Sunday afternoon, I watched an excellent program on WNED called "The History of God". A good deal of the program was devoted to the belief in creationism (i.e. that the record in Genesis of how God created the world in six days reflects facts) and evolution (i.e. that the various species existing on earth, or that ever have existed, were the product of natural selection of the fittest for survival) and it became obvious to me that the real issue is the lens through which we look at the world.
Part of the program included an interview with a park ranger at the Grand Canyon. He said that he had, for many years, taught visitors that the canyon was the result of millions of years of erosion by the river and that it was simply a natural wonder that came about as a result of natural forces. However, he said, he had accepted Jesus as his personal saviour recently and had come to believe that the Biblical account of history was the correct one. He now taught people that the canyon was the result of the great flood which was chronicled in the story of Noah in the book of Genesis and was only about 4500 years old. That crystallized the issue for me. If you come to the world believing that the Bible represents the literal word of God, you tend to interpret what you see through that lens, and therefore to see the world as the result of that creation narrative. If you come to the world believing that there are natural laws that are in force, and that the scientific evidence gathered about those laws describes a different process of how the world came to be as it is, then you tend to look at the world through that lens.
So, the questions arise. How do we look at the Bible? Is it the literal word of God? Is it merely allegory? Are there parts that need to be considered as history and parts that don't? How do we distinguish between those parts? Does the discounting of the creation story to the realm of myth or allegory harm our ability to take seriously the teachings of Jesus? These are not new questions. In fact, they have been in people's minds since Christianity existed, I suspect. Is it foolish, then, to take the stories and teachings of Jesus seriously?
For me, faith is always about my relationship with God. I believe in what works for me. I look at the world therefore through, not one, but two lenses.
Through one, I see the world as I believe science sees the world. This includes natural selection, scientific cosmology, and the results of scientific research into every area of life. I see the results of this research as a "progress report". "So far, we think this is the way things happened, or things happen, or things will happen." Nothing is ever certain for the scientist but merely probable. I have just learned recently, for instance, that the neat model I was taught in high school of electrons whizzing around a nucleus of protons and neutrons in fixed paths like planetary orbits is no longer considered to be true. The whole science of quantum physics, unknown in the dark days of the sixties, was born, in part, because electrons do NOT behave this way. It is now believed that we can only say, with accuracy, that they are PROBABLY going to be in such-and-such a position. I also learned that there is something, nicknamed the "God particle", that is neither neutron, proton, or electron and without it, nothing would exist. Hence the name. The progress reports keep coming.
Through the other lens, I see the world as a place where God is active and involved. It is a world where people are called by God to various kinds of ministry, and where God intervenes in people's lives to effect outcomes that are nothing short of miraculous. I told my congregation a story on Sunday that I have difficulty believing myself. I was sitting on the slope of the Mt. of the Beatitudes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee many years ago, reading aloud the Sermon on the Mount, when I found myself shedding tears. I was embarrassed by this show of emotion but was gratified to see that the person who had been sitting nearby, listening, had left without me being aware of it, and so I was, at least, spared the public embarrassment. "All I need now", I said out loud, "is a Kleenex." At that moment, a crumpled but clean tissue blew across the grass and landed at my feet. A miracle? I'm not sure. But it still makes me go "hmmmmmmmm".
I'm not concerned that science contradicts the stories of Genesis or any other part of the Bible. I don't feel compelled to toss aside the baby with the bathwater. I accept the Biblical account of Jesus' life and teachings with a few reservations. I accept the truth of the stories of the Bible regardless of whether they happened or not. But the most important thing for me is my relationship with God, and not my relationship with the Bible. God speaks to me. God reminds me from time to time that I am doing God's ministry and not mine. God reminds me of promises I made and blessings I received. God occasionally points me in a direction and says, "Get moving". Many times God has listened to my prayer requests and answered them generously, but not always. I'm still paying crushing spousal support, for instance. In turn, I have tried my best to serve God and to respond to God's call as I understand it. I do try to do justice and love mercy. Not because it is a commandment but because it is the right thing to do. On the other hand, I have turned the other cheek repeatedly, not because it was the smart thing, or even the right thing, but because God demands it of me.
I have no interest in debating those whose belief is that the stories in Genesis are factual. If I did, I would start with the idea that light travels at 186,000 miles a second (what's that in metric?) and that certain celestial objects are many billions of miles away from Earth. That means that the light that I see started out many hundreds of thousands of years ago, and not the 6000 years to which Genesis cosmology alludes. Of course, looking through the right lens, you could always say that God circumvented the speed of light. You can see the pointlessness of the debate, I hope. I am content in saying that God loves me, and I love God, and the universe can get along very well without me understanding it, or forcing my neighbour to share my point of view. Now THAT seems Christian to me.
