They ARE Compatible.

 

As a child, I was taught the creation story in Sunday School. On the first day, God created light and “evening came and morning came” (Genesis 1:5), and so on and so on. Then in middle school when the facts and evidence for evolution began to be laid out by my teacher, I was puzzled. Can both these things co-exist or must I be forced to choose? What could I turn my back on? My religion and faith or scientific fact? My dad, who has a Ph.D in these things, said that there is much debate over Revelations and Genesis. He told me that everything that is written in the Bible is not always literal but metaphorical. What we know as the “first day” (Genesis 1:5) was not a standard 24 hour time period. It was a period of time much longer – a period of time over which many changes could have taken place.

 

1 God created Night and Day

 

“In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Bible is the word of God written by man. These men were divinely inspired by the ultimate Creator. As Mauro pointed out, how can the Bible have any claim, any weight, when if this is true? Well, how can any work such are the Koran or Buddist writings have any weight? They were all written by divinely inspired men who saw visions from God. Many may choose to argue that there is no God, that God does not exist. But I know there is. In this world of hate and evil, there is love and hope. There is kindness and compassion, altruism and forgiveness. There is beauty and power in diversity. Looking at this world around us, how can you say that there is not some divine Being that keeps this world from destroying itself?

 

2 How can these exist without a loving Divine Being?

 

“Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created” (Darwin in Bump, 238).  And I myself seem to think that everything would be easier, everything would make more sense. “In my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator” (Darwin in Bump, 238). But in reality, this incredibly amazing mechanism for diversity exists. The one part of evolution that I have trouble wrapring my head around is the part where man comes in. At times, I find it hard to believe that “at last arose the man” out of “seeming-random forms” (Tennyson in Bump, 253). “God created man in the image of himself” (Genesis1:27) so how can man EVOLVE? I haven’t quite figured that one out yet. But there are two things that I do know: 1. God created this world and all of the beautiful splendor that fills it and 2. evolution occurs. For me, these two points must be compatible or else I will be forced to choose between two things that I feel both strongly exist. They fit, somehow, someway. Maybe not perfectly like two pieces of a puzzle, but they fit.