Christians and Creationism

A new museum is set to open in Northern Kentucky later this month, one dedicated to the prospect that the universe was created about six thousand years ago, over the course of six days.

This belief implies that thousands of well-intentioned scientists over the course of history have apparently been deluded by the evidence. How did that happen? Was it because of some elaborate conspiracy? This would be remarkable, considering how many of them were Christians. Did it happen because the creator, perhaps as a prank, deceptively decided to make the world seem much older - to the tune of billions of years?

Needless to say, both prospects seem far-fetched. And this is, of course, a hard issue on which to find any middle ground. The most vocal critics of the creationists are usually the most bitter atheists, folks who respond to the excesses of religious fervor by showing a fanatical intolerance for any notion of faith whatsoever.

In practical terms it means the stern anti-creationists specifically loathe the Christians, of course. They are a more convenient target, and they can be criticized from within generous confines of a liberal Western democracy. It would be amusing to watch the devout rationalists attempt to rationalize their way out of a Wahabi school, if they were dropped into rural Saudi Arabia. I imagine their mocking tone would evaporate very quickly as they adopted the most respectful PC attitude, and they might miss the Jesus folks of Kentucky in comparison.

There are moderates - people who believe that the universe is more than an accidental collision of particles, and that life is more than a sequence of amino acids - although it may be those things too. For people in this silent but large population, a literalist interpretation of the bible seems too strange. But they also recognize that even in this strict fundamentalist dogma there are elements of their own faith, one based on compassion and redemption.

After all, Christianity demands something very radical, almost embarrassing: Love towards all, creationist and agnostic alike.