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Creation, Evolution and Reactionary Christianity

On: Tuesday, January 31, 2012

 "Faith is a process of leaping into the abyss, not on the basis of any certainty about where we shall land, but rather on the belief that we shall land." - Carter Heyward

  Lately I have been interested in evolution and the creation story. In the past, I would have just sorta grazed through stories on the internet or in books and dismissed them as myths or the musings of a person with too much time on their hands. The fact that I did not have any real answers on what I believed about the Creation story or Evolution bothered me. I have been basing my own personal beliefs on what others have said or what I heard in Sunday school. That sorta puts me in that awkward position of admitting I do not know. To me that is just not acceptable anymore.

 My dilemma is how do you go about researching the story(s) without upsetting your friends or family? Why are these so polarizing among Christians?  After all, don't we all have a stake in the story(s)? I asked a few friends what they thought of the Evolution & the Creation story. My first thought was to ask if they believe what they would read in Genesis or do they lean towards some sort of Evolution. That quickly lead me to change it to some kind of loaded question that would get their reactions quicker. I figured I would get a few mild reactions and was not prepared for the reactions I did get. Here is the question I asked

"As a Christian, at what point would you be willing to admit that science & biblical archeology should play a role in what you believe? Even to the point of evolution... All, partial or none?"

I found out that most people would rather ignore questions like this rather than confront the issue with some questions of their own. Instead I got reactions like:

"When you start losing your faith."

"You're on dangerous ground."

"Mark , you are just reading way to much crap, You need to get back to your LIFE's shop manual. LIFE= living in faith everyday"

and my favorite 

" I will tell you that I look at the Bible and ask the holy spirit to give me insight on what I am reading....you can take it anyway you want but if I don't understand something I go to the source for answers....to me the bible is a book of revelations, sometimes I read a passage 10 times on the 11th time BAM!! it hits me.....revelation...only by the holy spirit does that come...that is one way I base my interpretation..

my response

" Do you believe that the creation story is vital to understanding original sin and without that, it would put into question the whole of our faith?"

A response 

"the bible has many intricate fassets (spelling ?) to it, I believe that it was woven together so that God can allow us to understand Him, and He did it in such a way so that we see His heart for us.....the sin issue is not as important as our learning who He is"

 
Why do Christians react that way? Why do they answer questions that takes them out of their Christian faith comfort zone with answers that really do nothing but create strife? At some point in their walk of faith, they need to confront these issues head on and stop avoiding them with pointless reactions. I am getting tired of them acting like an Ostrich with their heads in the sand. I want them to understand that their god did not create us but it was through Evolution. But to sit by and act as if it is some kind of mystery that we need to just believe with faith is rubbish.They need to ask questions & stop taking answers for granted.





Thank you Pete Enns for your book, "The Evolution of Adam"


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