Religion and evolution

[jeepnstein]

29. Ugh...

I'm sitting through a nasty case of six day literalism at my own church right now. The folks leading the charge insist that the time frame is strictly 24 hours in a day and that it has to be done exactly according to their reading of Genesis. Any disagreement, requests for clarification, or mention of the huge body of scientific knowledge is met with a strong rebuke. They are insisting on stuffing God into their own tidy little box and making Him play by their rules.

Myself? I don't know what to make of Genesis. I do know it has some useful tidbits in it if one is setting up a society. The whole notion of taking a day off, for example, that's good stuff. But for someone to stand there and tell me what is going on when Adam's descendants started marrying, moving to foreign lands, and building cities leads me to believe they're pulling it out of their back sides. The standard answer they mandate for any scientist bringing forth a theory of the early history of the Earth is "Where you there?". If you pull that one on them when they're handing out the doctrine on Genesis you get kicked out of the group. The Bible is not an easy book and I strongly suspect it was intended to be that way.

I prefer to not make God punch a time clock for me.

On the bright side, my wife and I have managed to call on several sick and elderly members of our congregation over the last few days. The visits were quite nice and it got me out of having to deal with the legalism surrounding the Genesis bunch.