Scene- the common room of my dorm.People- four girls that I have been going to youth group with and talking about faith with. Three guys, one of which has conservative Christian upbringing, one is Catholic, and the last is a agnostic.
Subject- Evolution.
The Catholic guy mentions that he argued about evolution with his Christian Reformed roommate for about two hours the other day. Immediately the four other girls stare at him with disbelieving gazes.
"You believe in evolution?" one girl asks in disbelief.
The boy looks over to her and says, "Yes I do. It is a scientific fact that micro evolution exists. As do adaptations."
All at once the four girls, and the one conservative boy start muttering and clan together in the circle. One of the girl gestures to me to join, so that they can shut anyone who does not agree with them out.
"What? I believe in evolution." I say nonchalantly picking a fuzzy off of my sweatpants leg.
Another girl turns to me and gasps. "I do not understand," she says "You said you were a Christian- how does that work?"
Never have I felt so insulted. How long has this girl known me? A week and a half, and we have talked about a lot of other things. She knows that I do not drink, smoke, or have sex. She knows that I am trying to work on my relationship with God. She knows that I talk to him aloud in my dorm room sometimes, and that I can be found sitting alone and laughing as though sharing some inside joke.
I stand up from my arm chair. "Listen, first of all you do not know me that well." The four girls look at me with wide eyes. Their eyes are glazed over. I can see that nothing I can say will ever make them understand or respect or see me as the same 'worth' of a Christian as they are again. "But if we are going by the bible here (which you all have been quoting nonstop) I think there is a new testament verse that says something like this:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
I looked into the girls eyes, "And I am pretty sure that in there it does not say, "And everyone who believes in him and does not believe in evolution is not condemned. So I am pretty sure that just because I believe in the fact that Galapagos finches adapt to their environment does not give you a right to ask me that question."
The small pixie girl turns to me and shakes her head.
They all look away. And discuss how dinosaurs died in the flood. And that carbon dating does not work because the flood waters pressure pushes down and makes the carbon dating look later than it actually is.
I find myself thinking, 'I thought at Grand Valley I would be shut out by agnostics, atheists, or some other world view/religions. Ironic that I find myself being shut out by Christians who will not even listen to a intellectual argument.'
I thought Christian High was preparing me to be among people who (by definition) do not believe in the same things as me. But in the end my school gave me the tools of discussion not to be swayed by this kind of peer pressure. I will not drink. I will not smoke. I will not have sex. I will not change my beliefs just to fit in. Thank you Christian High for this unexpected gift.
I do not believe that people came from apes. I do think that dinosaurs did not die in the flood, but were in fact around and gone long before humans walked the earth. I believe in micro evolution. Not macro, and I obviously believe in intelligent design.
Is it not faith that we can trust that God will make necessary adjustments to life on earth?
Evolution reviles our Lord to have patience, cleverness, and love for the things He created. God does not just let things be stuck in how they are, no He allows everything to grow, and change, and be better than it was before.
