One blogger asked the question about these things. My confession is that I'm not a physicist, archeologist or scientist. First of all, unless God is playing a huge joke on the human race, fossils exist, dinosaurs roamed the earth, and carbon dating gives us a timeline of history. I've never had a real problem with any of this because I've always accepted those things as part of the created design. I have also been a Methodist my entire life and as a denomination we affirm the infallibilty of scripture (scripture being true in terms of faith and practice), but not all of us affirm an inerrant Bible (scripture being true in all aspects - faith, practice, history and science, no errors). For me that's the difference. When I hear that the world was created in 7 days, I don't necessarily believe that God's time is the same as mine. The Biblical writers wrote in terms they understood for a people that were uneducated. To say that a day was from sunset to sunset (24 hours) was a mode of time that would have been understandable. The creation of the universe is an incredible task. Considering its complexity, the length of time it took to create it in no way diminishes this amazing show of creative power, whether it was 1 day or 100 million years.
The UMC just adopted an official stance on evolution at this year's General Conference. It says, "We find that science's descriptions of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology. ... We find that as science expands human understanding of the natural world, our understanding of the mysteries of God's creation and word are enhanced." This affirms what I've felt all along. Was the Big Bang the real deal? Yes, I think it probably was. But I also think God pulled the trigger. We have prehistoric evidence of life evolving into the species we're familiar with today. Is it all a fluke? Does evolution happen just "cuz" it does? I think not...it's too complex for it to be a purely happenstance occurrence. But, evolution by the hand of God...that's more in line with what I think.
Simply put, the universe is a complex deal. There's so much we don't know. Some of it is a mystery, for theologians as well as scientists. Come Sunday...I'll talk more about this!
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