C OF E HAS EVOLVED AT LEAST HALF A BRAIN

The Church of England apologised this week to Charles Darwin for ‘misunderstanding’ his theory of evolution.

Maybe some of its top people have at last evolved a brain. Or maybe not. What they should have really apologised for was ‘misrepresenting, castigating, and falsifying’ his theory to protect their position as the fount of all divine knowledge.

I suspect the pathetic apology was some sort of response to the even more pathetic showing of their leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the TV documentary on Darwin by eminent biologist Richard Dawkins.

Rowan Williams – doing a fair Rowan Atkinson impersonation – stuttered and stumbled and waffled his way through an implausible defence of his unseen boss upstairs.

Not only is the apology 200 years too late, it comes in an article that is as convincing as the original reaction to Darwin.

As far as I can see, there is only one way the Church of England can even get close to redeeming itself for its demonisation of Darwin. And that is to apologise also for a few other gaffes:

• For brainwashing generations of British children through its faith schools, instead of explaining the arguments for and against a God and letting the little innocents decide as they grow older
• For believing that mankind can’t manage a secular moral code without a God to prop it up
• For wearing ridiculous fancy dress at every opportunity
• For colluding with the BBC to force Aled Jones on to us every Sunday evening.

Amen!