Most Christians don’t believe in a seven day literal creation story, but some do. What is the danger in believing the creation story as allegory? Does it in some way remove God’s power? What is the difference between an intelligent designer that creates using atoms and molecules that fuse together out of energy and evolve into life as we know it vs. a being that creates entire planets out of nothing?
Drama and magic, that’s what.
The group who (I’ve noticed some overlap) despises methodical creation explanation because it is too scientific prefers the dramatic telling of how plants, animals and people are pulled out of thin air, but also denounces Harry Potter for its imaginative description of a magical paradigm. This is a contradiction, no?
I would like to theoretically endorse the preference for believing in a Great Big Magical God with all the enthusiasm I would to a child still believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Yes, there’s something magical there and, yes, it makes us feel very special and connected to something beyond our worldly observations.
Newsflash, you can’t observe evolution either and it’s kinda just as magical and powerful and cool, even though it’s become more identifiable and measureable as science has progressed over the last century or two.
What’s so unbiblical about calling God/dess’s moment of creational power “The Big Bang”, as if calling it that and thinking about creation scientifically could destroy faith in God. I don’t prefer creation’s titular moniker “The Big Bang” myself, as a wordsmith, not that I think the science doesn’t hold up, but I’d really rather we called it “The Cosmic Egg” since I believe it was much less of a violent clash of atoms and more of a nest of elements, smooshing around, gestating until life appeared and grew, then hatched.
Or how about “The Cosmic Womb”? The “let there be light” sentiment is good and all that, but in the moments we see life brought forth in all of this observable good creation, I think the moment might moreso have been accompanied with all the birth-pang groaning, bearing-down and fibre-tearing force we see over and over again in nature as life rips its way into this world.
Life, its arrival and how it grows, is pretty magical.
It’s song time now:
Lyrics for those who want ’em:
We’ve got a great big wonderful (magical) God 🙂
A great big wonderful God
A God that loves every one of us
Done so much for all of us
Great big wonderful God
(repeat)
He never, never, never leaves us
He’s always standing by
To pick us up if we stumble
We’re the apple of his eye
The Prairie Thistle 