I have a theory, maybe not really a theory but an idea. I have to reconcile things. I just do. It is the way my brain works. I am a Christian -- by my own definition. I know that there are certain Christians out there who would argue my self-definition because I don't think exactly like they do. But I feel quite comfortable with my definition and so does God.
I am also a lover of science. It would be a stretch to call myself a scientist -- although I love the idea! I have yearned since I was young to understand things. Why things are. How things work and how they came to be that way. I devoured biology, struggled a bit but LOVED physics and while math is still sometimes a foreign language it thrills me! Everything in the universe is math! From music to light!
Wicked cool.
The reason this is not a "theory" in a real sense is that it can't be tested and it can't be proved but at the same time it cannot be disproved! To be a theory one must be able to apply the scientific method to it -- for this, that is impossible. I will then refer to it as my personal "explanation".
I have explored the dilemma of Genesis vs. evolution. How can they both be true? I firmly believe in science. I believe that God gave us brains to understand our world. He gave us free will and inquiring minds. He created a challenging creature when we were "born". But what about Adam and Eve? Is that story literal? It is true? Is the universe only 6000 years old? If I believe that when applying today's literal definition of time must I close my mind to prehistoric discovery? What about the dinosaurs, what about quantum physics and what about carbon dating? That is just too much for me to give up.
Can both stories be true? In my mind, definitively, YES.
The evolution of man did happen. The human species did have ancestors that were "non human". Keep in mind it is we who have defined the word "human". We evolved and learned and as progress was made, the smartest survived and reproduced making smarter ones and so on and so on. That happened over the course of millions of years. Remember, God it timeless and ageless. It was God who created the ingredients all the way back to the Big Bang. It was He who set up the dominoes. There is no better explanation. He is energy.
So from the Big Bang forward, God sat back and watched His creation grow and change. At some point He introduced the ingredients that were to become us. He watched His children learn and evolve just as one would watch an embryo become a fetus that becomes a baby that becomes a child that becomes an adult. So He has always been there. Six times throughout the process of creating, God stopped, sat back and examined his work and saw that it was "good" and herein is our evolution story. On final inspection of all that he had made, God regarded it as "very good."
He watched us begin to wonder about the world around us. Prior to that, survival had been the ONLY motive. He began to see us trying to understand things and to create explanations for why things are the way they are. He knew we are almost ready. Then one day He decides we ARE ready and He introduces Himself to us. Until that day and until we had grown and learned enough we would not have been able to comprehend Him anyway nor was our consciousness ready for "faith".
In the Bible there is no definition of what a day is or a night is. A day can be a millennium or an epoch. It is easy to imagine that God did create the earth and the heavens in seven days. Seven of His days. Today's modern calendar is an invention of man.
I have decided that "Adam" was the first human ancestor to meet God. His brain, say like Steven Hawking's today, was so far removed from those around him that he walked away and truly became the first Man. There had to be that first ONE. He may have even been outcast because of his differences. As God watched Adam walk away he followed him. It was Adam who God introduced Himself to first; Adam was the first "man" when he met God. Adam was created from mud -- from the primordial soup of the sea; then Eve walked away and met God. This was the beginning of our history as children of God with the awareness of Him as our Creator.
The elegant truth of the creation story is that God is the author of all creation from the beginning of time and before that. We are but a chapter in His story of Creation. As is the question: if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Awareness is the key.
Our story began when we had evolved to the point where we could comprehend our story and comprehend our Creator. In Genesis 1 we are presented with the beginning of a divine drama that can only be accepted on the basis of faith. So with this I accept both faith and science.
The End...or is it the Beginning?
