This is reposted (with permission) from another list). I thought it had a
bearing on some conversations we have had lately.
Susan
-----------------
In a message dated 9/29/00 9:16:26 PM Central Daylight Time,
jdglaw@excite.com writes:
<<
| Richard wrote:
| Maybe some really have. But
| | my experience has been that most accept everything without question.
| This
| | one is for Jonathon. Have you put evolution to the same rigorous
testing
| you
| | put the Resurrection of Christ? I suspect that maybe you have but
you
| would
| | be the exception.
|
|
|
|
|
| Jonathan - I cannot speak for others. But I certainly tried to explain
away
| evolution until a few years ago.
|
|
| >>
|
| Richard:
| Were you a YEC until then? How long did it take you to change and how
did it
| affect your faith?
To be honest, my shift was transitional. I having to try and remember the
transitions and their approximate times.
As a kid and young teen I went to church and believed in Jesus as the
Christ. I had a little more interest in science than the normal kid, but not
so much that I thought about evolution (which I don't remember being covered
in my high school biology class) and its relationship to my faith. I did
have a strong testimony that Jesus was the Christ. I kept this testimony as
I entered college, although i have never been one of the kind that talked
about Jesus all the time and worried if otheres were "saved" or not. My
faith was always very personal and private - but I always attended church.
As I entered college I decided I wanted to teach high school science. I
began to take the requisite science courses. Actually, my freshman zoology
and botany courses skimmed over evolution with what I see now was alarming
brevity. At the time though I was more interested in the complexity of the
cell and biochemistry. I was amazed at the complexity of life and always in
my mind attributed it to God. My junior year I actually had a couple of
friendly debates over lunches with a graduate student who assisted the
professor with biochemistry. I was convinced life was to complex to have
evolved to where it was.
I remember the first change was in the middle of my genetics semester. I saw
that microevolution (as I call it now) indeed was a reality. Of course, this
was no problem. This wasn't changing one kind of organism into another. I
did not recognize this as a transition at the time. In hindsight, it still
was no big deal. I was still a firm believer.
I always sort of felt like the flood in some way (pressure or something)
accounted for the age dates scientists got of the earth. I assumed the
biblical flood really happened. But I wouldn't have been shocked if the
earth were older than 6000 years. But it couldn't be 4 - 5 billion years
old. I was never a creationist in the sense that I studied the genesis
account in detail and tried to harmonize it with science. Where science and
the Bible clashed I just assumed science would eventually get it right. I
could also see some allegory in the Bible. But there was definitely an Adam
and Eve. And Jesus was the Christ.
I graduated with a degree in political science (long story) and 3 classes
short of a second degree in biology. I lacked a plant taxonomy and a plant
morphology class (I still hate plant biology!:), and guess
what....evolution. I didn't skip the evolution class because I didn't
believe in it. I simply had changed majors and didn't need it. I had a
degree in pol science and two minors - biology and education.
As I entered the teaching profession I got a job as a biology/physical
science teacher. I was still a believer. I was married and had 4 children (2
from my wifes first marriage). We were avid church goers and believers.
I taught the first two years of biology and skimmed evolution when I got to
the chapters on it. I told the kids I had problems with it but they needed
to know the vocabulary because of a state end-of-course test. But that is
where the real transition began. I started thinking about the simple
examples of homolgy in high school texts - usually something like a human
arm, bird's wing, whale flipper and lizard limb. It was decent evidence. The
simple examples of vestigial structures were also kind of convincing
evidence that species can change in dramatic ways - the high school books
generally have something like the whale pelvis and rudimentary snake limbs
as examples. I did wonder where Lucy fit into the picture. She was
definitely an ape with some dramatic human characteristics - namely
bipedalism. This stuff got me to thinking, but I was so busy in life I
really did not ponder it all the time. By this time I had entered law
school.
Evnetually I started to look at college texts and study evolution. There
were more examples. I could "see" the genetics. I, quite literally, one day
(I don't know the day) finally said "Face the facts dummy, evolution is to
well documented to be a myth. Just look at all the evidence." It was such an
eye opening experience that I have never stuck my heead in the sand on an
issue since.
How did it efffct my faith? At first I tried to think of evolution as the
way God did it. This forced me to look at genesis as pure allegory, but I
still believed Israel was God chosen people. I could still fit Jesus as the
Christ into my mental schemata. I also did not bother my wife with all this
for about a year.
Then I got into a Bible study group. I really studied the Bible objectively
for the first time. I was a pain in the butt to most of the rest of the
group. I would bring in the documentry hypothesis and the others would say
"we are here to get the spiritual message, not debate who wrote the Bible".
They just assumed the Bible was written by who it said wrote it. I didn't
assume anything anymore. It was amazing to me how looking at the Bible
objectively plainly reveals it as a wondefully biased history book (OT) and
a mythologized account of a man that walked the earth 2000 years ago (NT). I
no longer had to make excuses for god commanding the slaughter of women and
children or god subjecting women to men. It was no longer a mystery to me
why the god of the OT was so differnet in nature than Jesus (but they were
the same?). I simply saw that they weren't the same people. Convoluted
stories ended and real unbiased study began.
In short, when I quit assuming things and actually studied them objectively
I found the God I was raised with wasn't God at all. At first my wife was
upset when I began to talk about my feelings. She would listen however, and
over time admitted I had some good points. There were a lot of problems with
the Bible. They just get glossed over in Sunday school. She still doesn't
really understand evolution. But she doesn't beleive Jesus is the Christ
anymore. However, we still attend church every sunday for the kids. We enjoy
the fellowship too.
I think there may be a God. Indeed, I hope there is. But I'm sure it is not
Jesus or the hebrew god. The Bible is simply the hebrew attempt to explain
god. Beautiful book. Lots of good lessons. Not divine. Evolution happens.
Get used to it. My head will never enter the sand again.
(I'm not saying worship of god in a Christian church is stupid. Maybe god
accepts the worship of everyone, however they do it - islam, mormon, etc. I
don't know.)
I have some peace now. I try to live a good life and teach my children to.
At first my situation was sort of lonely feeling. I guess this is normal
when an emotional rug is ripped out from under you. But I find peace in not
beleiving a myth anymore. If there is a God, I hope he smiles on me (If
there is a God, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at all the
folks he "smiles on"). If there is not, nothing I do or hope will change it.
Jonathan Griffin
jdglaw@excite.com
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