Cosmic Consequences
The biblical days of creation describe a universe free of decay and chaotic evil. It was entirely a demonstration of God's love. Then came the fall. However, many liberal Christians dismiss Genesis. They believe it to be a myth. They feel it is useful only because it symbolizes the human situation.
Some Christians accept the truth of these events. Yet they struggle to explain the changes from the perfection of Genesis to today. They understand that the present reality is much older and darker and cannot reconcile our world with the ideal that the bible describes. If pressed they might point to Noah's flood as the main cause of natural changes. Yet, it is an inadequate explanation.
Explanations such as the Gap Theory of Genesis put a scientific spin on the events of creation. That theory fails to include many discoveries. Such attempts will always be unsuccessful because they cannot explain the flaws in nature's laws.
Denial of scientific knowledge is a serious social issue. Groups that reject science twist the truth and deceive their followers. Christians must engage in evidence-based reasoning or risk misinterpreting the whole natural world.
The Australopithecines, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis aka the Hobbits, and the Dinaledi, scientific name Homo naledi were all human relatives. Over long periods, these human-related species were shaped by powerful environmental and genetic factors.
Then, as with all creatures in our universe, they became extinct after a while. Their existence, sorrow, and hardships were the result of Adam and Eve's decision to reject God.
This does not correspond to a simple reading of Genesis and its genealogy. The traditional timeline of events is missing the largest cosmic change of all. That is the origin of natural chaos and decay. It started a chain of events that took billions of years to unfold. That change was not directly witnessed even though humans triggered it. Yet without it, Christianity cannot be reconciled with modern science.
homo Floresiensis - the mysterious Hobbits of Indonesia
The history of other nearly human species is part of our own. They developed, suffered and survived under the laws of a universe that is not perfect but chaotic and prone to evil. Their story is our history. We share ancestors with all life on this planet and the first humans made in the image of a holy and good creator. Humanity is exiled from the universes of God. This must be true, for the only other explanation of the evidence is a creator unmoved by the suffering of his children.
Science has discovered that there is no design in biology only survival driven by chaotic and random changes. The Christian desire to see God’s hand in everything should be resisted when discussing biology. If everything in life's history is God's design then He must be deranged or alien with motives that defy any sense. Christians do not believe in a vengeful creator but a healer.
Since God is without darkness in his nature, that rules out the design that traditional creationism imagines. People who insist otherwise have no real grasp of nature or their ancestors. Suffering sits at the core of biology. We must be clear-eyed about our origins. The immediate future will be a pressure cooker for global society. To survive, we must understand the origins of human nature.
Society can be arranged in many variations but its root is always human biology. Humanity is decay and dirt transformed into flesh. We are as defined by our genes and the ecosystems of Earth as any of our ancestors. The history of the tiny Hobbits of Flores island and the mysterious Dinaledi is just beginning to be uncovered. Our shared history is vast and complex but fascinating. That deep history and why God created in that way, is addressed in my book.
