Posted by blue on July 28, 1998 at 23:11:37:
In Reply to: How Much is "Most"? posted by MaryEllen on July 28, 1998 at 11:19:01:
: Blue,
: When you say you believe in most of the theory of evolution what do you mean? Do you believe in Adam and Eve?
: ME
I believe in microevolution, so I guess that's half of evolution right there. "Survival of the fittest" applies day in, day out.
I have no problem with the idea that plant and animal life evolved over a long period of time. So I guess I believe macroevolution to the extent that it doesn't seem to conflict with the Bible unless you insist on "days" in Genesis 1 being 24 hour periods, which doesn't seem sensible to me in that the sun wasn't even around to mark time.
I suspect that in Genesis 1 God is talking in the same sense that He does in the prophets when he says something like "unto you a child is born" and the child isn't born for 600 years. We call that the "prophetic future tense" in that God sees it as being done, in that he has decreed it will happen and therefore it definitely will happen, but the time hasn't yet arrived. I suspect Genesis 1 shows us God's purpose and plan in creation, not necessarily the way it was done.
But again, I wasn't there. God may have created the universe 6,000 years ago to look like it was billions of years old from our perspective. But it seems even more miraculous to think He started the motion of creation eons ago. The point in Genesis is that man is the purpose of creation, not a result. To me the 7 days reveal more of purpose than of chronology.
I believe in a literal Adam and Eve from which we are all descended. But I don't think we can expect to understand exactly HOW God created them by reading the Bible. It may have been instantaneous, it may not. I know that before them no living creature had a soul or was responsible for its behavior.
We also gain a lot of insight into the creation story when we juxtapose Genesis 1 with John 1 and see that from the beginning the Gospel was part of creation. The purpose of the whole exercise becomes clearer in that context.
Cheers,
blue
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