[_ Old Earth _] Creation Stewardship

[cre8ivmind]

This is my first post, I am probably on the wrong forum, and so I hope I don't get any bad first impressions...

Anyways... I am a Christian and I believe that it is important to protect our environment. I don't understand why some Christians think that protecting nature/Earth is paganism. I respect Bush for preserving our moral values, but apparently he is extremely anti-environment. From what I've been reading about his administration, he seems to think God only created humans, and that the devil created everything else. We need to preserve nature, as all of it is God's creation.

Another thing I'd like to point out is, I believe the Earth is as old as scientists say it is, and that we evolved from apes. I believe the creation story is not to be taken literally; it is metaphorical and is useful for teaching morals. God gradually created everything we see today through billions of years of biological and geological processes. If God is infinite, why would he be in such a hurry to create the Earth in a literal 7-day period? It would make sense that he'd take his time.

I hope I haven't offended anyone by my above statements; I certainly wouldn't want to disrupt the peace and harmony at this forum.

 

[handy]

Hi Cre8ivmind, welcome to the board. This would be the right place to post your thoughts on this subject, and while I can't speak for everyone, I find nothing offensive about your first post here.

I actually agree with you on several of your points. I believe that Christains should be at the forefront of good earth stewardship and that God will hold us accountable for how we treated the earth and His creation.

I will say that I agree totally that God could have used a process of billions of years to create the world and all that is in it. I also believe that He could have done it in 24/6. I don't think that Genesis 1 is all that cut and dried as to a specific time frame of how long God took to create the world. Let me phrase it this way; God has the power to create everything within a moment of time, but the evidence shows that He took a long time. I used to be a strict 24/6 believer, now, after carefully considering what Genesis 1 actually says, and more importantly doesn't say, I think that the process could have taken eons and not days.

I do disagree that we evolved from apes. I believe in the integrity of the Scriptures. Now, Genesis 1 could be a strict narrative of history, or it could be a parable. But, even in parables, I don't think God puts anything that is fundamentally untrue. And, it is repeated over and over in Genesis that He made each after its own kind. I believe that a process of genetics and heredity have made many changes to individual species over the course of time, but that essentially a horse is a horse, of course, from the time God said "Let there be" to now. I know that working with fossil DNA is still fairly theoretical at this point, but if and when they get to a point that they can test the DNA of fossils, I truly believe that it will show species specific DNA, "each after it's own kind".

 

[Guest]

I do disagree that we evolved from apes. I believe in the integrity of the Scriptures. Now, Genesis 1 could be a strict narrative of history, or it could be a parable. But, even in parables, I don't think God puts anything that is fundamentally untrue. And, it is repeated over and over in Genesis that He made each after its own kind. I believe that a process of genetics and heredity have made many changes to individual species over the course of time, but that essentially a horse is a horse, of course, from the time God said "Let there be" to now. I know that working with fossil DNA is still fairly theoretical at this point, but if and when they get to a point that they can test the DNA of fossils, I truly believe that it will show species specific DNA, "each after it's own kind".

Handy, evolution is a long process, just like the creation of Earth is... so while the Bible says that God created the Universe in 7 days, we now know that it wasn't the case (as science has proved so). Actually, the 7 day creation almost reminds me of the Big Bang theory... If God didn't make the world in 7 days, then how do we know that God created people from dirt?

Just think about it, it took God billions of years to build the earth (the new claim), yet s/he made man from dirt? Does that seem reasonable? And if you don't think that you should question God, then why did s/he give you reason?

You need reason to figure things out for yourself, not to go along with things just because if you don't go along with them your ego will be hurt.

 

[Drew]

I believe that the ultimate destination for believers - the place we will spend eternity - is not "up there somewhere in heaven" but in fact "down here" in a renewed and redeemed world. Eternity will not be angels and lights in the sky and disembodied souls. It will be bodies and trees, and rivers, and cats, etc.... Check out Romans 8:18 and following. God is not going to destroy this world, He is going to transform it.

I wonder if my old pal unred, who I think disagrees with me on the bit about the earth not being destroyed, will find me out in this forum........ :-D

In any event, I think the Scriptures teach that the renewed earth will both be continuous and discontinuous with the present world. And at the end of that majestic account of the life to come in 1 Cor 15, Paul concludes with this very interesting statement:

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain

I think Paul is saying, among other things, that our stewardly work caring for creation now will survive the transformation and be present in the world to come. Creation is "very good" (as God says in Genesis) - it will not be thrown away. We need to take care of it.

 

[Guest]

I believe that the ultimate destination for believers - the place we will spend eternity - is not "up there somewhere in heaven" but in fact "down here" in a renewed and redeemed world. Eternity will not be angels and lights in the sky and disembodied souls. It will be bodies and trees, and rivers, and cats, etc.... Check out Romans 8:18 and following. God is not going to destroy this world, He is going to transform it.

Note you start with "I believe"... that's all you can do, so for anybody to argue science with religion is just incompatible... You can believe ANYTHING that you want to believe, and that's you prerogative! You may not even believe in science, but you must understand that science is not a belief. Science is a tool that helps us understand our environment (and many more things). Science is the ultimate expression of the natural curiosity that exists in humans, there is no question about that... in addition science is consistent throughout the entire world, but this is not the case with religion.

For example, Christianity has many "flavors" - Christian Orthodox, Catholic, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, Puritan, Evangelist, Baptist, Lutheran, and the list goes on and on. Christianity is just one of hundreds of other religions that exist in the world, none of which come natural to people. If a person is born in isolation they will NEVER know about Christianity, they might create their own "religion", but it will never be Christianity. If God is Christian, and God created people, then there will be a natural awareness of his/her existence, but that is not the case. The whole point here is that Religion is based on beliefs or faith, and for anybody to try to contradict science with religion is completely absurd.

Science tries to explain why our lives are as such, while Religion tries to explain how our lives "should" be. One can always prove there is a better way to live our lives given some reasonable circumstances, but one may never EVER prove that gravity does not exist.

 

[YehwehPaladin]

Here are my thoughts, and someone may have stated the same already but here's my two cents. Watching after the environment is important, in fact God commanded man to do so. However, we also know that the Bible says the environment will be crashing all around us toward the end times. We see this becoming more and more evident. The way I see it, do what you can in your area, yes. But if the world dies around us and you're doing your part to save it, don't worry about everyone else doing what's wrong. God's going to create a new heaven and new earth and it old shall pass away. So I say why save a tree when you can spend those resources on saving a soul. Something ifininately more valuable to God. (forgive my spelling and grammer errors)