Creation Cycle 1 - Planet Earth
“In the beginning, when
God created the heavens and earth. . .”; so begins one ancient story of the
beginning of things. “In the beginning
was the big bang”; so begins Anglican priest and physicist John Polkinghorne’s
story of the ancient beginning of things.(1) Both stories are
true.
Biblical accounts of
creation have become a bit of an embarrassment for Christians, especially when we
are asked to defend our beliefs to non-believers or skeptics – to friends,
co-workers, and even family members. This
morning we’ve heard two such biblical accounts of creation – the first from
Genesis and the second in the poetic prologue to John’s Gospel. But, there are others: there is, the second story in Genesis – the
one which includes stories about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there is a
brilliant exposition of God’s great acts of creating in the book of Job, and
yet another in the book of Proverbs which sets Lady Wisdom at God’s side as
co-Creator.(2)
Beautiful as these many
stories are, filled as they are with rich imagery of a loving and creative God,
these same stories have frequently taken center stage in public debates of
creation or intelligent design vs. evolution.
These often very public debates and the related Christian embarrassment
has been ongoing since at least the 18th century when Carl Linnaeus realized
that the animal kingdom appeared to be a family tree and developed the system
of kingdom, phylum, class, and so on down to species to classify animals by
shared characteristics. The debate heightened with the work of Charles Darwin
and the 1859 publication of his Origin of
the Species which led to the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial’ after the State of
Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. More recent still have been attempts to force
public schools to give equal time to the theory of evolution and so-called
“Creation Science” and current efforts to seek inclusion of Intelligent or
Divine Design in science curriculums or to mandate disclaimers as to the
factual nature of the theory of evolution.(3)
I will leave it to the
lawyers to expound upon the ways in which teaching intelligent design in our
schools does or does not violate the establishment clause of the first
amendment which mandates government neutrality between religion and religion
and between religion and non-religion.(4) But what I do want to address is how we might faithfully
respond to those who think we are slightly off in our thinking as Christians.
For starters, I find it
helpful to know where our denomination stands on this issue. When others ask me about my views on
creation, I find it reassuring to be able to stand on the shoulders of
Episcopal men and women throughout our country who have been studying and
responding to these questions for some time. Two pieces of legislation which
have come out of our church’s General Conventions in the past 30 – 35 years
include:
- Resolution D-090 passed in 1980 which “Resolved… [that we] affirm [our] belief in the glorious ability of God to create in any manner, and [that we] … reject the rigid dogmatism of the ‘Creationist’ movement.”
- And Resolution A-129 passed in 2006 which “Resolved … that God is Creator, in accordance with the witness of Scripture and the ancient Creeds of the Church; and … further Resolved, That the theory of evolution provides a fruitful and unifying scientific explanation for the emergence of life on earth, that many theological interpretations of origins can readily embrace an evolutionary outlook, and that an acceptance of evolution is entirely compatible with an authentic and living Christian faith; and … further Resolved, That Episcopalians strongly encourage state legislatures and state and local boards of education to establish standards for science education based on the best available scientific knowledge as accepted by a consensus of the scientific community; and …Resolved, That Episcopal dioceses and congregations seek the assistance of scientists and science educators in understanding what constitutes reliable scientific knowledge.”
So, this is our
denomination’s official position: we say yes to evolution AND we say yes to God
as Creator. We say yes to Scripture and
we say yes to our scientists. Could it
be that those who would malign Episcopalians as “wishy-washy, fence-sitters”
are on to something? I don’t think so. And here’s why.
A couple of years ago, I
had the opportunity to hear United Church of Christ minister, Michael Dowd,
teach his “Gospel of Evolution” – yes, gospel of evolution. Dowd suggests that
there are two types of language: day
language and night language. The
first “describes the realm of what’s so: the facts, the objectively real, that
which is publicly and measurably true. Night language evokes the realm of
meaning in inspiring ways . . . by way of metaphor, poetry, and vibrant
images.”(5)
Day language is the
language science, the language of evolution, a language of truth. Night language is the language of dreams, of
rich imagination, a language of truth. When
we look to texts like this morning’s creation stories and expect them to answer
scientific questions – or worse – to assume that they are, in fact, scientific,
we have misclassified the stories and have rendered them all but meaningless.
Harold Schulweis, in a passage from his wonderfully insightful book, For Those Who Can’t Believe: Overcoming the
Obstacles of Faith, reflects on the first Genesis account of creation and
writes:
“The Bible is not
geology. The Bible is concerned with the spiritual implications of an event,
not with its physical cause and effect. . . . There is hardly a verse in the
Bible taken verbatim that is exempt from embarrassment. Take the statement:
‘And God said, ‘Let there be light.’’ If God speaks, does it mean that God has
a larynx? In what language or dialect does He speak? Did He speak these words
before the creation of the universe took place? How could light have been
created before the fourth day when the sun and moon and stars in the firmament
of the heaven were created? Blinded by the literal text, the symbolic meaning
of light and of the spoken word is invisible.”(6)
Getting caught up in
debates that pit creation against evolution runs the risk of our missing some
of the beautiful truths of the Night Language of our Scripture. Spending our time debating whether creation or
evolution are true, might cause us to miss the scriptural truth of the
intrinsic goodness, of all that is – the biotic and abiotic aspects of the
world in which we live. The light, the
Earth and the Seas, all sorts of vegetation, the sun and the moon, living
creatures – sea monsters, fish, birds, cattle and creeping things, and wild
animals of every kind - “And God saw that it was good.” God declares the goodness of creation – the
value of creation – and invites us to share in that delight. We humans have a tendency to bias our value
of things based on their relative benefit to us. But, this is not God’s way. Writing in the 4th century, John
Chrysostom said:
Among the growth
springing up from the earth it was not only plants that are useful but also
those that are harmful, and not only trees that bear fruit but also those that
bear none; and not only tame animals but also wild and unruly ones. Among the
creatures emerging from the waters it was not only fish but also sea monsters
and other fierce creatures . . . Among the creatures produced from the earth it
was not only tame animals but also snakes, vipers, serpents, lions, and leopards.
In the sky it was not only showers and kindly breezes but also hail and snow.”(7)
All of this, God declares to be good.
And, if you and I can hold on to this truth – to the goodness of
creation – and hold it along side the truths of science – then maybe, just
maybe we can begin to create inroads to addressing some of the harsher realities
of the day language world in which we live: issues like “global climate change,
scarcity of fresh water, threats to biodiversity, degradation of the world’s
oceans, unsustainable agricultural practices, and deforestation” – issues that
threaten the very viability of life, the sustainability of life, on our planet.(8) Once we reorient ourselves to God by valuing
the earth as God values the earth, might we be more apt to recognize our
responsibility and our role as earth’s stewards?
According to systematic theologian and ethicist, Jame Schaefer of Marquette
University, the answer is a resounding, “YES!”
Schaefer suggests such a reorientation toward God, toward caring for our
planet, can lead us to recognize some of the “functional, historical, and
evolutionary limits to the physical world” and God’s abundant grace can give us
the ability and the willingness to make changes in our lifestyles that are
“compatible with those limits.”(9) Such a reorientation toward God and toward
our planet, can help us to see ourselves “as citizens of” our world “rather
than conquerors of [it].”(10)
As faithful followers of Christ, we can say yes to evolution AND we can say yes to God as Creator. We can appreciate the complexities of our
language and acknowledge that the language of the day – the language of science
– AND the language of the night – the language of creation can, in fact, inform
one another.
“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts.
by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts.
He gathers up the waters of the ocean as in a water-skin
and stores up the depths of the sea.
and stores up the depths of the sea.
YES!
“In the beginning was the big bang!”
YES!
[1]
John Polkinghorne, One World: The Interaction of Science and Theology (London: SPCK,
1986), 56 in Sallie McFague, The Body of
God: An Ecological Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 43-44.
[2]
Cf. Job 38-39; Proverbs 3:19-20; 8:22-31; 14:31; 16:11; 17:5; 20:12;
22:2; 29:13; 30:2-4.
[3] American Civil Liberties Union of Utah
Foundation, Inc. “The Teaching of Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Divine
Design in Public Schools,” (January 2006) accessed online at http://www.acluutah.org/ on September 8, 2012.
[4] For one who will take up this argument,
see Anne Marie Lofaso, “White Paper: The Constitutional Debate over Teaching
Intelligent Design as Science in Public Schools,” (American Constitution
Society for Law and Policy, December 2005) accessed online at http://www.acslaw.org on September 8, 2012.
[5]
Michael Dowd, “A Story Big Enough to Hold Us All,” in The Whole World Kin: Darwin and the Spirit
of Liberal Religion, ed. Fredric Muir, (Boston: Skinner House Books, 2010),
19.
[6]
Harold M. Schulweis, For Those Who Can’t Believe: Overcoming
the Obstacles to Faith, (New York, Harper: 1994), 66.
[7]
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 1-17, Homily 10, translated by
Robert C. Hill, Fathers of the Church 74 (Washington, DC: Catholic University
of America Press, 1986).
[8]
“Valuing the Goodness of the Earth: Lesson Plan,” Study Guides for Caring for Creation, (Waco, TX: Center for
Christian Ethics, Baylor University, 2012), 13.
[9]
Jame Schaefer, “Valuing the Goodness of the Earth,” Caring for Creation (Waco, TX: Center for Christian Ethics, Bayor
University, 2012), 17.
[10]
Ibid., 18.
[11]
Psalm 33:6-7, 9
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