Can God and Darwinism Coexist?
by Brigid Bishop
Yes, I believe that they can and do.
When I think of the Bible Story of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden and how they "ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge", I look at that as a metaphor for consciousness evolving in the earliest primates to be called "human".
I believe that The Bible is a book written by men in order to explain where we came from.
When man evolved from the apes, he became self-aware, as it is written in the Bible, when Adam and Eve realized that they were naked, they became human. To me, this constitutes a separation and evolution from the animal state into the human state. The ability to think, to imagine, to emote, are all human characteristics to me and they are maximized in the ability to speak and communicate and exchange ideas with others, (eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge).
Yes, God created man, however, I do not believe that he just manifested man from blowing spirit into swirling dust, I believe that God began by creating the earth and as life developed and evolved over the thousands and thousands of years of the early planet, man evolved as the ape learned and grew and adapted to the environment created by God, so yes, I believe that Darwinism and God coexist, and it makes sense to me.
God evicting Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, so to speak, is another metaphor to me that says "now that you have consciousness you must think for yourself and not function on instinct alone", and this is when we became human beings. While in The Garden of Eden we did not have to work or toil or think or dream, we were like the cherished pets of God. Childlike in nature as we were innocent, we could not discern right from wrong. With the ability to make judgments we lost our innocence, and that original sin is what made us break free of the animal kingdom and become mankind.
It is said that "ignorance is bliss", think of the Garden of Eden as living in blissful ignorance, an evolved primate, not yet human. Exiting the Garden of Eden is having knowledge and evolving up to human awareness, we are no longer animals that live by instinct alone, we can and do think, so now our ignorance (and innocence) is lost forever.
I believe that The Bible story of Adam and Eve already encompasses Darwinism.
Copyright© 2008 BrigidBishop
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