As I continue to ask and answer these hard, hard questions, I feel more and more comfortable calling myself a Christian every day. Even though I’m not currently attending a church, I’m still attending church. I can even argue that I am the church, or at least an individual part of it according to Paul's writings and Christ's famous sermons. I’m studying the bible with the Internet’s help, and listening to podcasts and commentaries by those much smarter and more educated in this stuff than I’ll ever be. And, as I do so, I’m beginning to see God behind every corner and under every rock in life. I'm starting to see after being blind for so long.
I am simply in awe of God’s creation, as harsh and imperfect as it often seems. I often find myself in nature, studying the bark on the trees and the veins in leaves, tuning into the sounds of birds singing and wind rushing through the foliage, reaching down to dip my hands in the water and the sand, and gazing over glorious landscapes from high-up places, all while silently praising the Lord for it all. In recent months, I've even shed tears of awe as I've stood in the midst of His most beautiful creations, studying my surroundings with eyes that are very different from the ones I had before I finally confessed my faith. My heart still palpitates and chills still race up my spine and down my arms and legs, whenever I envision those glorious days I've spent in God's country.
Hurricane Ridge, Washington state, taken by me in 2020.
Ken Caryl Valley, Colorado, taken by me also in 2020.
Even at home, I'm usually immersed in nature. Animal pelts are nailed to my walls and draped across my floor and over my bed. Animal skulls and bones sit on shelves, alongside fossils, rocks and minerals, science books, theology books, bibles, some fictional stories, and memoirs, and of course, my extensive collection of model horses. Antlers serve as hat racks. Pinecones, rocks, feathers, arrowheads, knives, and sticks can be found in random places on my shelves, desk, and in boxes and drawers. I have a fake tree that lights up with cute little craft birds clipped to its branches. And, nearly every picture of me in family photo albums are taken in nature. I probably can tell you about every plant, fungus, and animal local to me, and even about many plants, fungi, and animals that live on different continents. I'm obsessed with the science of nature, just as much as I'm obsessed with learning about God and getting to know Him personally.
As I learn more and more about His creation through both science and theology, the more I’m enthralled by it. The Creator of all things has made some very magnificent things, my favorite being the things that God made to be creative themselves. You see, in Genesis, notice that God says, “Let the Earth bring fourth life.”, not, “God specifically planted every blade of grass, painted every feather on every bird, and handmade every rock and mountain.”
When I noticed that, I couldn’t help but think about video games such as Minecraft. The creator of Minecraft doesn’t place every block that makes up every world. He programmed Minecraft to randomly generate worlds, so each time someone presses “Create World”, a brand new, never-before-seen world generates itself into existence. In other words, the creator of Minecraft didn’t spend time literally hand-planting every tree, hand-sculpting every mountain, hand-building every village, and hand-spawning every animal in every world. He did design the blocks and creatures that populate Minecraft, but he doesn’t spend his days hand-creating worlds. If he did so, there wouldn’t be literally millions of unique worlds billions of blocks large in Minecraft like there are.
So, why do so many Christians believe God hand-makes everything in nature? If humans can create self-creating worlds in computers, can’t God create self-creating worlds too?
If you said, “Of course, God can create creative things!”, then congrats! You just discovered the bible affirms things like the theory of evolution and the ancient universe! I know what I just said probably ruffles many feathers, but it is true. Just bear with me. According to science, life, including human life, did evolve from non-life over billions of years (but we didn't come from a lifeless puddle. To assume so is very much wrong). According to the bible in its original language, culture, and context, God commanded the world to do so. Isn't that just epic?!
At least, that's how I see it. When I learn about evolution, the age of the universe, earth-like planets many lightyears away from us, micro-organisms, and other natural science, I don't see a bunch of anti-Christian scientists trying to make God obsolete. Instead, I see humans gradually figuring out how the Lord made the world. And, as we learn more and more about science and just how complex and connected everything is, my faith in God and my appreciation for His works continues to grow. I can't pick up a leaf without seeing God scribbled all over it, because that leaf's made up of billions of cells, and each cell contains a complex system of organelles, and each organelle is made up of a complex system of atoms, and each atom is insanely complex itself. Not to mention the tree that leaf came from, and how that tree came to exist in its current form. All of this is overwhelmingly amazing! At least, to me it is.
Back when the bible was written, humans weren't scientifically-minded and they really didn't care about literal origins of things. They just wanted to express that God made things based on how God made the world in their eyes. God didn't bother to come down and plant scientific truths into their brains because the bible was never meant to be a science book. The stories in Genesis are myths; scientifically inaccurate stories that are morally and intrinsically true. As I said before, stories can be true without being literally, scientifically true. A fictional story doesn't have to be literally true to express truths about the world. While the beginning of Genesis may not be scientifically accurate, it does accurately express the truths that God created everything and specifically chose humans to be His image bearers. I hope that made sense. If not, look into my favorite biblical scholars. They can explain this stuff much better than I can.
With that said, I hope I didn't scare anyone away by boldly saying humans did, in fact, evolve from the same ape chimpanzees evolved from, and that ape ancestor evolved from other mammals, and those mammals evolved from other animals, so on and so fourth. Or by pointing out the fact that many stories in the bible are cultural myths, passed down the generations until someone eventually wrote them down.
Modern science and the fact that many biblical stories are myths, does not discredit Christianity or the existence of God at all, at least in my eyes. My faith isn't so weak that I rely on everything in the bible to be literally true for me to have faith. My faith isn't so fragile that being in the presence of people who don't believe in Christianity can cause me to abandon it. Unlike many Christians seem to unfortunately be, I am not afraid that Christianity will disintegrate if I am not there to constantly defend and proclaim it. Nor, am I constantly finding things to call "Christian persecution", and looking forward to the day we all get raptured (again, remember what I said about Revelations earlier). The Christian faith will always be around, forever and ever, no matter what happens.
It will still be relevant when scientists confirm the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. It will still stand strong in the face of actual intense persecution. The light of the Christian faith will always shine, even in the presence of other faiths and religions. And, no demon is gonna drag your entire family to hell if you dare to go trick-or-treating or befriend a pagan. Also, it's healthy to deconstruct your faith and/or your dearly held views and beliefs. Sure, it hurts and can often be scary, but I strongly believe it's necessary for everyone, regardless of what God or gods they pray to or not, to dissect their beliefs and ask the hardest, more terrifying questions imaginable. Try it! You'll thank me later.
