Creationism + Evolutionism = Compatible

Are Darwinian and spiritual approaches to nature compatible? I believe that they are. I explained my personal beliefs in my last post. I think that the Bible can be interpreted loosely in some senses, this debate being one of them.

God did not write the Bible. In the hundreds and hundreds of years that passed between the events depicted in the Bible and their compilation at the Council of Nicaea, things could very well been distorted or embellished along the way. But the thing about the Bible is not its specifics. To me, the Bible is about the general message. Does anyone pay attention to the specific, ancient laws (besides for ultra-Orthodox or Hasidic people)? Or do they take away from the Bible the themes of love and harmony? The book is about its message, not about its individual lines. Religious people do not need to cast off evolutionism in fear. There is no reason for dinosaur tracks or fish bones to inspire “sadness [to lay] over the heart of man” (Bump 229). So therefore I accept the Bible’s inaccuracies in the creationism debate. But unlike some of my peers, I do not believe that the spirituality and evolution are completely separate. By believing in God, does that mean I cast out everything I learned about dinosaurs as a kid? No. I am not an idiot; I understand the evidence evolutionists provide for their theory. I understand that people existed long before the date of 4004 B.C. that the Bible implies. Clearly, I see that “the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes” (Bump 238). But I will not cast out my God. Therefore I see it unfit and impossible to completely differentiate this debate into two separate camps.

When I went home last week for spring break, I saw the movie 300 on opening night. I thought it was fantastic, and I was wildly impressed by the live-action fighting sequences. But those scenes made me think later. What happens to a man when he is approached from behind and beheaded without ever suspecting a thing? I refuse to think that nothing does. I will always believe in some spiritual presence, no matter what. And though the specifics of the origins of his earth are uncertain, I find it hard to imagine that God, or whatever omnipotent being exists, would not have a certain say in its creation. As our theories progress from "the old to the new" (Bump 257), our ways of thinking about evolution will change, but the basic tenets of faith remain.