There are lots of theories about Creation and Genesis.  Many Christians hold what is known as a “young earth” view - that Genesis 1 is a literal account of how the universe came into existence around 6000 years ago.  Other Christians hold an “old earth” view - that Genesis 1 is either a metaphorical (or picture-language) account that helps us understand why we were created without explaining how we were created, or that Genesis 1 is explaining another event altogether (!) and that the universe is probably about as old as the scientists think it is.

Personally I fall into the 2nd category but I’ve never been comfortable with the gap in the fossil record (if we and every other species have evolved into their present state surely the world should be full of transitional fossils?  There aren’t many and there are almost no complete sets), nor have I been happy to interpret Gensis 1 metaphorically just because it suits current scientific understanding.  So whilst I think it is obvious that the universe is billions of years old I have always been on the lookout for a way of satisfactorily interpreting Genesis 1.

One of the most interesting (and convincing) ideas that I came across last year is the idea that Genesis 1 is not describing the creation of the universe but actually describing the emergence of man (from man’s perspective) and that the creation of the universe, forming of the earth, and then its geological eras pre-date Genesis 1 (in fact you’d need to look to John 1.1 to find the beginning of the universe).  Ralph Winter likes this idea and talks about it a lot in his article “The Unfinished Epic” - well worth a read!

Whilst I do like some of his ideas, some of his reasoning does appear to be politically motivated, he refuses to “give an inch to Darwinian Random evolution”, (who does he think made evolution in the first place?  Darwin?) and I do wonder why he thinks that angelic beings had to intervene/cultivate so much in order to bring the human form to where it has come - again, who does he think created the systems that govern the universe?  Frankly I don’t think it would have mattered if it had been here on Earth or another planet or whether we had 6 legs and were a funny green colour (being made in the image of God means something other than our physical form since God is spirit, not humanoid).  I’m not opposed to a view of  minor occasional intervention to ensure the survival or a good growth of a species, but he presents the idea as if without the angels continual cultivation humankind would cease to exist - the forces & universal systems God created (gravity, magnetism, evolution, etc) were made by God and don’t really need that kind of continual cultivation!  Humankind might need protection from malevolent, fallen angels, but that is a different thing entirely.

Boyd goes further to  suggest that Evolution is just another expression of the Cosmic Warfare in this war that we find ourselves in.  He suggests that the development and expansion of life on the planet is on the side of the kingdom and that the destruction, wastage, corruption of creation (was there lions & lambs could sit together?) and  the sheer volume of wastage we see in evolution is almost entirely the work of the enemy (either directly or indirectly).  Again, interesting, though I’m not sure I agree.  What is wrong with wastage in nature? (especially given CS Lewis’ idea (and Boyd’s later idea) of the trivialisation of those that rebel against God in The Nothing - they were simply free agents that at one time had the potential to say Yes to God but now are eternally trivialised.  Boyd doesn’t mind wastage in eternity as a result of free-will but ascribes wastage in nature as the work of the enemy).  But what is wrong with a roaring, violent lion?  Obviously it would be foolish to say that nature represents perfection away from which us sentient beings have drifted and so look back to nature to see how we should be - by no means!  But nature is kind of neutral - I do wonder about the “blame God or Satan for everything” syndrome I see a lot of…

I think I tend to adopt a hands-off approach - perhaps it is the computer programmer in me!  The better the system that governs the universe the less you need to interfere with it for it to operate as you wanted it to.  And we all know who made the systems that govern the universe…

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