How do I believe in God and understand evolution?
Well, thats a long, involved, and difficult question. Ill give you a few of the condensed main reasons.
Reason number one is that Ive never belong to the camp of Every word in the Bible is straight from the mouth of God so if it isnt just as it said it must be a lie. I do NOT believe every word in the Bible is straight from the mouth of God. Some words are, dreams and revelations, the original 10 commandments, quotes from Jesus, etc. But not everything. Everything in the Bible is INSPIRED and profitable for teaching and doctrine, but not literal dictation from God. As a matter of fact, not everything CAN be from God because there are quotes from humans in there. Humans are not God (we know that all too well
). And I dont think Biblical doctrine should include science.
Reason number two is the scientific level at the time. The last book that went into the Bible was one of the epistles or Revelations, I dont remember which, but was written not after 110 AD. Scientific understanding even that recently was... well, terrible. How much would it have detracted from the POINT of the Bible (mans relationship with God and Gods relationship with man) to have in depth and way before their time explanations of astronomy, physics, math, biology, etc in a holy book, especially when the ability to verify them wouldnt come around for another few thousand years? (talking about things from the OT like Genesis).
Reason number three is the culture and surrounding cultures. Let me preface this with who my parents are. They are college professors with Ph.Ds in philosophy (one ancient, one medieval) who teach: Latin, Greek, world religions, mythology, and philosophy (among other things). Theyre the type of parents who, when I was 4 or 5 and asked how God could be everywhere, got a 20 minute response that had me asking if we could talk about something else. So, while growing up I would always get to hear and talk about all the fun myths, and how similar various cultures myths were to others, and the various cultures viewpoints and worldviews, and so on. In my many years growing with them, this included over time ancient Hebrew culture, which is really not set on interpreting things the way modern people do, much less all literal all the time. Which brings me to my fourth point.
Number four is as simple as Scripture isnt as simple as just Scripture itself. If you havent guessed, I am NOT a sola scriptura guy. I mean, lets face it. Remember all the way back to high school, or middle school, or whatever. (this will be mostly directed at fellow Americans since, well, I too used the American school system, and will contain a lot of specific books that I personally read in mine). Remember how when you learned about various authors and works you learned about the time period and culture? When reading Edith Hamiltons Mythology, we also learned about Greek culture and Norse and Roman cultures and read the old Greek plays. When we read Shakespeare we had a primer on Elizabethan England. When we read Huckleberry Finn we learned a lot about Mark Twain. When we read Canterbury Tales (well, two of them anyways) we learned about 1200-ish England. And so on and so forth. So, if we want to learn about the Bible, then understand ancient Jewish culture is very important. I mean, literature cannot be taken in a vacuum, the context must be understood. I just cant see how people make a huge point of saying NO IT DOESNT when it comes to the most important piece of literature in the world as far as our immortal souls are concerned.
Reason number 5 is the rest of the universe. God created EVERYTHING. Period. Entire universe, hands down, nobody did anything else. I think we can all agree on that part with no problem. And God knows everything. We can all agree on that part. Which also means God knows all the consequences for everything He does. Period. So when God created the universe, He knew exactly how whatever He did would turn out. Which means that the universe is more Gods direct handiwork than the Bible. The Bible was inspired by God and written by human hands. The universe is made by Gods own hands in its totality. And even if the Bible WAS dictated word for word by God, it was still written down by man, and the finalized canon was finalized by men with Gods help. Man is inextricably linked with the Bible. Not so with the rest of the universe. So if we understand the way the universe works, if we understand more of how Gods creation works, we can apply what we learn there to the rest of what He has given us, including the Bible, to see what it means by seeing how well it harmonizes with what God has done.
Reasons 6 and 7 are pretty closely linked. Reason 6 is that I dont see some huge scientific and economic and international conspiracy for people to perpetuate a scientific fraud and pay scientists to use methods that dont work just to make a scientific reason to deny God that doesnt even WORK because God is outside the realm of science. Reason 7 is that I really cant stand the constant and repetitive dishonesty of some of the professional creation societies (and yes, I can and will back that up).
Thats it in a nutshell, but it really barely scratches the surface of my thought processes.
Metherion
