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Creationism, Christianity, and Common Sense
September 26,2005 by Alan Burkhart
Here we go again. According to a Washington Post article from 09/25/05, a group called “Answers in Genesis – USA” is building a museum in Cincinnati dedicated to the proposition that the universe was created exactly as stated in the Bible. In other words, God created the universe in six days, and He did it only about six thousand years ago. The group’s president, Kenneth Ham, is quoted in the Post as saying, "This is a battle cry to recognize the science in the revealed truth of God."
Science and religion remain at odds because each side is hamstrung by its own peculiar brand of extremists. Too many scientists utterly reject the notion that a supreme being had a hand in the creation of the universe. And, too many Christians (and followers of other faiths) believe that God created all this cool stuff in a blink of the cosmic eye. Each side refuses to consider the merits of the beliefs of the other. That’s too bad, because they both hold pieces to the puzzle.
Let’s take a brief look at each side…
The Bible was written by primitive man, and his primitive perceptions doubtlessly influenced the finished product. Sure, it was divinely inspired, but it was still written by ancient man. Man of ancient times had no concept of the size, scope and age of the universe.
God, in His wisdom, didn't give early man more knowledge than he could handle. He left us to explore and learn at our own speed. Centuries would pass before people like Newton and Galileo would begin unlocking the secrets of our existence and the primal forces around us.
Like a child who finally realizes that her baby brother wasn't really brought by the stork, mankind is slowly realizing that the universe wasn't created in 6 calendar days, and that we do indeed share ancestry with other creatures. With the abundance of transitional fossils at hand there is no escaping the fact that the creation of man in the book of Genesis was also a “stork story.”
A 5 year-old child can’t be expected to understand all of the biological and emotional issues involved in bringing a new life into the world. The stories of the stork dropping the child down a chimney or the doctor bringing the baby in his little black bag are harmless falsehoods that give the child something to cling to until she learns that mommy and daddy weren’t really “wrestling” in the bedroom.
By the same token, the Genesis account of the creation gave primitive man a starting point from which to pursue the truth. Could man of that period have understood quarks, dark matter, photons, black holes, planetary orbits, nebulae, and so on and so forth? Of course not.
The Bible correctly states that God created the Heavens and the Earth. What the Bible doesn’t do is tell us how He did it. The Bible isn't the end of wisdom and knowledge. It's the beginning. Humans have a natural inquisitiveness that causes us to seek not only new answers to old questions but also new questions to be answered.
Why is it so difficult to entertain the idea that God planted the seeds of life, and that Evolution is the result of those seeds taking root?
Why is it so difficult to wrap our minds around the notion that the Big Bang theory is just fine and dandy as long as we don't lose sight of the fact that if it happened, it was simply the method God used to get it all done? Science seems determined to explain away the simple fact that the very first speck of matter had to have had an origin. If it was created, as some claim, by a collision of opposing energies, then those energies also had to have had an origin. God is the origin. Only He could create something where before there was nothing with an act of sheer will.
It's a good and noble thing to seek understanding via science. It is, however, pure foolishness to exclude Devine Truth from such a pursuit. Our universe is far too complex to have arisen by accident. Complexity of this magnitude can only be created by an intelligence superior to the complexity it creates. It is therefore a given that only God could have created the universe, because only a being with the powers that we attribute to God could have accomplished such a thing.
Science limits itself by refusing to acknowledge the inescapability of God’s existence. Many Christians wreck their credibility by maintaining that the Bible is to be taken literally, word for word.
C’mon folks… do you really believe that Jonah took that little ride in the belly of a fish? How long did Jonah have to hold his breath? How did he deal with those nasty digestive juices? Be brave… do you REALLY believe the story of Jonah? By the way, it was a fish, not a whale. The King James Version of the Bible had an error in translation.
Either way, the story is obviously meant to be allegorical, just as is the story of the plant that gave Jonah shade after his trip to Nineveh. One must learn to understand the lesson of the story without believing that such an event could actually occur. The story of “The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf” is pure fiction, but it teaches a valuable lesson.
An unbiased and logical thinking process can only conclude that God exists. Science has blinded itself with prejudice against the notion of God’s existence, probably because of the fact that religion has through the years attacked science (sometimes violently) for supposedly blaspheming against God’s word. Do some reading on all the trouble Galileo had with the Catholic Church and you’ll see what I mean.
Believers must brave up to the fact that science does indeed hold many answers to the mysteries of the universe. Scientists likewise, must put aside their high-handed ways and realize that there is a greater intelligence than man. Only when both sides can sit at the same table will we see an end to the raging debates surrounding school curriculum and other areas where science and religion clash.
And what a wonderful day that would be.
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