my current wonderment continued - the problem

the problem

I have been taught since I was young that the earth is 6000 years old, that God created the heavens and the earth, all the plants, animals and sea creatures, and Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and that Noah's flood occurred about 4500 years ago, covering the whole earth in water for 40 days and 40 nights. My dilemna should be obvious by now. How does what I have been taught fit with what we are now told is scientific fact? This is something that I have struggled with for quite some time. As stated in the previous entry, I have never accepted macroevolution as true, partially due to my upbringing, and partially to the substantial evidence that the evolutionary model has yet been unable to explain. But what about tectonic plates? Volcanos? The formation of mountains and canyons and fresh water lakes? The erosion of cliffsides, the creation of sandstone? What about the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest? Why would God create the earth looking like it was really old? Doesn't make sense, does it? My dilemna has always been that I disregard macroevolution as fact, or even a working theory, but at the same time I have been overwhelmed by evidence of natural processes within the earth itself that work very, very slowly and seemingly explain much of the earth's surface and delicate balance of inner and outer workings.



Now, assuming that the earth is 4 billion years old, what is to stop macroevolution from being plausible? Nothing. There's no telling what could happen in 4 billion years, well 2 billion, after life is said to have begun. And why does it matter so much? So what if macroevolution is true? Here's the problem as I see it: the Bible states in Genesis 1:26 - 27, that God created man in his own image. If human beings are the product of millions of years of natural selection and accidental situations that caused living beings to change one into another, then God did not create them in his image. If human beings are the product of millions of years of natural selection and accidental situations that caused living beings to change one into another, then there was no plan for how life came into being and for what purpose. If all of this occured, then human beings are worthless animals, with no notable place in history, just another accident that will eventually be eradicated by some global climate change or the accidental formation of a new disease that kills and spreads faster than human beings are capable of adapting to immunity. If this is true, then our lives are pointless, and there is no God (at least not the God of the Bible). If there is no God, there is no Jesus Christ, and no reconcilliation from our sins. Indeed, there is no sin, and in that case no need for a savior at all, in fact, there is no higher morality than power politics. And if there is no God, no Savior, and no prospect of heaven, then my entire upbringing was for nought, any delusions I had of future rewards that would prompt me to view others as higher than myself and to serve them and love them and spread human kindness and compassion are worthless ventures that will make no notable difference in the span of the billions of years to come, that is if we don't destroy the earth by that time because of our petty wars over ideals that matter equally as little. This is the problem I have been facing.



I have dabbled in dating methods in the past, and learned how they worked, and it all makes sense. This was, as far I could tell, true science at work. Then I was recently jolted into an understanding of the foundation of this science, and now I have more confidence that I am not a worthless animal. Let's explore geological timescale.