Because I first came to the realization of God by a study in scientific realities, and later came to believe in The Judean concept of God and finally accepted Christ, I found the article in the latest issue of Christianity Today(May 2009), Augustine’s Origin of Species by Alister McGrath very interesting. While I am not a Theologian nor a Scientist, I came to the very same concussions that Augustine reached. But I came to them from logic rather than the Bible.
Because of the Augustine approach to science and the Biblical account of creation, it is easier to accept that they can and in fact agree rather than contend with each other. It is all in how you perceive it. I have always held that if God explained creation as it really takes place, man in the days of Moses could not comprehend it and therefore would reject it. It is impossible to grasp the mind of God, so He must convey to us the knowledge of His Power and Might in the ways that we can comprehend.
As it was once believed that the world was flat, and the Sun revolved around the Earth, we now know that that is error. If we are to believe that the light from the distant stars take billions of years to reach us, we can not accept that the Universe is only a few thousands years old. If we confine our understanding to a narrow and inflexible interpretation, science will defeat Truth. If Truth can be supported by science and physical evidence, it can never be disclaimed. If we hold to myths, blind philosophy and rigid and misconceived notions, we will doom our beliefs to equal those of the dead Romans, Greeks and the Stone Age peoples of the darkest corners of the World.
I have come to believe that God is Wiser than to demand that we limit our understanding to those of six thousand years ago. We can still imbrace the Truth of the Bible as did Augustine and Thomas Aquinas while accepting that as our knowledge grows so must our Faith that God is and always was in Control.
The great lie of science is not that the world and the universe took eons to be created but that it was an accident and/or chaotic. The reality is that it was created with purpose and order by a designing God and that we are a part if not the whole of the purpose. With acceptance that the Universe was created allows that we may not be unique as we would like to think. There may be other life forms somewhere in the vast expanse of space. What intrigues me is maybe one of them never fell as did man from grace. Now wouldn’t that be be something?
