Until last year, I would have agreed with Loren and Deborah Haarsma that “evolution is God's program for creating life” (“Couple urges truce in war between faith and science,” Herald, March 20). Then I learned about difficulties with evolutionary theory and that some serious scientists can show us how science and Scripture are compatible.
Evolutionists and literal six-day creationists look at the same evidence but come to different conclusions because of their assumptions on the age of the earth (millions or thousands of years). A lot of water in a short amount of time could have made the Grand Canyon. The fossil record could be seen in terms of the sorting action of the worldwide flood of Noah's time. The website www.AnswersinGenesis.org has scientific answers to questions about creation and evolution. It answered my many, many questions.
A year ago, I thought it did not matter how God created the world, as long as I believed God did it. But if the beginning of the Bible is not correct as written, how can we be sure the rest can be taken as written? Genesis 1-11 is written historically, like Genesis 12-50, which is just a continuation of the story. It is not written poetically (like Psalms), so why would the words be symbolic? The fourth commandment also affirms that God created in six 24-hour days (Exodus 20:11). If death, disease and suffering happened before Adam's sin (as in evolution), then how could God say his creation was “very good”? The Bible says death was the penalty for sin (Romans 5:12). If there were death, disease and suffering before sin, then why did Jesus have to die?
I used to think that people who believed in a six-day creation were taking the Bible too literally. Learning that logical, scientific evidence and other Bible passages (outside of Genesis) support a six-day creation changed my thinking. The Bible tells us “with God all thing are possible” (Matthew 19:26). God could have created the universe in any way he pleased. Why is it hard to believe he did it in six days as described in Genesis?
Jane M. Elder, Richmond