Pondering Pastor

I was asked by a friend to provide the link to the Clergy Letter Project.

The text of the letter:

Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

I’m a signator.

Pondering Pastor

I’m a bit nervous.

Tonight our “Theology on Tap” men’s group meets at a local pub.  Our topic is challenging, “Creationism, Intelligent Design, & Evolution”.  But that’s not the half of it.  Two local newspapers are sending reporters.  I’ve already done one interview for the background material.  It will be interesting to see how the newspaper reports it.

Pondering Pastor

In the Evolution vs. Religion debates, it is rare when one “side” is able to recognize the value that the other brings to the table.  Today, I provide for your consideration one such value that evolution has brought that is particularly lacking in many religious circles.  I’m quoting from “Evolution: A Very Short Introduction”, by Brian and Deborah Charlesworth.

The study of evolution has revealed our intimate connections with the other species that inhabit the Earth; if global catastrophe is to be avoided, these connections must be respected…. Evolution provides a set of unifying principles for the whole of biology; it also illuminates the relations of human beings to the universe and to each other. (pg. 3)

In the stories of creation from the Bible (especially Genesis 2), creatures are brought before the human as potential “helpers”.  All are determined to be different enough from the human that they are not “suitable”.  Eve is then created from Adam and deemed to be a “suitable partner”.  This Genesis account makes sure we understand that the other creatures are not like us, despite what we might observe.  Our role is to care for all of creation, including these creatures.  That is not to say that one perspective is right, and the other wrong, but it is to say that the study of evolution has advanced a perspective that is not obvious in scripture.

I find this very helpful.

Pondering Pastor