Creation

Is it me, or are there a lot more creationists about these days? For the purposes of clarity, I mean people who regard the account of Creation in Genesis literally. It's just that having grown up in an evangelical church from the age of 7, people with that particular reading of Scripture were extremely rare, and usually went to rather obscure independent church fellowships.

Over the last few years, there seems to have been a reawakening of the old debate that Darwin endured about creation vs evolution.

Now let's be clear on some ground rules

1. I believe God is responsible for the existence of the material universe. Therefore He is Creator, and we are and live in His Creation.
2. The purpose of theology is primarily concerned with the meaning of creation - i.e. what does it mean for our existence, rather than the scientific 'how' or the chronological timescale.
3. Scientific theories are precisely that - theories. New discoveries can always adapt or even overthrow current thinking. However, just because something is a theory, that doesn't make it a lie or a deception. The theories about electricity don't mean I should abandon all the normal rules of wiring a plug.

The obvious problem with a literalist creationist approach is that it flies in the face of all scientific evidence. We may not have an evolutionary continuum, but it is clear beyond doubt that the universe is very much older than the Biblical 6000 years or so. Faced with such an obvious contradiction, we are left with two choices. Either the Biblical literature is intended to reveal something other than dating to us, or the universe is telling lies about itself. But why would it lie? It reveals God to us, and Romans 1 makes it clear that our guilt before God as humanity derives from our ignoring of that revelation. What kind of God creates a Universe that looks 12-13 billion years old, but is actually only a tiny fraction of that, and then holds us guilty for being deceived?*

The first choice must therefore be true. In fact, the Genesis account affirms some very radical things about God, which tend to get buried in the Creationist debate. It affirms his total sovereignty over everything - he isn't a God vulnerable to the whims of 'nature' as in some contemporary creation accounts. He pre-exists. Humanity are his will, and are given stewardship of the Creation. (not surprising that gas-guzzling and fundamentalism tend to go together!) All this richness and more within the text gets lost in the usual debates.

It's like all of Scripture; we have to ask what question was it intended to answer when the text was written and preserved.

*italics here added 30/5/2006