The Darwin Awards-- Good Christian Reading

Wendy Northcutt put together a (not so funny in reality but) hilarious book entitled, The Darwin Awards. Her work is basically a collection of stories about people who destroy themselves by their own foolishness.

Northcutt gets the title of her book from the Darwinian principle of "survival of the fittest," and explains that the stories are to "commemorate individuals who improve our gene pool...by removing themselves from it."

For instance, Northcutt recounts this far-fetched, but true tail given by an Australian Fireman,

I work for the Canberra Fire Brigade. One of the more interesting jobs I've attended was an explosion reported at 1:30 one morning. We found an abandoned pub that had collapsed into wreckage. Three days later, while removing debris, we located a Darwin Awards contender beneath the rubble and worked out what happened.

The man was a licensed plumber who wanted to save money on supplies. He was inside the old pub, cutting sections of copper pipe, when he inadvertently sliced through the gas main and sparked a huge explosion that sent glass and roof tiles hurtling as far as five hundred meters away.

Shouldn't a plumber know the difference between a water pipe and a gas main? Saving a few bucks cost him his life!

As Christians we would not agree with the Darwinian gibberish Northcutt promotes. But the book does make for good Christian reading. The Bible says much about the fool (i.e. the unbeliever) and how his own folly will bring him to a sorry end. These stories simply illustrate those principles God has laid out in Scripture and serve as a warning: "He who digs a pit will fall into it."

To put it another way, these stories are not about underdeveloped homosapiens, they are stories about the unbeliever and the consequences of his Christlessness.

Someone may object saying, "You shouldn't get your laughs at the expense of that poor soul and his demise." To be sure, one must be careful that he does not mock or scorn, but the words of Psalm 52:6-7 do ring true,

The righteous will see and fear, and shall laugh at him saying, "See the man who would not make God his refuge!"