I was innocently chatting with an acquaintance the other day when I stumbled into a live minefield with hair triggers. The shift happened so quickly I was caught running around blindfolded with my pants around my ankles.

The topic into which I ignobly walked was dating the age of the universe (as if you could actually catch a movie with an age…)

I know that folks hold different views as to how old this earth and universe is – but I did not expect those views to be so hard coded into one’s belief structure as to forbid a civil discussion about the conjunction of science and theology.

As a result of this ignoble crash, I have been contemplating the presuppositions that govern how I approach the supposed dichotomy of science and religion. A few of which are as follows:

• God made everything
• My relationship with Jesus is not solely based upon factual knowledge
• The Bible is a collection of books written within various cultural and historical contexts with the goal of telling the story of God’s interaction with humanity
• Science is another way of telling the story of God’s involvement with the world

Because of these presuppositions, I do not feel that science and religion are opposed to each other. Instead, I feel that they are just different ways of telling the story of life.

As a result, I feel freedom in discussion the age of the universe as revealed through physics, astronomy, geology, theology and any of the other ologies (i.e. I’m equally comfortable with an old or young earth). Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, I discovered not all followers of Jesus free this same freedom – which, personally, seems a little sad.

The odds are that by now someone reading this post is having a nervous fit at the concepts presented. Most likely this person(s) is screaming at the top of their lungs about the seven literal days of Genesis chapter one. It is to that person (and anyone else who happens to listen in) that I would like to address the following:

Tradition holds that Moses composed the book of Genesis fairly soon after the people of Israel were delivered from Egypt by the Hand of God. The primary religious and cultural view in Egypt and the surrounding area was one of multiple gods controlling and creating the natural elements (i.e. rivers, trees, mountains, storms, rain, etc). In response to this polytheist view of life, Genesis 1 and 2 promotes a monotheist view on creation in which God Almighty creates every single element and facets of nature.

Or in different words, the primary focus of the first two chapters of Genesis is to teach the Israelites that there was only one God who created and controlled everything in the world.

Hopefully I still have some readers after this post hits the internet… 😕

As you ponder the above text, please remember that I am a very graceful person who does not mind conversation about anything posted on Requisite Danger; so if you would like to discuss this further (in a loving matter), please feel free to leave a comment. 🙂