Genesis, the Big Bang Theory, and Dinosaurs, oh my

"In the beginning . . ."

My original thought for this blog was to pursue each book of the Bible in a month, but just with the opening chapter in Genesis, I could go on and on, eating up the entire month's worth.  So, I'm tossing my original thought out and pursuing each section as it comes up.

This will be a long journey, but it should be fun.

Genesis, chapter one, lists out God's six days of creation--day seven is at the beginning of chapter two.  What's interesting to note is that in verse 26, God gives us human beings the power over all of the animals.  Us.  Power over the creatures on the planet.  Pretty cool.

Backing up, in verse two it says that the universe was formless and desolate, engulfed in total darkness.  Then, in verse three, God commanded "Let there be light," and it appeared.  A few months back, I was listening to the radio, and I stumbled upon a religious program.  The two preachers were talking about their latest golf game and how beautiful it was on the course, and one commented: "Yeah, and to think this was all caused by an explosion!"  They got quite a chuckle out of it and its absurdity, but it caused me to pause and wonder why the Big Bang Theory is so dangerous to the other Creationists?  In the two verses I quoted above, it said the universe was formless and desolate and then God made light.  Sounds like the Big Bang to me.

Think on this for a minute.  Big Bang Theorists say that all matter was, at one time, squashed together into a mass the size of a grapefruit.  Then, an explosion caused all of the matter to expand outward.  What caused the grapefruit-sized mass to become in that spot?  Then, what caused the explosion afterwards?

The answer: God.

Genesis says so.

Back in college, I was part of a nondenominational religious group that met once a week for fellowship and singing--I'll forgo mentioning the name of this group, for reasons I don't care to bring up.  Anyway, aside from the weekly fellowship, I met in smaller group discussions regarding Bible teachings.  In one session, we discussed creationism in Genesis and one of the members said, "I think God put dinosaur fossils in the ground to test our faith, so therefore there have never been any dinosaurs.  Also, if there was life on other planets, the Bible would say so.  And since it doesn't, there isn't any life out in space.  It's just us people here on Earth."

Sorry, but we have a hard enough time loving our neighbors.  Why would we love someone several lightyears away from us?

I don't take a literal approach to the Bible.  Meaning, I don't believe God created the universe in six twenty-four hour days.  Think on this for a minute: in the beginning, for the shepherds and farmers in our early years, they wouldn't have the foggiest notion on molecular this and nuclear that and quantum physics this and . . . you get the picture.  But by framing the creation in six days, to coincide with our seven-day weeks, it's something for the layman to understand.

Think of Occam's Razor for a minute.  Typically, the simpliest explanations are better than complex ones.  Hence, the creation of the six-day creation.

And about God planting dinosaur fossils to test our faith?

Give me a break.