elsie_caruso

A bombardment of opinions is hardly the time and place for a contribution of varying thoughts even if it was misrepresented as an open discussion. Even though I agreed with everyone in this room well into my first year of college I also embarked upon an education that sent me feeling very conflicted against my Christian stand on science.
Were scientists really just like the kid in sex education who wants to ask questions about anal to make the teacher uncomfortable or were they just stating research in hopes that people might be able to see the truth?
Growing up evolution was looked at as questioning God and the bible, and everyone knew that wouldnt be tolerated. To say that the world was created in a big bang was just a way of saying God had nothing to do with it.
My feelings had sprung from complete rejection of evolution, then complete belief in it and a questioning of my faith and then to a new idea. Maybe God could have had a part in the big bang. Maybe, just maybe, I could still have faith and not negate scientific evidence- and maybe I would have realized this much sooner if I had people around me that were able to discuss the subject without the disappointing glares I received as another lost sheep.
My feelings sprung up in a lively discussion in Sunday school one morning but I knew in my gut that some people are just not open to listening so I wanted to keep it to myself.
When you look concerned or questioning in Sunday school everyone gets excited. They say that thats what you are there for. So that we can take the words of God together, look at them, debate them and have peace from hearing the answers that we all can find together. But for me it is never that easy. Everyone that is discussing the ideas all believe in the same core values. And just because I believe in God, or even if I believed in Christ, it wouldnt change the fact that referencing the bible didnt suffice for me. Everyone only references ONE book in church. Yes, they have NIVs and KJVs they have Hebrew translations and chronological ordered bibles, but why is it if you bring a scientific book into a discussion everyone looks at it like it has no bearing on truth? No factual basis?
Those books are written by man they say. Our book is written by God.
But in my eyes the book they are reading is ALSO written by men. Written by men who CLAIMED to know the words of God, many men have done this in time. Religious leaders of all faiths have books written through man from God that they dont consider true. If you werent there, how can you know? So I reference everything, everyone, I come to conclusions through the use of my own heart and mind. I take everything into consideration when trying to make decisions and I never single out one book, one religion, one scientific discovery and say that it is the all knowing truth. The truth is what lies in you. Because all history are just his stories and we dont even know who he is except through the stories of other unreliable humans.
Evolution to me seems make sense because I SEE IT. I see it in my own family, the passing down of hereditary genes- alcoholism, adhd, bi polar. I seen it traveling through the few generations I have witnessed first hand. I see it in dogs. I see that even though a sheep dog might not have ever herded sheep it would still have those hereditary characteristics that even that animals knows its a sheep dog. I see it in the color of our hair, and most prominently I see it in the mixing of different races, the height of our children and very obvious things that tend to be passed down, or not passed down.
Evolution simply put to me is this. If the apples on the tree are harder to reach for someone small then someone big, then the taller people will get more food, over time those tall people can breed and over time those small people can breed and their kids will end up being able to survive better. Its basic human nature. Survival of the fittest. If we have big noses and our husbands have big noses are kids will have big noses. Thats just how it works. But we can SEE this.
So why is it that people cant see that if there is an abundance of breeding purple butterflies that the blue ones will die out? Why cant they see that if an animal has a body part they dont use that it may go away? Evolution makes sense to me. And so does God.
Some people say that in the translation of Genesiss that the days werent days. And if you look at the cycle of the way the bible says the world was created it matches evolution. I am not a scientist and I may not have ALL the facts here, but I think I am on to something, and I am sure MANY people were on to it first. So, I wish that the christian world would stop living in the centuries behind us and open books and not fear knowledge. God gave you a brain for a reason. The only way to appreciate the box that you put yourself in is to step outside of it. Test your faith. Dont worry, if its worth believing in then you will be able to open your mind to new ideas.