Rachel Held Evans – Age 27 left the church – now 30
I left the church because I believe the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that humans share a common ancestor with apes, which I was told was incompatible with my faith.
How literally do we take the first chapter of Genesis has a huge impact on the church today. The joy of our theology is that we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and has no error concerning our salvation. In other words, everything we need to know about God's plan for us to have a connection with God and to be part of His Kingdom is completely spelled out in the Bible. Leaving the door open to the realization that there may be some translation issues - some interpretation issues - some symbolism - cultural influences - etc. that have impacted the Bible as we have it today. So the six days of creation do not have to be interpreted as literal six twenty four hours. The Bible was inspired by God and written by people whose personalities vary and whose perceptions of life vary.
For many who believe that the Bible is perfect/without error and must be completely interpreted as literal - there is no way to incorporate a 4.5 billion year old world. God created the world in 6 days and so the world is only thousands of years old. This is the only literal way to translate the Bible and the creation story. And if the Bible can't be taken literally in the creation story, well; you have to throw out the Bible completely.
For me the greater issue is to let God be God. Not a single one of us was there when God created this world. So let God be the creative and awesome God of all creation. If God wanted to create the world in six days and make it look like it took Him millions of years, who am I to say God couldn't do it that way. If God is not as limited to time as we are and he took millions of years to create and revealed it to man as these are the six time periods of development I used to create the world, who am I to say God couldn't do it that way.
To continue to reach this generation of young people we will have to expand our understanding in the areas of science and technology. They are well schooled and we will have to be more open minded to the complicated issues of the world than the church has been in the past. I try to read from the Christian 6 day creation side of the argument as well as 4.5 billion year old science side of the argument so I can be knowledgeable and have a intelligent discussion with people who have issues on both sides of the issue.
For me - the issue is not clear enough to take a stand that will turn people away from God on either side of the issue.
