Our Origin Story #1 of 21:

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. (Hb 11:3)

Jimmy Cowart graced us with a visit yesterday morning. Something about his sabbatical year brought him to the West coast and to our home. We sat out on the patio for a few hours. He wanted to talk science and faith. So we did. It’s something he intends to give attention to during his sabbatical.

Jimmy’s interest in science and faith didn’t come from any spiritual struggle. As if he felt his faith in Christ to be threatened by science. Jim is secure in his faith. But out of his faith, he wonders if we can’t get these two worlds of faith and science to get along—to talk to each other and respect each other. How could that happen? Where would we begin? I think it has something to do with both science and religion being faithful to their own stories. We wouldn’t want science to pretend that it is religious; nor, would we want religion to pretend like it is science. By faith we believe in our Creator. “Creator”, “creation” and “creature” are religious terms. They are words of faith, hope and love. Science doesn’t use words like “creation”.

In conversation with David Christian’s recent book Origin Story (2018), I would like to work on our Christian origin story as revealed to us in the Bible. David Christian, his name not his faith, believes a) we need an origin story, b) the biblical story is no longer believable; and thus, c) we need a new origin story generated not by religion, but by scientific inquiry. Such scientific inquiry cannot speak of a Creator “because,” as Christian insist, “modern science can find no direct evidence for god” (p. 25). Maybe “direct evidence” is hard to come by. There’s something elusive about God. Yet, the universe certainly gives us clues that there just might be an Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth. Is it fair for science to rule out such possibilities?

So, bit by bit, morning by morning, I would like to give renewed attention of our story of creation as revealed to us in Holy Scripture. It’s our faith seeking understanding. A good place to start. As Christian points out, our origin story has a way of forming who we are and how we understand our place in the universe. Our Genesis story is really good at that.