Tuesday, February 10, 2015

If creation story is false, can Bible be true?

The Pope announced that evolution and the big bang are fact and that God is not a wizard.
I think it's pretty interesting I haven't seen much ado about it since the week the story broke in the news. Is that because Catholics in general had already conceded that the creation story was false?
Seriously? Did he even consider the implications of it? It negates biblical faith. Period.
If there is no first man to create original sin, then what is the whole story about? Why would God need to send his son to die for us if we are just the way he created us, through evolution, to be. It means God created us all bound for hell and it wasn't the result of Adam and Eve's disobedience.
That doesn't jive with the Biblical story at all. In fact it's completely opposite (with the exception of a few passages which say God created people for hell, deceived them or gave them bad laws.)
Luke 3:23-38 lists the genealogy from Jesus to God through Adam. Does the Pope consider that false as well?
It's not as if Adam and Eve are confined to the creation account. They are mentioned and referenced throughout the bible.
If other authors of the Bible believed their story to be true, could they possibly have been inspired by God?
This is exactly how I came to a position of unbelief.
Part of me thinks this could spur a division in the catholic church and even an exodus from the faith. This may open the eyes of many that while existence itself is an argument for god, it does not necessitate the God of the Bible.
I have my doubts about that happening though. So much can be justified through interpretation and faith that those that believe can make up the gaps themselves to fabricate a cohesive vision of a Bible that is still "God breathed."
That's why it's so hard to break the circular reasoning of the Bible verifying the Bible through the interpretation of the reader.
For me it took overwhelming evidence to break free of it. The creation story proving false, or at best a lie, started me down a path of discovery of truth, but it was only the beginning. As people become better informed, less will believe in the superstitions of past civilizations, because they will be knowledgeable enough. I could have known all this during high school if I hadn't believed the lies of prominent creationists at the time.
I have to applaud Pope Francis for recognizing truth, even if just partially, in spite of theology. I know how tough that battle is, trying to reconcile reality with faith. The two will always be at odds.
Our imaginations are capable of nearly anything. It brings us to such wondrous heights and such ugly depths. It is egregious by both definitions. 
The Bible and evolution in the end are not compatible, regardless of the theological gymnastics of the imaginative mind. So if one is true, the other is false.

Friday, February 6, 2015

I might be wrong!

I think we live in a wondrous time. We have the world's knowledge at our finger tips. The internet has become the new Alexandrian library and Google is an excellent librarian. Anything I can think of can be researched with a few clicks. In my view, education is free. I can learn anything.
Coming from faith, I have had many doubts from every side. Obviously I had doubts which lead me from faith through evidence, but even now I have doubts sometimes that I could be wrong.
When everything I believed turned out to be false, I have to admit that I could be wrong now.
I do not have the time, knowledge or equipment to test every discipline I have attempted to learn in order to have a better grasp on reality. That's why I look to information that has been confirmed by multiple sources, independently, by people who have the resources to do so. Many Christians would say I am trusting fallible men over an infallible book, or God, but what I am trusting is that the people doing this research would love to be the one that makes that crucial discovery that would change our understanding of the universe.
While I have more than sufficient evidence to discount the biblical story, I do not know the answers to how the universe began or how life started.
The truth is there are possibilities we have not yet dreamt of which could be the real answers to these questions. I read an interesting article recently that postulated entropy might have been the driving factor behind abiogenesis. The second law of thermodynamics may be the most commonly used argument against evolution by Christians. How ironic would it be if it was actually the driving force of abiogenesis?
This is not proven though. It's speculation and the possibilities are endless. It could have been the work of a god that started the universe and life, but this is just speculative. If there's anything I have learned on this journey through religious transition, it's to look to the evidence first and whatever the evidence doesn't explain, feel free to imagine whatever you like. If someone wants to believe the universe was brought into existence through the vomit of an epic fly, I couldn't refute it, but if I asked for evidence, they couldn't prove it. I would however congratulate them for their creative views.
I only have a problem with someone's beliefs when they use them as a weapon to impede the happiness of others.
It's more than okay to think you might be wrong. It's how we make discoveries when we thought we had it all figured out. If your desire is for reality, use the tools you have to find it.