RE: Conflicts and confrontation

--- Dick Fischer <dickfischer@verizon.net> wrote:

> Just a quick response to Merv who wrote:
>
> >>But have any of you, because of your
> evolutionary beliefs, found your faith enhanced -- built up?<<
>
> I have not. But my Christian faith, which was only about a years worth
> at the time, was severely tested by my first exposure to YEC. It was as
> if I was being asked to swallow a lie as confirmation that I'd received
> the truth. That was unsettling. I had to look for myself to find a
> better alternative, and through God's grace and a little effort on my
> part I found something which I believe is better. But I had a black
> period where I was stymied and almost prayed a prayer of unsalvation.
>
> Once when I was reading Job before going to bed I got angry at God for
> allowing Satan to harass the poor guy. After all if Satan has that
> latitude with one of God's righteous what chance would I have? When I
> awoke in the morning I heard these words spoken to me aloud in an empty
> room. "Let God come about you as He intended." So I just said quite
> meekly, "Okay." And that's the same advice I would give anyone. Relax.
> God's in control. If He really cared about us figuring it all out, it
> would have been clearer in the first place. Start with the milk, and if
> you're comfortable with that, go for the meat.
>

My experience was a bit different from Dick's. When I became a Christian at age
30 I felt like a traitor -- like I had joined the enemy. The Hound of Heaven
grabbed me and dragged me into the Kingdom (and I'm very grateful He did). I
believed what I had read about evolution, and when I found that my new
Christian brothers (still! In 1972!) didn't accept evolution I was
flabbergasted. But at the same time I realized I was a new Christian and
perhaps there were facts I was unaware of. So I read some of the creationist
literature and was convinced by it -- for a while. (When I thought about it I
wondered how the folks who taught evolution could have possibly verified their
conclusions). The beginning of the end came when a fellow creationist gave me a
paper from Ex Nihilo that purported to prove that the speed of light had
declined since creation, and that it was infinite at the time of the creation.
They had taken data on the speed of light going back to Roemer's work in the
18th century and performed the most abysmal perversion of curve fitting I have
ever seen. It still took several years for me to come to my senses (like Glenn,
I'm stubborn). First I concluded that the creationists are either incompetent
or lying in the realm of geology. Next I began to wonder if they weren't also
wrong about evolution. Today I pretty much accept evolution -- although _not_
outside the sovereignty of God.

I don't see that belief in evolution has enhanced or harmed my faith. I am awed
by the scope of God's care for creation, which extends from the subatomic to
the galactic, but it seems to me thee real message of Christ is that He died
for our sins and wants to draw us into fellowship with Him. The beauty of
nature is frosting on the cake, but Jesus _is_ the cake.

Bill Hamilton
William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
248.652.4148 (home) 248.821.8156 (mobile)
"...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31

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Received on Tue Jun 6 12:27:20 2006