
This would partly explain why the film “Creation,” which has been tabbed by many as the best film of the year, has taken almost a year to find a distributor in the United States.
The distributor, New Market Films, is famously known for picking up Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, “Passion of the Christ” at a time when nobody in Hollywood would touch because religious groups cried foul. The film went on to be one of the biggest grossing films of all time.
Creation, developed by BBC Films, has an Academy Award-winning cast and details Charles Darwin’s “struggle between faith and reason” when he wrote his seminal book on evolutionary biology, “On The Origins of Species.” The book was the scientist’s landmark work in which he describes the processes of natural selection.
The film is based on the book “Annie’s Box,” whose author Randal Keynes was Darwin’s great-great grandson. The story depicts the naturalist as a family man who becomes tormented and loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie.
Darwin detractors have long argued that this event skewed his research and some go as far as saying Darwin’s theories directly influenced Adolf Hitler, thereby making Darwin guilty by association.
Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of “Creation” said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after “On The Origins of Species” was published. “It’s quite difficult for we in the U.K. to imagine religion in America. We live in a country that is no longer so religious. But in the U.S., outside of New York and L.A., religion rules,” Thomas said.
The film’s distribution trouble in the U.S. is a testament to the strength and fervor of religiosity in our country, as well as an illustration of global opinion of Darwin’s natural world. “It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the U.S., and it’s because of what the film is about,” explained Thomas.
In the U.S., aside from the one-sided allocation of resources — both monetary and labor based — utilized in the support of creationism within the framework of evolution versus the creationism debate, faith-based institutions are too often using their funds, resources and contacts to affect public policy, public property and public conduct.
Last year’s Proposition 8 in California is a case in point. On a national level, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. John McCain advocated that creationism be taught alongside evolution in schools during the last presidential race.
There is a clear advantage and disadvantage in terms of access in the discourse surrounding this debate here at home. Due to the vast resources of the creationist camp, there are numerous outlets in this technological age to promote their own specific view of evolution. From television channels to 20,000 strong mega-churches, the forum is boundless and efficiently utilized.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines natural selection as: a natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment.
It begs the question as to whether or not faith-based congregations that engage in the suppression of alternative viewpoints will themselves be rendered extinct to natural selection.
Hanif Zarrabi is a Middle Eastern history graduate student and a columnist for the Daily 49er.