Genesis

During the Republican debate of the 2008 presidential election, the panel was asked to raise hands signifying the rejection of the theory of evolution and the full acceptance of creationism as the origin of this wide wild world of ours. 4 candidates raised their hands. FOUR! One of them has become the most powerful political person in the state of Kansas, a state that's already got an abysmal record in supporting science, despite all those fossils and glacial plains and so on and so forth. Let's be clear-these folks were running for the, at least at the time until China decides to call in their debtors, most powerful person in the world prize! Adults, who I suppose care very much about the future of their children, are fighting tooth and nail to get creationism taught as an equal alternative to evolution...not in a religious theory class or history or myths, but in SCIENCE. The only thing that's going to accomplish is the raising of an entire generation of people who are a least a little bit stupid. (And, yes, if you're a functioning adult human being and a full-fledged, six-day, Adam named all the animals creationist, I think you're, at least a little bit, stupid.)

ENOUGH! 6, 24 hour periods, 4,000 years ago? Seriously? Unless you've been living under a rock-well, actually, rocks are millions of years old, so...-if you've been paying attention even at the full extent of our Twitter, ring tone attention spans, you HAVE to realize the world is more than the 6,000 years or whatever the creationist math works out to be. Can the president of the United States of America really not think dinosaurs are real? No.

Here are the problems:
Big bang and evolution are only "theories" outside the scientific community.
It's not just about the world: we are a world in a solar system in a galaxy in an infinitely expanding universe.
There are trees older than the biblical age of the world.
There are TWO accounts of the creation of humankind and they are VERY different!
Have I mentioned dinosaurs?
This year we mapped the genome of a 35,000 year old Neanderthal bone. Adam says, "What the hell's a genome?"
Oh, beeteedub, who wrote it down?

And finally, where would we be without The Flintstones, the Land Before Time movies, the B.C. comic strip, the Geico cavemen, Jurassic Park or that Saturday morning show Dinosaurs?!

I hope that you have come to a place secure enough in your faith to understand that a rejection of creationism is not a denial of the existentially creative power of God.

So, what do we do? What does a rational person of faith do with the story of creation from Genesis?

I chose Genesis as my...uh...genesis because it seems to be the easiest way to start a conversation toward a rational faith. This marks the thrust of all the arguments to come: rejecting the statements of the Bible as scientific fact does not diminish the power of the Bible as mythical truth. To continue, the gentle reader will need to understand that I believe in the difference between truth and fact.

God created the heavens and the earth. Truth. God created the heavens and the earth in six, 24-hour days. Not fact.

It is the very complexities and intricacies of our universe that simultaneously prove to me 1. Creationism is a myth and 2. A divine Creative Being is the source of all we know and all we have yet to discover. There is simply no way that a world, a universe, a human body, a human mind, an animal kingdom as diverse, as beautiful, as creative as ours happened at random. But there's no way it happened in six days, either.
A possible translation of the well-known first lines of the Bible is, "In the beginning, when God BEGAN creating the heavens and the earth." God's creative powers are eternal, from the beginning to the end; God created, is creating and will create. The myth of Creation tells the story of God's creative power. That's the point, God's creative power. It's not science, it's faith, and no, KANSAS, it should not be taught in school.

At the end of each figurative, metaphorical day, the recorder of Genesis tells us that the Almighty Creator looked (looks?) upon the creation and saw that it was good. And it is. VERY good. The mountains, the oceans, the rivers, the fish, the birds, the animals (especially dogs) and the humans (especially women). It is all very good, my friends. The science, the genomes, the universe, the black holes, the atoms, the dinosaurs (did you know triceratops is just the baby version of another dinosaur? Like Pluto's not a planet!). It is all very good. And it all, from the first fish to climb out of the ooze to catch some fresh air to the next evolutionary step-quite clearly Justin Beiber-WAS CREATED BY GOD.

The Creation story of Genesis is a mythical account of the creative power of the Almighty and the goodness of creation in the eyes of the Creator. Denying evolution doesn't make you more faithful; it makes you blindly-faithful. Look around. It is very good.

Brad

Out of Control

A Christian fundamentalist, who runs a camp to "cure" homosexuality, sends "missionaries" to Uganda to help that country get a death penalty for being gay. The governor of Kansas rejects the theory of evolution and, with it, DINOSAURS. Everything that comes out of Pat Robertson's mouth but, most recently, the earthquake that sent Haiti into a downward spiral of crises was God's punishment for the Haitian people's deal with the devil. The United Methodist Church passes, by only 50 votes beeteedub, the statement that "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching."

When the Christian right doesn't speak out against the above, it's sad. When the Christian left doesn't, it's dangerous. A recent NPR story purported the death of the liberal movement. Death is a strong word. I'd say...failure. The liberal voice is failing. Some don't speak because they don't want to lose their jobs. Well, I've already lost mine and don't want it back. Others don't speak out of a commitment to "can't we all just get along" so deep that they consider as absolutely anathema ever uttering the words, "You're wrong." I've never been one to mince words.

And so, I launch Toward a Rational Faith. Selfishly, I need to return to the world of...um...what is it...thinking! And I decided to use my current journey of theological thought as far as it can go. What is my current journey of theological thought, I hear you ask? Well, here it is: Biblical literalism and fundamentalism has gotten out of control and there has to be a space between the world of blind faith and rational thought. This passe, soooo 2005 blog will explore that space.

Ground rules: I'm a social liberal, and all posts will come from that perspective. However, you would be surprised at how fiscally and politically conservative I am. Rational arguments against my points will be accepted, insults will not. I am arrogant, every blogger is a little bit, and opinionated. I believe my opinions are the right ones, otherwise they wouldn't be my opinions. Anyone can comment, but I'm going through the trouble of carefully editing the upcoming essays so as to keep the offense to a minimum. I ask that you do the same. Oh, one more, on this blog "'cause the Bible says so" does not count as a rational argument.

Coming up: creationism, providence, innovative theology, family values, socialism, homosexuality, "personal" Savior, grace, music.

Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and MIND.

Brad