openswitch

Just a reminder, today is Halloween. Don’t give the kids crappy candy. And please, for the love of all that’s good don’t give fruit or toothbrushes.

This question has been the subject of much debate in a previous post that went slightly off topic. It was suggested that I perhaps write an old-earth vs. young-earth post so the conversation could be continued in an on topic manner. When I can, I try to honor my reader’s suggestions and requests so that’s basically what I’m doing here.

The short of it

I’m sure you’re wondering exactly what I think about this issue. Not wanting to disappoint, I believe the earth is old, VERY old. Billions of years old. That said, I’m also staunchly an Intelligent Design proponent. Moreover, I not only believe that God is directly responsible for all that exists, but that He is intimately involved with and concerned about it today. This issue, in my mind, is not a biblical one. That is, I believe the Bible has very little, if anything at all, to say on the matter other than God is responsible for it all. More on that later (Skip to that section).

Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I’m not a terribly technical guy. Regarding this topic I won’t get sucked into the argument of specifics. Some would say that’s where the reality lies, but I disagree. I think the bulk of this argument lies in the arena of common sense general observation.

Getting a little more specific

Young-earthers like to point out dinosaur footprints next to human footprints and petrified trees that span geological ‘dirt’ layers. In the specifics they’re right. But from my point of view these are clearly an exception to the geological evidence, not the rule. Young-earthers also like to point out that Evolution is a theory. Indeed it is. But let’s not get confused about what, exactly, a theory is. Gravity is a theory. Thermodynamics is a theory. We may call it a “law” but that’s only because it has not yet been disproved. Any and all scientific findings are relegated to one biosphere. We have no other planets, no other “histories” with which to compare our findings. We’re dealing with very limited (and somewhat incomplete) data and coming to the best conclusion we can at this time. Everything we discover is a theory. The undeniable fact of the matter is the Theory of Evolution has stood for some 100+ years and has yet to be disproved. That’s longer than, say, the theory that O.J. Simpson is innocent of killing his wife.

The real issue

The real issue for me lies in two areas: First, poor hermeneutics regarding the Bible. Second, common sense reasoning general observation regarding nature.

1. Regarding biblical hermeneutics, or any hermeneutics for that matter, you must take many things into account when reading a text. For instance, you must consider the intended purpose of the text, the audience to which is was written, the current events occurring when it was written, and several other minutiae that escape my mind at the moment. Those are probably the three most important ones regarding Genesis though.

   The Bible is not a science text-book.
   

   “God had the Bible written because He wanted to communicate Himself and His character with the human race”

   More importantly, it’s an Eastern book, it wasn’t written in the way our Western minds think. God had the Bible written because He wanted to communicate Himself and His character with the human race. Regarding the book of Genesis it’s plain to me that that at least the first few chapters dealing with Creation are metaphor. Why? Well, among other things I need only to look at the verse that says, “On the seventh day God rested.” What?! Why does an infinite, omnipotent immaterial being need rest? Oh, right, it’s metaphorical language.

   Moses was writing Genesis to communicate the origin of the world to a group of people who were supremely non-scientifically minded. I’m not saying they were stupid. But it’s fairly obvious, at least to me, that we know more about science than they did 4,000 years ago. If Moses was really trying to be scientifically accurate, I would imagine he would have said somewhere in there, “And then God created a heliocentric solar system consisting of nine eight planets.” That, at least, would have saved the human race from believing that Earth was the center of the universe for all that time. It would also have prevented me from being taught that Pluto was actually a planet and not just a ball of ice. Poor Pluto.

   My point is that the main purpose of the Bible is to tell the human race what God is like and how He works. God is responsible for all that exists. He made it all through Christ.

2. Regarding nature, from what I gather in the book of Romans God made nature and put His divine “fingerprint” all over it. He did that because He wants to be discoverable.
   

   “I cannot believe that God is some kind of cosmic prankster”

   More than that, I believe that God wants us to be able to use our inquisitive minds to figure out how He made the earth/universe. I cannot believe that God is some kind of cosmic prankster, whereby He created the universe with the appearance of being billions of years old just to lead us down the wrong track. Could He have created with the appearance of age? Of course. But the inescapable conclusion would be that He did it in order to deceive. I reject that. That’s not the God I see in the Bible. The God I know wants yearns to be discovered. The Bible tells us why God created, science tells us how God created.

Concluding thought

I do not see why an old-earth theory cannot coexist rather nicely with the biblical narrative. It’s as simple as that. They’re not mutually exclusive entities.

The WiPEs: A Deperate Plea for President Bush. “Their hatred of you causes them to lose all sense of reason and judgment. You literally cause WiPEs to go insane.” Excellent post at The Evangelical Outpost.

[via The Nietzsche Family Circus]

I just finished my first week of running and I have some shin pain. I’ve been very easy on my body and shouldn’t be hurting. Can someone explain to me the difference between normal shin pain from running and shin splints?

I’ve only been in full-time ministry for about 4 years now. In the grand scheme of things this makes me a green horn, a n00b, a tenderfoot. I’m learning new things seemingly every day. I’d just like to take a minute for a mental dump of some of the things I’ve learned recently. The worst case scenario is everybody but me already knew these things and I’m preaching to the choir. Best case scenario is no one but me knew these things and I’m really going to educate a lot of people. I have a feeling, however, that the realistic scenario will be somewhere in between these two extremes. On with the list!

• You’ve got to plan ahead. WAY ahead. Identify your major ministry events. Make absolutely sure you start planning them a full year in advance. Remember, you’ll never get up to the date of the event and say to yourself, “Man, I sure wish I had spent less time planning for this!”
• No matter what your specific ministry position is (youth minister, music minister, senior pastor, etc.), your ministry is NOT just to that particular group of people.
  

  I MUST see myself as a general minister to everyone in the church

  As a student minister I can not view my ministry simply as being to youth and their families. I MUST see myself as a general minister to everyone in the church … who specializes with the youth. This has been my latest lesson in ministry, btw. The possible exception to this would be if you ministered in a very large church with a huge, specialized, staff.

• Clean your office. This should go without saying but for me it didn’t. I’m not a “messy” person, but I’m not a terribly tidy person either. Church work is very different from other work in this way. In most other jobs the only people who care whether or not your office is clean is your boss and yourself. In ministry, however, a messy office becomes the business of the whole church. And that can get very ugly very fast.
• Get as many people involved with your events as possible. It’s possible to over-delegate and it’s possible to under-delegate but your goal as a minister should be first and foremost to equip your church members for ministry. They’re not there just to be fed by you, they’re there to be equipped by you.
• In light of the above lesson, it’s also extremely important that a minister not be afraid to get his hands dirty. The best ministers are those that lead from the trenches.

Those are the most recent lessons in ministry that I’ve learned. What have you learned recently? Not just about ministry or even anything related to religion; I’m just interested in the life lessons you’ve been clobbered over the head with in the past few months.

MySpace Is So Last Year. “Such is the social life of teens on the Internet: Powerful but fickle.”

One would think that after the infamous Seinfeld episode involving George going swimming and then being observed in a compromising position by a female, no one in their right mind would put the word “Shrinkage” into their advertising. Granted, this sticker was found on a pair of pants my wife recently purchased and not on a pair of men’s underwear. Wait, now that I think about it, that might not be a bad advertising approach. “This pair of underwear is designed to provide the wearer with minimal shrinkage.” I’d buy ‘em.

Guidelines for Cats: “Humans have three primary functions: to feed us, to play with and give attention to us, and to clean the litter box.”