When scientific thought is devoid of a spiritual foundation, discoveries about the physical universe often are explained and supported without any need or involvement of a creator. Many, perhaps most, supporters of evolutionary theory also support atheistic views. Is this a coincidence? I cannot say; Darwin was not an atheist. However, the information available to one who is intellectually open is very compelling in support of evolution. Understanding this makes it unattainable to take the biblical Genesis in a literal way.
But…does it need to be taken literally?
Let us, for discussion purposes, agree that all life as we know it today has evolved over eons of time from much simpler forms through multitudes of trial and error of survival. I have heard Creationists say then that we all must have evolved from a rock. From what we evolved, I think, is not important. My response would be,
“so what if we evolved from a rock, then maybe God created that rock.”
Evolutionists nearly always seem to have a precursor for every stage of evolution. When pushed into a corner and out of antecedent stage, I have heard some say that scientific investigation has not yet discovered it. They add that it is just a matter of time before all questions will be answered. Well, I say that it doesn’t matter how much time you give them, there still is a first stage before which there was nothing. Who created that first stage? It could not have been through evolution; evolution needs a precursor. So, based upon faith, I think it was God.
I believe that the explanation in Genesis is in terms that humankind was capable of comprehending when God passed it on to us and when it was recorded. I also cannot imagine too many readers of the Old Testament even today being able to understand a comprehensive explanation of evolution. I think God imparts in manner and content only that which we can comprehend.
Now, you may ask, “what about Adam and Eve?”
Well suppose that after God implemented the evolution process He watched it unfold. He observed life evolving; some forms surviving and some forms becoming extinct. Then when Homo sapiens came along, He found that his evolutionary process had created the creature into which he wanted to instill the spirit of being. Now He had completed the creation of salient and cognizant beings in His own image. “…in His own image”, doesn’t mean physical image. God is not a physical being, He is a spiritual being. And, as such, He gave mankind a soul which is in His own image.
Did God create Eve from Adam’s rib? The bible says He did. Are we to take that literally? I offer no basis in fact, but I would say probably no. However, if we ever truly understand the truth, I think we would find the logical connection between Adam’s rib and Eve. God does not lie.
God has no reason to lie. However He would, I think, have a reason to exclude certain details in order to reduce complexity. He will tell us what we are to know in terms and manner when we are able to know it. It was easier for us to understand time in terms of days and nights instead of billions of years. I cannot imagine how many people would be able to read the Book of Genesis if there was a comprehensive explanation of evolution leading up to the world and all on it that existed some 6,000 years ago.
Creationists try to prove that dinosaurs and humans coexisted; because that has to be the case if one takes Genesis literally. Evolutionists can prove that is not the case through various types of isotopic dating. Therefore Genesis is wrong and either God lied or He does not exist. What if the original premise is wrong? What if God created the processes by which we see evolution and explained it in simple terms? What this does for me is that I am relieved of the struggle between logic from my scientific training and faith from my religious upbringing. It all works together.
Written by Guest Writer: K.P. Cappelli
