One of the most memoriable things my theology professor told us in class one day, was that the creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2 are not an explanation on HOW creation came to be, but WHY God created.
While the theory of evolution doesn't adequately explain how life came to be on the earth, it's also impossible for me to believe that God created the universe and all that is in it during a literal six day period. So what's a person to do? Though the HOW question is not unimportant, by focusing on HOW, the more important question WHY is often overlooked.
God is love. But as some poetic writer has said, "love isn't love until you give it away." God's love didn't need to give God's love away. God is complete within the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, God wanted something and someone to express this love toward beyond Godself. It was out of this desire to express love that God created the universe and all living creatures. It's as if God were saying to every human being, "Look around you, I've left evidences of my love for you everywhere." Like a master builder, God stepped back to examine God's work along the way, making sure that it was a worthy expression of God's love. It was. Genesis 1 tells us that at the end of each new act of creation, God looked at what was made and said, "It's good."
Anyone can come up with an answer to the HOW question. Some answers are more plausible than others. Only those who believe in a creating God can answer the WHY question. For without God,there is no answer. There is no reason for the universe. There is no reason for life on Earth. And that's a scary, hopeless reality. Therefore, to avoid facing that reality, those who don't believe must focus on something else. By doing so, they continually ask the wrong question.
As Christians, I don't think we should be sucked into trying to answer a question for which there can only be theories. Let's ask the question that really matters, the question that we know for sure what the answer is. WHY?
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