There isn't a much earlier place in the Bible to find controversial discussion than the story of creation. So lets start there.
Brief Overviews:
Many people believe that creation by God and evolution are opposed opinions and must always be viewed as such. You either believe in the creation tactics shown by science, such as evolution and the big bang, or you believe in creation by God, over seven days, whether taken as a literal or symbolic seven days.
I'd like to discuss this topic.
Must people who believe that God created the world have a disdain for the views of evolution?
Must people who believe that God created the world believe it happened in a literal 7 days?
What was the author's purpose in his telling of the creation stories (there are two different accounts given in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2)?
What might the audience have thought when they heard these creation accounts?
What was life like then (at the time of writing) that might give us an understanding into why these accounts are presented as they are? (were there similar stories, a need for the people to hear, was it a hot button issue... etc.)
Do these accounts have a scientific understanding of the world in mind?
Thursday, December 06, 2007
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4 comments:
Must people who believe that God created the world have a disdain for the views of evolution?
Not exactly. Evolution is a heavy packed word. To some degree, I agree with the micro evolution. Micro evolution essentially means: natural selection, genetic mutation, and that living beings adjusted according to their environment. So there are minor changes transpiring within the animal/plant/human. However macro evolution is a jump. Marco evolution makes the huge leap of stating we were first rocks and now we are humans. Lets just say, we were monkeys. What was the point of us becoming Bipedal? Why did we need to stand up-right? There is really is no benefit. This question confront many biological and genetic evolutionist. The monkey's were doing just fine jumping and swinging from tree to tree.
Must people who believe that God created the world believe it happened in a literal 7 days?
This question gets really messy. My question is: Does it really matter? The bottom line is: God created the world. The longevity of how long God created the earth does not really matter.
There are five scriptural and scientific accounts that can explain the creation account:
1. Six-day creation of a young earth: the world came into being by God’s creating it over a six-day period a few thousand years ago.
2. Creation then catastrophe then re-creation.
3. Intelligent design: it came into being over billions of years by a process involving God’s direct steering and intervention. The evolutionary “missing links” are missing because species did not develop directly from one another. See e.g., Robert T. Pennock (ed), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics (Cambridge: MIT, 2001).
4. Theistic evolution: it came into being over billions of years by a process of evolution that in principle science can trace as a “natural” one but behind which believers see God’s activity. See e.g., Keith B. Miller (ed.), Perspectives on an Evolving Creation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
5. Naturalistic evolution: it came into being over billions of years by a process of evolution that had its own dynamic. “On Main Street America, evolution is often interpreted as a creation story for atheists” (Karl Giberson and Donald Yerxa, Species of Origins [Lanham, MD: Rowman, 2002], 58).
What was life like then (at the time of writing) that might give us an understanding into why these accounts are presented as they are? (were there similar stories, a need for the people to hear, was it a hot button issue... etc.)
The creation account in Genesis 1 literally resembles the Babylonian Creation Story: When on High. The similaries are: 1) humanity is created to serve the gods. (Indeed in other Mesopotamian creation stories humanity is created from clay: cf. Genesis 2:7; and other Mesopotamian stories refer to a tree of life and water of life.)
2) Both documents (Genesis and Babylonian)assume that behind the human and physical world there are ultimate personal realities; (i.e., their worldview is theistic).
Although there is a fundamental different with the Babylonian story. This difference is that the gods come from the ultimate realities – they are not eternal; they are material.
I guess no one else wants to play. I am like the lonely kid at recess.
I want to play. But my recess doesn't start until Saturday. I have four major projects due this week to end my quarter. I'll glady join you for a game of dodgeball afterwards.
On another note, there was another comment on this subject, if just got placed under the "Discussions Described" post by accident.
I saw a bumper sticker over the weekend that summed up my belief in creation. It said. The Big Bang Theory. God said make it so and BANG it happened.
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