For those of you who have been following my blog, for the past two years I have been attending a small storefront independent Evangelical church even though I consider myself an agnostic. Every Sunday Pastor has made his Come to Jesus speech and every Sunday I walk out just as unredeemed as when I walked in. I do not take Communion, nor have I made any move to formally join the church. Nor will I.
To join this church you must have a meeting with the pastor where he quizzes you on your acceptance and understanding of church teachings. The problem is, they do not have a converts' class so it is entirely possible to agree to something that later down the road you find you cannot agree with because everything is so vague. The first article of doctrine goes something like this: "I believe that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God in everything." So you say, yeah, sure, without stopping to think what that might mean. Because they never bring up the "controversial" stuff when evangelizing.
So now we are in a new year and starting a new book of the Bible, Genesis, which Pastor came right out and admitted it's a controversial book. But, he said, this is not a science text. And I am not a science person. There may be those in here that are more educated in science than I am so I am not going to talk about science. Fair enough.
But as he got deeper and deeper into the text it became very clear from his repeated "This is what I believe" that he is asking his congregation to accept a literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis. A six-day creation of 24 hour days. Light created before the sun, moon and stars. Plants created before the sun, moon, and stars. But there is no contradiction there because you see, God was the light that the plants lived by and in the end in the Book of Revelation there will be no sun, moon and stars because once again God will be the light. No, he did not say anything about the age of the earth and he did not come right out and say that humans and dinosaurs lived together but it was there. And by the way, all the animals were vegetarians. Even the ones with sharp teeth.
I am sorry, dear Pastor, but you ARE talking about science. Every sentence in Genesis Chapter 1 is a direct conflict with either physics, meteorology, geology, botany, biology, astronomy, paleontology--practically the whole spectrum of science. And science is NOT thousands of years old, as you claim. Science as we know the term today has only been around 200-300 years. And I simply cannot agree with you. You see, I am well-read in the sciences. If you are asking me to choose between modern science and an ancient book, science is going to win hands-down. There isn't even a contest.
What is very interesting is that the leader of my small group announced that we would not be studying Genesis but would be starting a different study of our own, to be announced, but possibly a series of "Truth" videos from Focus on the Family. In other words, there will be no chance to wrestle with the text, to ask potentially dangerous questions. This had been decided before Sunday's sermon so my saying at that night's small group meeting that I did not agree with what Pastor said had nothing to do with it. Or did it? It's been interesting sitting back and watching the various ways that new people are quietly steered in the desired direction. There really isn't any chance of an open, free, spirited discussion because that is the last thing they want.
Oh, well, I have a new play coming up so if the Focus on the Family video series becomes too obnoxious then I can always use rehearsals as an excuse. In the meantime, I definitely don't want to miss this series on Genesis. Stay tuned to the next installment of the Heretic's Bible Study.
To join this church you must have a meeting with the pastor where he quizzes you on your acceptance and understanding of church teachings. The problem is, they do not have a converts' class so it is entirely possible to agree to something that later down the road you find you cannot agree with because everything is so vague. The first article of doctrine goes something like this: "I believe that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God in everything." So you say, yeah, sure, without stopping to think what that might mean. Because they never bring up the "controversial" stuff when evangelizing.
So now we are in a new year and starting a new book of the Bible, Genesis, which Pastor came right out and admitted it's a controversial book. But, he said, this is not a science text. And I am not a science person. There may be those in here that are more educated in science than I am so I am not going to talk about science. Fair enough.
But as he got deeper and deeper into the text it became very clear from his repeated "This is what I believe" that he is asking his congregation to accept a literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis. A six-day creation of 24 hour days. Light created before the sun, moon and stars. Plants created before the sun, moon, and stars. But there is no contradiction there because you see, God was the light that the plants lived by and in the end in the Book of Revelation there will be no sun, moon and stars because once again God will be the light. No, he did not say anything about the age of the earth and he did not come right out and say that humans and dinosaurs lived together but it was there. And by the way, all the animals were vegetarians. Even the ones with sharp teeth.
I am sorry, dear Pastor, but you ARE talking about science. Every sentence in Genesis Chapter 1 is a direct conflict with either physics, meteorology, geology, botany, biology, astronomy, paleontology--practically the whole spectrum of science. And science is NOT thousands of years old, as you claim. Science as we know the term today has only been around 200-300 years. And I simply cannot agree with you. You see, I am well-read in the sciences. If you are asking me to choose between modern science and an ancient book, science is going to win hands-down. There isn't even a contest.
What is very interesting is that the leader of my small group announced that we would not be studying Genesis but would be starting a different study of our own, to be announced, but possibly a series of "Truth" videos from Focus on the Family. In other words, there will be no chance to wrestle with the text, to ask potentially dangerous questions. This had been decided before Sunday's sermon so my saying at that night's small group meeting that I did not agree with what Pastor said had nothing to do with it. Or did it? It's been interesting sitting back and watching the various ways that new people are quietly steered in the desired direction. There really isn't any chance of an open, free, spirited discussion because that is the last thing they want.
Oh, well, I have a new play coming up so if the Focus on the Family video series becomes too obnoxious then I can always use rehearsals as an excuse. In the meantime, I definitely don't want to miss this series on Genesis. Stay tuned to the next installment of the Heretic's Bible Study.
