Saturday, January 02, 2010

Creation and Evolution: Potato, potatoe?


A sticking point in the minds of many when they try to work through Christianity and come to believe it (which is, to put full confidence in Jesus) is the issue of science. Contrary to most of the history of thought, there is today an air of mistrust and uneasiness between science and religion.
The thought--on both sides--seems to be that the two are incompatible. And the rift seems to be growing. It seems that if you believe in religion, you must necessarily not believe in science--and vice versa.

For instance, in Genesis 2, Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Is a thinking person to believe there was a tree (maybe with a plaque nailed to it naming it thusly?) that Adam and Eve ate from and this single act of rebellion is what plunged humanity and creation itself into darkness? Or does the text point to deeper realities?

Tim Keller, one of my pastoral heroes, has a great take on it here. I asked the question on Facebook about the meaning of this tree and got some interesting responses (see the comments). Join the conversation.