I like to post about new perspectives and finds in the sciences of human origins, paleontology, geomorphology etc.
It is not uncommon for me to have well-meaning Christians and others on steemit express their opinions in the comments sections of these posts. These, mostly well-meaning comments, invariably reflect some aspect of a notion that the biblical creation is perceived by them to be at odds with the consensus views of modern science regarding the age of the planet, how it formed, how life emerged and evolved and our relationship as humans to the animal kingdom and our evolution therefrom.
Some feel that to accept the current scientific perspectives rejects the teachings of the bible regarding “The Creation” and threatens faith in God.
I hold a different opinion, I find that studying the natural sciences does not diminish my faith but instead enriches my understanding of God and His creative processes and leaves me more in awe of Him and what He has done each day.
I used to do a regular Sunday post about these types of topics but there was a patch of not so much activity on steemit and the audience was less engaged.
With all the new users joining steemit daily it may be time to reinstitute my Sunday posts to balance the posts I place on natural sciences and have something to link to in response to comments I get on these posts during the week.
The creation in Genesis
There is a widely prevailing notion that the seven days of creation in Genesis 1 are seven twenty four hour periods. This notion stems from a strictly literal interpretation of the scriptures as they stand in English and stems to an extent from medieval times.
In medieval times the Christian world in Europe consisted of a mostly illiterate populace taught doctrines as they received them from the widespread and universal Catholic Church. Bibles were not in English but Latin and you believed was what you were told to believe.
What you were told to believe were interpretations of doctrines and scripture based on creeds developed and adopted over the centuries by the religious and political elite.
Prior to the universal Catholic Church and its monopoly on doctrine and the interpretation of scripture, dictated by creeds, views and interpretations were far more divers.
One simply needs to go to the writings of the early Christian Fathers and other writers in the first few centuries after Christ to get an indication of the diversity of the interpretations that were held, discussed, entertained and written about. These were stamped out in the council of Nicaea and systematically eradicated, with little challenge in the centuries that followed.
Then along came the renaissance, the reformation and the age of enlightenment, which changed the status quo and broke the monopoly of the Catholic Church and medieval processes and thinking. People could read, religion diversified, science emerged and amongst many other things, people could begin to think for themselves again.
In spite of the reformation however much of religious thinking has remained burdened with medieval notions, interpretations and ideas that were so prevalent, widespread and universally accepted. True the reformers reformed some fundamental doctrines, but many remain unchanged centuries later, literally unscathed.
One of these is that of an ex nihilo creation occurring over the period of seven, twenty four hour days.
The age of enlightenment, modern science and all of its discoveries have vastly enriched or knowledge of the universe, its systems and processes and life in all of its diversity.
I doesn’t take much reading of the natural sciences to quickly detect a discrepancy between what we have learned through these sciences and the medieval notions of planetary and human origins.
Many Christians will probably now be objecting saying “But it says so in the bible”.
To which I reply “Does it? Or are your interpretations of what you read there simply skewed by long held medieval notions and interpretations”
Let me use a very familiar instance to illustrate.
We all know about the three wise men that came bearing gifts to the baby Jesus in a manger.
Actually two aspects of the above statement have no scriptural basis or evidence:
- The number of wise men are never disclosed only that there are three types of gifts.
- The wise men never visited the manger but only appeared in Bethlehem when Jesus was living in a house as a toddler and that is why Herod didn’t order the slaughter of newborns but the slaughter of children below the age of 2
We are so used to nativity scenes and other narratives that this clouds or perspective of what the scriptures actually say, even when we read them for ourselves.
But that is enough for now...
Next time I will delve into what the creation in Genesis is actually about…