Last Sunday I went to Sunday School (First time in a few years). It was an interesting experience. I went to a fairly conservative (theologically) church where my parents were married with my aunt and uncle in Ann Arbor. The class was about science and Christianity and taught by a professor at the University of Michigan.
I have been to many churches over the years, and most of them have dealt with the question of science in the same way: the earth was created in six days a few thousand years ago no matter what evidence science presents. In fact I held this view for a long time.
But for many years this issue has troubled me. In fact it wa a (relatively minor) factor in my exodus from Christianity. The weight of scientific evidence comes down on the side of evolution (there are of course difficulties, but overall the evidence makes a young earth view seem silly) and so I was left by the dichotomy presented in the church to either abandon the infallibility of the Word of God, or to embrace the view that God deliberately deceived us (in terms of what we can see) as to the age of the earth. This was an untenable position for me.
Eventually as I began to return to the church I realized that God often speaks in parables and allegory. The Bible besides being the Wor of God is a literary work. And so I came gradually to see the first few chapters of Genesis as an allegory or fable or some such literary device to help us understand God's relationship with the world and with man (that doesn't mean I understand fully what it means).
So it was interesting to me to be in a class of relatively conservative (theologically) Christians and hear my own view espoused as the general consensus and as the view of the instructor. As I left I couldn't help thinking, "Only in Ann Arbor..."
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2 comments:
not so uncommon...wheaton is relatively conservative theologically speaking, and most people would agree with what you said. In fact, the entire science department would...
You certainly do not have to abandon orthodoxy to agree with evolution. However, I would also disagree with the idea that the first few chapters of the Bible are purely "allegorical," or a story that did not actually occur. This causes problems in other sections of the Bible. Science cannot contradict Scripture. If they seem to, we simply need to wait until they reconcile. I do "believe" in evolution (and I have since ninth grade). I just fail to see how it is contrary to a God who moves and works outside of time. In this sense, Adam and Even are real people interacting with God in a real way. Here are some observations/ideas on this topic:
a) When sin entered the world, it entered it completely, corrupting it from the beginning of time to the end. Thus, "creation was subjected to frustration."
b) The evidence is that Moses did not consider Adam to be the only person on Earth after the fall. After all, when Cain is exiled, he apparently lives among an existing people group.
c) Breathing life into man maybe the joining of the spirit to him in a unique way that makes him a uniquely moral creature. This may have happened at a specific time in history.
d) As for the seven days, they must be considered allegorically, but in a greater sense--that our concept of days is a shadow of the true spiritual sense--a type to use the theological word.
I don't know. Thoughts?
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