Thinking it Through

There are many things that sound good at first, and look good on the surface; but once you spend a little time thinking about it and following the thought process to the end, you realize that this belief or system is not so good and nice as it seemed. Evolution is one example. Evolution clearly explains so many things that we see in nature (like differentiation between species). It is only natural that someone make the attempt to explain our entire existence in such a way. I mean if small amounts of time produce small changes, then perhaps large amounts of time will produce large changes. Even if you grant that (which I don't), if you follow the line of reasoning back far enough you get to a point where you have to explain how "It" got started. What made the Big Bang?

This is where some Christians come in and think that they can create a nice and neat solution that will be both Scientific and Biblical. We can say that God created the Big Bang and then used evolution as His creation tool. I don't see what this gains us besides a chance at some credibility within the current scientific community. But, even then we must be careful that we don't create more problems than we solve. One of the big problems is that Evolution generally relies upon successive generations. The assumption is that the weak die and the strong live. But, even if you read the book of Genesis as a story rather than a historical account, it is pretty clear that Death enters the scene in Chapter 3... not before. Even more important, the reason for death entering the scene is a major theme throughout the whole book. If God were to use Evolution as His creative tool, then He would have been responsible for introducing death. I suppose you could try to hold onto a belief in which the "original" evolutionary process did not include death, just a constant spectrum of ever-changing living creatures. But, then again you have to go back to the question of, "What does that really gain me?" It certainly won't garner much credibility within the scientific community, and it does not help you better understand the story of the Scripture either.

I actually intended this post to be more about Free Will and Sovereignty, but this Evolution example will hopefully set the stage for that discussion tomorrow. I believe God wants us to be thinkers, and that means moving past the surface. It also means being willing to rethink my own position when presented with evidence that contradicts it. For this particular debate it is helpful to remember that the scientific community contradicts itself about every 50 years or so... or even more often. The one thing we can be sure of is that we don't know it all. In fact, I think most serious scientists would tell you that we are continually realizing just how little we truly understand our world. So, when I am weighing evidence to form my beliefs, I rarely use scientific "truth" as one of the major weights.