I’ll make this simple and as short as possible. Creationism and Evolution are one and the same theories, the basic difference is that Creationism was taught to a people who were big on survival skills but had less education than the average first grader. They saw animals being born in their herds but had no actual concept of how or why, even though they also practiced intercourse. They knew of disease but not of germs, bacteria, viruses or spoors. They had no real concept of the workings of their own bodies and basically considered the Earth to be the center of the universe, with everything else revolving about it.
You could not explain molecular fusion to them, nor chemical combinations which eventually formed life. Trying to explain to them that humans and all life came from the sea after millions of years would have been impractical. I do believe that God engineered evolution and that inspired humans explained it as simply as they could for the people of the time. Having the first man come from the mud is similar to the sea evolution story. Eve from Adam’s rib is a glossing over of cellular division, multiplication, adaptation and mutation.
You could not tell someone from something like 1000 BC that humans and all life begins as tiny little living, unthinking packages of cells too small for the normal eye to see and ‘magically’ unite to grow and program themselves into an animal, a human, a fish or a bird and then to divide into species depending upon the environment each is in. They would not believe it.
The primary thing concerning humans, which had to be God designed, is sentience; the ability to be able to reason, feel emotionally, to think, to wonder what is beyond the next hill and how to improve what they have to work with. Sentience is actual life. Sentience is what makes a human, human. Without sentience, humans could be regulated to the simple stimulious/automatic response/random activity for of intelligence that a cockroach has.
If you stop and reason it out, then the Theory of Creativity and the Theory of Evolution agree with each other completely. God gave us the ability to evolve and change according to our environmental needs. (The ‘slanted’ eyes of the Orientals, used in colder climates to keep their eyes from freezing. The black color of Black people, from hotter climates to protect them from the searing sun. The pale color of White people, to enable them to absorb more sun in colder climates where the sun shine is weaker. People with larger ‘butts’ – from arid areas. The fat in the stern stores water. Thick lips – water evaporation to keep the head cooler in hot climates, thin lips – to reduce heat loss in colder climates.) We live under a mildly variable sun and the radiation promotes mutations and the mutations adapt to the areas they live in.
Has anyone considered also the simple fact that nearly, if not all, of the long lasting, major religions of the world each have ONE God they worship and many similarities? Christianity seems to be the most fragmented, arising originally from the Jewish religion, then splitting into Protestants, Catholics, Methodists, Numerous Baptist sects, Jehovah Witnesses, Christ Scientists, Fundamentalists, Mormons, Amish, and, I think, a few more.
Through it all, remember that the Bible was written for a very simple and primitive people as a guide for education and living. It is remarkable that it has survived so many thousands of years but should be interpreted according to the times for the world does not stand still. Plus, it was written by humans inspired by God and humans are fallible. They make judgments according to their own personal beliefs and the environmental factors of the times. (In the Bible, written during a Patriarchal society, women are little more than property. I suspect that was written by a person influenced by his time.)
One other thing, incorporated in sentience, as a gift from God, along with free will, is the human ability to reason things out, to question, to determine and to find answers. Those believing firmly in Creationism should exercise this miraculous ability and reason it out for themselves.
Mark
