Sometimes you hear that Christianity and science are not compatible, and that’s just not true. Look at the way that Christians have thought about the universe throughout history. Once upon a time, Christians believed that Earth was a fixed point that everything in the universe revolved around. During that time, they quoted out of the poetic parts of the Bible, such as Psalms and Isaiah, and argued that they were the literal truth. However, as scientific evidence came to light suggesting otherwise, Christians did something amazing: they changed their minds. They did it slowly, perhaps, but they came to understand that they had understood both nature and Scripture wrong.
Those Christians found out, as some have forgotten, that changing your mind about an interpretation is not a compromise. You can change your view of a text, even the Bible, without undermining its authority. The Bible is the word of God. Our interpretations are not; they are our own, and they are fallible.
The important thing is to not get caught up in the little details. Take Creation for example: the question whether it took billions of years or seven literal 24-hour days is not really the point. Moses’ point wasn’t when God created the world or how God created the world but rather that God created the world. That is the bottom line of Genesis 1. All the other arguments are second- and third-level debates. If we are open and willing to look at the evidence, we may someday understand how God did it. Until then, be willing to change your interpretation of the text as new evidence comes to light.
Once you have that down, you can look a little deeper. You might be amazed to find that for such an ancient document, Genesis 1 does reflect a fairly accurate growth in biological complexity on Earth. In the first three days, God created habitats. In days four through six, God created inhabitants for those habitats. It progresses from plant life, to animal life, and finally to human life. Scientists agree this is more or less the order it happened in during something called the Cambrian Explosion. The fossil record and Genesis account tell the same story. The earth is younger than the universe, biological life is younger than the Earth, and human life is younger than most biological life.
On day six, after God created the animals, God created us. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26 NIV). Made in His image, we were entrusted with the responsibility to care for this creation as God cares for us. We were given stewardship over all the Earth has to offer. This isn’t a modern political idea (although it’s something we still wrestle with) but an ancient theological idea dating back 3500 years. The Earth is the Lord’s, and we were created in His image to care for it.
Going on, Moses reiterates the point that we were made in God’s image to make it completely clear: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27 NIV). God created the two genders differently but in every way equally important to one another. God made anatomically complementary pairs to further biological life on the planet, so that the two genders could work together to further God’s creation and God’s image.
That’s a pretty radical piece of writing for the ancient world: from the very beginning, the worth of every single human being was established.
Genesis says that God breathed life from the dust of the earth. Science agrees, because the atoms and material that make up us as humans are the same that compose animals and the dirt. The thing that sets us apart is that God set us apart from the rest of Creation.
God placed His image on us. We have 40 trillion cells inside of us, and inside each of those 40 trillion cells is a code. We call it the human genetic code, DNA, and it’s what makes up our identity, what makes us each unique. God placed that code, that message in you. That message says that you are made in the image of God, that every single person has equal worth, and that every single person is sacred.
From the very beginning, we were given a framework that says we have no right to ever embrace racism or sexism or any kind of elitism. Every person is made in the image of God – black, white, brown, male, female, rich, poor. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. We are all made in the image of God.
Every person you will ever meet is made in the image of God. Every person that we meet should remind us of our God. If we look up at the cosmos and are struck with awe for the glory of God, we should have that same feeling when we look at one another. This Advent, look around at Creation to see what God has done; this Advent, look at those around you to see God reflected back to you.
