Andrew Sullivan, writing in his blog, The Dish, over at The Daily Beast concludes a posting with these words: “One day, Christianity will see science as the wondrous gift it is, rather than as a threat to a cultural neurosis masquerading as faith.”
Here are three tidbits:
This is really another post-script to our series on Adam and Eve and Darwin. My own view is that there can be no conflict between eternal truth and empirical facts, because God is without error. And so the Genesis story is not disproven by Darwin; Darwin actually helps us understand its deeper spiritual, metaphorical truth.
. . . [Genesis] is a warning against the notion that because evolution gave us these extraordinary gifts, we are masters of the universe. (The same can be said of that other myth, "The Tower Of Babel"). But we are not masters of the universe. We are ni ange ni bete. We are in between heaven and earth, the first creatures to imagine a higher conciousness still, and find ourselves longing for it, while running away from it because of our weakness and pride . . .
"To Victory I am born" is what Jesus taught us was possible. "I am defeated all the time" is what Genesis is trying to remind us, to warn against hubris and a man-centered world. All of this isn’t just compatible with modern science, it is made more explicable, more profound, more wondrous given what we know about how we came to be.
Read the full posting and follow some of Sullivan’s links: The Origin Of Sin, Not Species – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast
Well, he certainly has a way with words but WHAT is this guy trying to say? I think the biggest clue is the aside that he throws in:
*** (The same can be said of that other myth, “The Tower Of Babel”). ***
So he wants to believe that language evolved just as the human species evolved. Obviously it’s true that language DOES evolve, and the Tower of Babel was only the beginning. But it’s incredibly fascinating to me that the Evolutionists reject anything that smacks of Man’s Sin and God’s judgment. That is exactly what the Tower of Babel was about: mankind had decided to celebrate themselves and invent their own religion. Because of this SIN, God scattered them.
God complained at the time, that as soon as mankind manage to get themselves all organized, bad things happen. And God seems to be completely right about that, because we’ve always had troubles as soon as we organize a committee.
Evolution… Mr. Sullivan apparently wants to believe that the human mind slowly emerged into consciousness, popping up here and there and then falling back into the foamy mist until another more advanced evolution eventually made it possible for us to rise up and declare that “I am sentient.” Such random chaos is exhausting to think about, besides being in direct conflict to the Genesis account which clearly describes how mankind was born into immediate fellowship with God.
And, Mr. Sullivan’s account contradicts the Bible where Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans.” The foamy mist surely seems like an accident waiting to happen.
In other words, Mr. Sullivan does not believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. And, with fancy sayings he is trying to convince us that we can believe in Evolution without any conflict with the Bible.
Maybe THIS is what this fellow believes is “wondrous”, but to me it’s a very ugly interpretation of our existence. WHY? Because Mr. Sullivan pushes God at arm’s length. He obviously doesn’t even know why God has done these things.
Let’s set Creation aside for a moment and focus on another statement this guy made,
***To Victory I am born” is what Jesus taught us was possible.***
NO, NO, no no no… Jesus made NO such statement…In fact, I did a Bible word search just now and there is no record in the New Testament that Jesus even said the word Victory anywhere. It definitely was not part of the message of the Christ.
Jesus made it clear that He came to be Servant of all.
Jesus made it clear that He came to die.
Jesus made it clear that He obeyed the Father totally and utterly in all things.
Submission to the Father was the priority of Jesus Christ.
Jesus taught His followers that loss and suffering were the Way to go.
Jesus made it absolutely and abundantly CLEAR that his purpose in being here on earth was for one single reason: Jesus wants us to know His Father. And by dying on the cross, Jesus made the Way to this loving Father possible.
That’s why the Shroud is so vitally important. The Shroud is one bit of evidence that Christ really died, He really suffered, and He laid down all He had for this one purpose:
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
Mr. Sullivan wants to YANK the core message of the Gospel and his handy-dandy evolution theories help him to do that. I don’t know what his MOTIVES in doing this are, but I do think he should examine his heart and try to understand why he wants a God that doesn’t care squat about himself. Maybe if Mr. Sullivan can invent an impersonal God, then he himself has no obligation to be personal in return?
I see this trend over and over, and frankly I am more worried about it than I am angry about it. Because… I want people to KNOW the God who loves me. I want people to know that THIS is what’s wondrous about the Creation story: God is personal. In the Creation story, God wants us to know that He was there from the very beginning, watching over us and nurturing us as a parent would.
When God realized that Adam was lonely, God created a glorious woman named Eve as a special gift just for Adam. God is PERSONAL. God made us with the same PERSONAL qualities that are part of Himself.
And God wants to know US.