This won't be as boring as it sounds, I promise.
So, I learned at mommy's knee that God created the heavens and the earth and he did it in six days. (That's why I had to take naps on Sunday afternoons.) 'Nuff said.
Later, I heard about evolution, but knew it couldn't be true. See above.
Still later, I had a friend who was really into creationism and felt really strongly that you should believe in a literal 6-day creation. Really Strongly. I figured that there wasn't any way to know for sure, and that God was capable of doing it any way he felt like.
And then later, I had pretty much settled on the God-can-do-it-however-He-pleases viewpoint on how we got here, although evolution has never made much sense to me. I even taught my kids this viewpoint!
Now they are in a class where we are back to the 6-days-of-creation belief. I do like the idea of God having created us. It sure makes sense with what I see of the beauty and amazing design in life and love.
Then, I found this book. Subtitled: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution. So I read it. And I found some eye-opening details about evolution.
From page 166: "Decades of reflecting on the evolution controversy convinces me that the conflict is only tangentially scientific. Those who would adjudicate this dispute by appealing to science are wasting their time. The conflict is not about determining the proper inferences to draw from fossils, genes, and comparative anatomy. The conflict . . . centers on one simple question: Can there be any role at all for God in our own creation story?"
Which bring me back to the place I was before. God, being God and all, can do things however He wants. Why not? Why is it either/or? There are so many amazing things about our bodies, our minds, our relationships that don't seem like they could arise randomly. And yet there seems to be evidence that evolution does exist. I'm ok with having my creation and evolving it, too.
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1 comment:
I was like you, believing God created all in six days. Then a trip to Maui. Seeing those little islands and hearing their history and remembering how big the mainland & the world is in contrast to Maui. I concluded that 6 days couldn't possibly be literally 6-24 hour days. I also spent nearly seven months going through the entire Bible w/Pastor Chuck Smith. I also listened to a series by a man named A.E. Wilder Smith. Why evolution is impossible scientifically.
As a matter of eternal security, it doesn't matter what we "think" happened, or how we were created. It is paramount that we know we were created by a creator, else all Christian faith is mute. I am convinced we were created, but I really don't know how. Nor do I care very much. The fact that we are here is a given. Wouldn't it make more sense to figure out why?
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