Creation and Evolution Mutually Exclusive?
Debunking Literal Six-Day Creationism
You've heard the argument before,
"The earth and humanity were created!"
"No, No, the earth quite clearly evolved."
"No it was created by God."
"I'm pretty sure a series of cosmic flukes put us here."
"Created"
"Evovled"
"CREATED!"
"EVOLVED!"*BANG* In a bout of frustration the creationist shoots the evolutionist and does away with his problems.
Well, slowly but surely, it appears American fundamentalist are loosing a battle that should have been done years ago. Even Texas Universities are welcoming big name Evolutionists on campus. There are some very valid points quoted from the biologist in the article. Do check it out.
The issue I have with the whole creation debate is people are busying themselves (by people I mean exclusively Christians) with fighting the government, universities, media, etc., on their ground, rather than doing what they are supposed to do--be the church.
This obviously leads to a number of things, namely intolerance. The main problem stems from fundamentalist Christians (who aren't really that 'fun') who tout the 'inerrancy' of Scripture but do little to respect the actual text!
Let's be honest, the Bible is clear on one thing: the earth has a Creator. Fundamentalist will scream SIX DAYS!!! and anything less is unbiblical.
I think dbiddy (an author at POMOTHEO) put it best, and I paraphrase, "six days to me is God taking his time." Fact of the matter is, WHO CARES? Read the Genesis account, we have a Creator, woot! 6 day literal interpretations is not a necessity stemming from the text. Believe in that tenant if you wish, but please oh please, stop telling the Christian who believes in evolution that the 'theory is unproven'. You're theory consists of arguing that your English version of ancient Scripture is a better scientific document than some science.
Speaking of science, the whole push towards literal days of creation stems out of the very product of society that fundamentalists are fighting so hard against! Modernity was very interested in the source of things; being 'literal' in Genesis 1-2 is resorting to the authority of secular words to describe your own.
Where does that leave us today? Two thing we need to ask ourselves (there are more than two things but here are two.)
1. Why is it that in church history the notion of literal six day creation is pretty much entirely absent? Did we discover something suddenly in the 1800's or was literal six-day creation simply a reactionary response to Darwin? On this topics, why do Jews, who have the same scripture, do not discuss anything about six-day literal creation? Could it be they understand the importance of not taking topics out of their proper literary context? (Note hint of sarcasm).
2. By saying the earth MUST have been created in literal six-days implies everyone, including Christians, who do not believe in literal six-day interpretations are inherently WRONG and you are RIGHT.
I am not willing to adopt either point and therefore must re-think my approach. In the very least, one needs to re-examine how they are treating the Biblical text and note why everyone around them thinks they are intolerant SOBs. The reason they do is because you are. I don't want my kids to grow up in a world where the most intolerant people are Christians, that's not good.
Run with evolution till your heart's content, I really don't care, I'm not a biologist. But what I do know is that this earth, this UNIVERSE, has a Creator. How that all came to be is a moot point.
