[written 2005 & 2008] I believe that God created man in his own image, and that the first man was Adam. However, it is still a mystery in trying to reconcile Genesis with scientific finds about ancient man. According to actual unearthing of early human beings, the first appeared seven million years ago in Africa. Eden could have been in what is now Africa so that is not a sticking point. According to an article in National Geographic Magazine: “Africa remained the only continent our ancestors inhabited until about two million years ago. Then Homo erectus expanded out of Africa into Europe and Asia. Over the next 1.5 million years the population there became different and distinct species. Europe’s became Neanderthals, Asia’s remained Homo erectus, but Africa’s evolved into our own species, Homo sapiens. Some time between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago our African ancestors underwent some profound change and they became what Paleoanthropologists call “behaviorally modern” Homo sapiens.” Then the natural question might be, how “behaviorally modern” were Adam and Eve? We might automatically rate them with all the intelligence and skills that we have, but maybe they had less.
“The race among the world’s humans changed radically about 10,000 years ago with the origins of agriculture. The domestication of wild plants and animals meant our ancestors could grow their own food instead of having to hunt and gather in the wild.” In Genesis, there seems to be an incredibly long span not covered in the Bible between Adam and the history of the Hebrews. Most anything could have taken place during that long period. Was it millions of years?
Another mystery about our earth is the age of dinosaurs. These ranged in size from small like today’s rodents, to so huge that scientists wonder how they could even move. Dinosaurs existed at least 77 million years ago according to excavations, and were all over the world. Scientific evidence has established that the earth existed much earlier. Of course time means nothing to God, but this shows His infinite patience in waiting to create modern man.
Another mystery was how the great flood of Noah’s time came about. How could there be enough water to cover even the highest mountains? The Bible states that the waters came from the heavens and the earth. Scientists have now discovered that the inner earth may hold more water than is on the surface. “Molten rocks deep in the earth’s interior may be surprisingly wet”, Japanese researchers say. From lab experiments, “they have concluded there may be more H2O deep underground than in all oceans, lakes, and rivers combined.” Thus in many ways, science is discovering facts that support the Bible, but many things remain a mystery to our minds. Just because we don’t understand should not mean that our faith is based just on faith and not on hard facts. But if everyone had to have concrete indisputable evidence of the existence of God, only a few would be believers. Those who do believe have evidence continually about God, and about Jesus Christ. This comes to them through strong feelings, and to many by revelations, visions and actual verbal communication with God.
The mystery of the universe will continue, and no probing by man on earth or in outer space will reveal all the answers. We don’t need to be skeptical about science, nor do we need to be skeptical about teachings in the Bible. It is just that what our minds think we know is only a paltry portion of what took place in the history of our earth. We just know that God has been in control since “the beginning of time”, and we are told that there was never a beginning nor will there be an end. What do you think?
There is much discussion about the theory of evolution and the Christian belief of creativity. For the most part, this is a useless argument. The extremes seem to be:
I believe that neither are correct. I heard a radio broadcast by a prominent pastor that said that evolution had no part at all. He went as far as saying that the earth was only 6000 years old. That artifacts have been unearthed with a carbon-dating indicating millions of years of age was false. He said that recent findings about carbon-dating showed that it was based on an untrue supposition. Whether the earth is only a few thousand years old or millions of years does have a huge bearing on the evolution theory. If our planet is only a few thousand years old, there would not have been time for man to emerge from sea water as claimed by some evolutionists.
By studying the recent actual evolution on parts of our earth that are so remote that interbreeding of species has not happened does show what can occur in hundreds of years. Take New Guinea, an island that has sections only a few people have ever seen. The Birds of Paradise seem to have evolved from their crow ancestors to an eye-boggling variety of gorgeous birds. There, in absence of predators or any competing bird species, they were free to breed. By the power of sexual selection, the most beautiful male birds were able to attract females, while the dregs simply died out. This is natural selection more than evolution perhaps, but does demonstrate that a species can change with time, one definition of evolution.
In this and other remote areas, animals have developed characteristics that enable them to survive and thrive. Examples are the variety of bats in some parts of the tropical forests in Panama. Each distinct bat family has unique features and capabilities well suited for the role they play.
The reason that I am convinced that the argument between evolution and creativity has no relevance is that our all powerful God is able to use any and all natural processes for his creation, as well as using His supernatural powers. I don’t think that the teaching of evolution in schools is evil in itself. What matters are the conclusions drawn from evolution theory that could sway students to ignore God. If the teachers move students to conclude that evolution was the only factor in the creation of our planet, then God has been left out. At one time in my life I believed this and ignored God. I came out of this to realize that man himself and our earth are far too complex to have simply evolved from nothing.