"As I have said many times, don't get caught up into an either-or argument about most anything in life...or you will miss the truth."
(Genesis I:1-2:3)
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its own kind upon the earth." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its own kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds; cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from His work which He had done in creation.
* * * *
This beautiful, exquisitely told story of creation opens up for us the Word of God--the Bible--our Holy Scripture given to us to guide, form and rule our lives. The first line of our story summarizes the whole of our Scripture: "In the beginning God created the world." Everything else follows from this one simple statement of fact.
It's a shame that this marvelous account of creation has become a source of controversy during this 20th century. Some of us ignore or completely replace it with our new-found self-understanding of astronomy, geology and evolution. It's also a shame when other parts of our community hold on to this story as the only historic truth, completely denying modern scientific knowledge of how life has evolved on this earth and in the skies above.
The classic example of this controversy happened back in 1925 when a 24-year-old substitute high school teacher named John T. Scopes believed that freedom of religion allowed him to teach freely. He collided head on with the Tennessee School Board and the State Legislature which forbade public schools to teach a still rather new concept, the theory of evolution, because, in the deep South, creation was to be exactly as the Bible recorded in Genesis. Day one meant just that...day one.
When young Scopes decided to open up the issue of evolution in his Biology class, he was immediately arrested. This led to the famous Scopes "monkey" trial, and an explosive and highly-emotional confrontation between Clarence Darrow (for the defense) and the three-time candidate for the Presidency of the United States, William Jennings Bryan, as prosecuting attorney. Bryan and the state won the first round of the trial and Scopes was fined $100, but the verdict was overturned on appeal to a higher level of court. Unfortunately, in the heat of a Tennessee summer and the emotional trial, prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan died just five days after the verdict.
Although the final appeal resolved the immediate issue, allowing teachers to affirm and teach scientific evolution, the controversy remains hot and heavy to this day. Schoolbooks in one small rural southern county were pulled recently because they taught only creationism; and just two weeks ago, the Tennessee Legislature narrowly defeated a bill which would have required only the creationist side to be taught in state schools.
Last week, while I was driving to my seminary meeting in Berkeley, I spotted a bumper sticker in the classic shape of the Christian fish with the word DARWIN in place of JESUS...the other side will have its say as well.
And so, the confusion and conflict continue for some of us--Creation or Evolution--which is right, which should be taught to our children? Can we resolve or harmonize the two differing accounts of the beginning of life?
Well, to begin with, one cannot, and indeed probably should not, attempt to harmonize the cosmogony of Genesis with the teachings of scientific evolution, astronomy and geology. There is no way and no need to reconcile the two. They tell the same story but in two radically different ways.
The Biblical creation account was never meant to be an historic, scientific, or even chronological account of creation. It is a poetic and spiritual account of God's presence in and dominance over this world. It informs us of the basic relationship between God and humans. It tells us that there exists a Divine Will in this world, greater than us, and we are dependent upon it and therefore this world is a moral world.
Creation also affirms a truth, which evolution supports, that humans are preeminent in creation. We were the fitting climax of God's creation after all the world was created and prepared for us. We were created in "the image of God," and given dominion over all creatures. This affirms something we have always known and always struggled with--that there is a difference between humans and all the other creatures of God's creation.
And along with that difference comes an enormous responsibility to the world God created and to the God who created the world. We are the link which binds God in His heaven and all creation on the earth, because God left a little bit of Himself in each one of us--His image. And so we must live as He wished us to live in His creation.
These wonderful theological truths about life are the basis of the creation story. The second story, the one we call evolution, exists alongside this creation story and tells us other truths about God's world. God has given us enormous brain power and creative energy and I suspect He is very pleased and probably applauds us when we figure out how the step-by-step nature of His creation was put together and evolved into what it is now.
We can hold up and accept the truths of scientific inquiry (and remember they are never completely perfect--they evolve as we learn more and more) and still hold on to all the basic theological truths of God's creation story. As I have said many times, don't get caught up into an either-or argument about most anything in life.
As the Scopes trial made so clear, when we get caught with either it's this way or it's that way, we get terribly bound up in defending our choice and miss the truth. Better to remember that most of our world is built around both-and choices. Yes, it can be both this way and it can be that way. That's certainly the way it is for creation. It is both God's story of creation, telling its truth; and science's story of evolution, telling its truth. One without the other is only half a truth.
I want to close with a very important point...implicit in the scientific story of evolution, but overtly evident in the Biblical account: This world of ours was created for GOOD. If you pay close attention to the story of creation, you will hear God's comment at the end of each day: "And God said Let there be light, and God saw that it was Good." And so it is for each day of creation. Six times, at the end of each day, "and God saw that it was good." And then to cap it all off, at the end of the story, God sits down to rest, looks about His creation, and...
"God saw everything that He had made and behold: It was very good." Amen.
* I thought you might enjoy a lovely symbolic description of the six days of creation. On days one, two and three, God created the basic world. On days four, five and six God decorated His world:
Creates Decorates
Day 1...Light and dark Day 4...Sun, moon, stars
Day 2...Air, water Day 5...Birds, flying things
Day 3...Dry land, vegetation Day 6...Animals, humans
Day 7...All is blessed and hallowed
P.S. The book that John Scopes used to teach his Biology class was written by George W. Hunter, father of our own parishioner, Spike Hunter. Amen.
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