stbabs said:
peachbasket said:
As a life long conservative Christian who can no longer ignore a more scientific explanation for the origin of man, I struggle with the significance of a literal interpretation of Genesis in explaining the devine nature of Jesus. I would appreciate thoughts of others who have experienced a similar crossroads.
I'm with you PB, lifelong Christian but as I apply reason to the supernatural aspects of the Bible my doubt increases.
Try as I might to rely simply on faith, literal Genesis creation, talking serpents, Noah's worldwide flood, and several other supernatural tales; I can no longer believe the narrative.
How much can you "not believe" and still be a believer?
Exploring My Strange Bible is a great podcast by Tim Mackie, a teaching pastor whose focused on ancient near eastern cultures in seminary and wrote his dissertation on Ezekiel's transcription over the years. Guy is incredibly knowledgeable and always does great deep dives into context of the old testament.
He did one on Science and Faith that addresses a lot of the concerns both of you guys are mentioning.
Exploring My Strange Bible
Science and Faith: August 16th, 2017
https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3Muc2ltcGxlY2FzdC5jb20vcG9kY2FzdHMvMzM0MS9yc3M%3D&episode=YjJiZmZmOGMtNTMwMy00Y2UwLWI2N2MtZGVhMjNmNWM4NmI0I would recommend immediately listening to his next three episodes that do a crash course on the old testament.
But long story short, there is nothing about Genesis 1 & 2 that points to it being held up as a literal or scientific document, or that religion and science are in contention with one another. Even the very first words of Genesis, 'In the beginning' use an ancient Hebrew word for 'a long long time ago' instead of the word for 'time zero.' (Which was known and used).
The incredible beauty of Genesis is partially lost due to the lack of contrasting context of the other origin stories also floating around by other religions at that time. We take for granted that God shares his rule with his creation out of love, he wants us to flourish and share in dominion over everything he's created. He spoke the world into existence. Contrast that to other prevailing origin stories where the god(s) are at war and through death in fighting out comes the universe as a dragon is torn in two.
I would caution you to not get hung up on things like, how are there 'days' before God makes night and day - hur de hurr hur.
God creates a world to share, Man was made perfect on Earth and walked with God in Eden. Given free choice, Adam and Eve chose to sin and introduced death into this world. God tells the serpent his/ours/and God's own fate, 'From man will come come a King. You will strike his heel but he will crush your head.' Jesus fulfills all the Old Testament prophecies and through his life, death, and resurrection he defeats death. One day, God will return to Earth and will make everything new again, and heal the wounds that sin and death have caused. Heaven is not this far place off in the stars where everyone has mansions and fast cars and everything you didn't get in this life. It is, at its core, redeeming what went wrong on page one.
Youtube the Bible Project as well if you want to watch some awesome videos about everything bible context related.