Right now I’m wrestling through
the old-earth vs. young-earth debate, and I’ll be honest, it’s so much more
difficult to go through than I had expected. I didn’t expect to find an easy
answer, so that didn’t catch me off guard me too much, but I’ve been surprised by
something else. I expected the debates to be less attacking.
After spending a couple months
researching the intelligent design theory vs. materialism I’m pretty familiar
with reading papers that sound very angry. People get really upset when you
question their foundational beliefs, and if you’re not a Christian, you don’t
really have a reason not to get mad and just say degrading things about the “bad
guys.”
I was actually excited to move
onto this new debate because both sides are Christians, so the two sides
actually love each other. The two sides agree on a lot of things and spend a
lot of time together. IN FACT, call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that the
bible doesn’t say you need to have the correct answer on the topic in order to
get to heaven. We’re all going to the same place, so this debate isn’t actually
too vital. I expected a lot less anger.
I was way off on that.
It could just be that I was caught
off guard, so it seems so huge, but I’m actually finding more anger, more
emotion, more attacks than I had between the atheists and Christians. That is not how it’s supposed to work.
I’m not innocent in this area, not
even close, and I know that God’s grace is huge enough for even this, but I just can’t
believe that we as Christians would be such jerks. I know that I’m talking
about this a lot lately, but it really comes back to Ecclesiates. This too is
meaningless. There isn’t a science test to get into heaven, so everyone just
calm down. I do think that it’s something that needs to be thought about, especially
by those working in (or planning to work in) academia, but it’s not a life or death situation.
Opinions then that are
opposed to mine do not offend or estrange me; they only arouse and exercise my
mind.
-Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Good article, Robyn.
ReplyDelete"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Jn 13:35 (N.I.V.)
There is no "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have the proper answers, etc." Our distinction is based on our love for "one another".
I just want to offer one thing. The reason the old vs. young earth debate happens is that in order for biological evolution to have the necessary time the earth needs to be really old.
If the earth is young, there is no chance for it.
Also; when you said "I know that I’m talking about this a lot lately, but it really comes back to Ephesians. This too is meaningless."
Did you mean Ecclesiastes?
Good read, and thanks for sharing.
Thanks Mark
ReplyDeleteYah, I did mean Ecclesiates, thanks for mentioning it! Fixed.
The reason I'm engaging in the old vs. young earth debate is actually because of the results of different dating methods (carbon, uranium, tree ring, etc.)of a much older Earth than the typically claimed 6000yrs by many Christians. I still don't really know where I stand yet, so I won't be writing anything about it for a while yet. It's tough stuff.