What Makes Me a Liberal: Genesis, Creation, and Mythology

Before I being I would like to apologize for the silence on my blog, it took far too long to research and write on this topic. I sat down several times and wrote but believed that my words were unsatisfactory, so I hope that this post proves to be, both, useful/informative and delightful to read. Enjoy!

In this area of the country, West Texas, supporting evolution is highly unpopular and has recently become a topic of debate for the Texas Education Agency. The Texas Education Agency has urged schools and science teachers to begin to teach the weaknesses of the theory of evolution, I can agree with this, one should have a fair view of all sides of an argument: the strong evidence and the weaker evidence. But, ultimately, I feel that this debate has more to do with religion than science. What is even more ridiculous and unfortunate is that those advocating such a view (that is, creationism) have been notorious for abusing the creation (e.g., oil production, hunting species into extinction, pollution, etc.).

“The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.”  Genesis 2:15

This is creation care not abuse. However, creation care is not the thesis of this blog post.

Faith and Science 

““…there is nothing inherently inconsistent in holding both to evolutionary theory and to faith in God the creator”” (Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding, 115).

As I have said in my previous post, I have a profound respect for the Bible and because of this, I cannot believe that the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 should be taken literally. When we begin to better understand the literary style and methods of the ancient Near Eastern culture, we realize that this text is not a text of science and should not be read as such. The issue of science and faith is not one of either/or; but, rather: both/and.

“Christian faith and theology have much to learn from modern biological research and scientific cosmology: that God has indeed created a dynamic and open rather than a static and closed universe; that God has created a highly differentiated rather than a monolithic universe; and that god has created a universe in which there is change, novelty, and indeterminacy as well as community, order, and coherence” (Migliore, Faith, 115).

Science and faith, evolution and Christianity go hand-in-hand. These two fields must begin to work together rather than continue to fight against one another. I am no scientist but from what I understand of the biblical text, advocating the evolutionary theory should not disqualify someone’s salvation or relationship with God.

Faith and Mythology 

“The stories of Genesis 1 and 2 are not scientific descriptions competing with modern cosmological theories but rather poetic, doxological declarations of faith in God, who has created and reconciled the world and each one of us” (Migliore, Faith, 113).

In high school, when my faith was immature and childish, I would have never imagined that I would eventually believe in evolution; and, although I cannot support my views with science, I can support my view by an understanding of the literary style of the Genesis creation accounts. These stories do not offer us a scientific understanding of creation and I firmly believe that the ultimate intention of the creation stories are not for the purpose of describing how the world came into being.

The following three ancient Near Eastern (ANE) story accounts relies heavily upon Mark McEntire’s, Struggling with God. 

The Enuma Elish
Is a “Babylonian text from the late second millennium BCE…” it tells about “the creation of the world in seven tablets. Creation is the result of conflict between the gods in this text, the primary purpose of which is to explain the emergence of Marduk as the most powerful god in the Babylonian pantheon” (McEntire, Struggling, 32).
In the Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, V. Stephen Parrish summarizes the Enuma Elish as such:

“Conflict within the divine society of throws Ti’amat, who personifies chaos, into mortal combat with Marduk. Marduk is victorious and from the slain body of Ti’amat he establishes the heavens and the earth. Subsequently humans are created from the blood of the rebellious god Kingu and a temple is constructed for Marduk in Babylon.” (V. Stephen Parrish, “Creation,” MDB, 182).

In the Enuma Elish humans were created in order “to serve the gods and deliver them from work. In Gen 1, humans share in the rule exercised by God. As God’s creatures humans rule over other creatures and the earth“ (183).

Enuma Elish Battle

The Atrahasis Epic
“An ancient, Babylonian account of the Mesopotamian flood story, written in Akkadian.” Essentially, the gods become tired of the noisome and decide to flood the earth. Atrahasis, a human, receives a warning from one of the gods and builds a boat (McEntire, Struggling, 33).

In the Genesis story, it was not noise that caused God to respond by sending a flood but rather God “could no longer tolerate human violence” and so he chose to cleanse the world.  (“Noah,” Lloyd R. Bailey, 618).

The Gilgamesh Epic

“The most complete version of this highly developed literary work was found in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who reigned in the seventh century BCE. The story is much older, and some partial, extant versions were likely written in the early second millennium. The early tablets tell of the adventures of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk during the third millennium, and his companion Enkidu, who dies in tablet 7 after the great battle with the Bull of Heaven. The famous flood story appears on the eleventh of twelve tablets, and appears to be a revision of the Atrahasis story with a different hero named Utnapishtim” (McEntire, Struggling, 33).

These previous stories are just a few of the examples of how the stories in the Pentateuch mirror other ANE/Mesopotamian stories. The Code of Hammurabi (18th cent. BCE) contains a set of laws that “are most often compared to the covenant code in Exodus 21-23.” The Legend of Sargon (Sargon was the King of Akkad during the late third millennium BCE) This poem is in the first-person voice and it “tells the story of Sargon being placed in a basket by his mother and sent off on the Euphrates River. Naturally, this story invites comparison to the story of Moses.” The Battle of Ba’al and Yam (Ugaritic peom from the 13th cent. BCE) “which may shed some light on the poem known as the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32.” And finally, the Hittite Treaties tells about ancient Hittite Empire in which is modern day Turkey in Asia Minor. “In the middle of the second millennium BCE they extended their influence down along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Numerous treaty texts from this era have been found, and they are often compared to covenant passages in the Pentateuch” (McEntire, Struggling, 33).

So here we can see that the Genesis creation accounts and the flood story compare and contrast to other ANE stories. These were stories that the Hebrews of that time period could easily understand and comprehend, they seem foreign to us because THEY ARE foreign to us. We must sift through centuries and centuries of commentary and insight in order to be able to get at the original understanding of these stories; and, unfortunately, even then we will still miss certain insights.

Concluding Remarks

Function – The Creation accounts in Gen 1-2 are there to tell us something more than just how we got here. Instead of the sun, moon and stars being gods themselves; the Hebrew God is the creator of these material objects. The Hebrew God is both ordering and creation in Genesis. In Genesis 1, God creates and separates (e.g., light from darkness, day from night, land from sea).

“One important purpose of Genesis 1 is to establish the seven-day weekly cycle as a basis for understanding and living a faithful life. Another purpose is either to provide or respond to a program for a week-long festival celebrating the creative acts of God. In both cases, the organization of life into a pattern of seven 24-hour days, ending in Sabbath rest, is vital”  (McEntire, Struggling, 41).

Cultural Context – A person living during the ANE time period (4th millennium BCE to 4th cent. BCE)  had a drastically different understand of the universe, ‘cosmos,’ than someone living in modernized, 21st cent. CE, Western civilization.

“The universe, for [the ancient Israelites’], is largely a closed entity consisting of three stories or levels. The earth is a flat disk surrounded by mountains or sea. Above is the firmament, a solid dome covering the entire world and resting on the mountains at the edges of the earth. Down in the heart of the earth is Sheol, the abode of the dead. The waters above and the waters below envelop the universe. The firmament overhead is transparent, allowing the blue color of the celestial water to be visible, and it has ‘windows’ or sluices to let down water in the form of rain. The heavens, including the sun, moon, and stars, under this vast canopy. The earth is supported from below by pillars sunk into the watery abyss…God, humans, and the dead each have their respective abode in the cosmos (Ps 115:16-17). However, God, who cannot be contained by the heavens (1 Kgs 8:27), is present on the earth and even in Sheol (Ps 139:8) as well”  (“Cosmology,” Douglas A. Knight, 175).

Evolution – Because the creation stories are in the genre of mythology and not science it should go without saying that believing in evolution, should in no way, exclude someone from the Christian faith. Science and faith must continue to grow and learn from one another.

Below is a list of 23 videos that I have found to be extremely useful in understand this topic. I have organized these in such a way that they should be watched consecutively, not necessarily all at once (it is about 90 minutes) but at least view them in order.

http://youtu.be/WF94SdvIlD4 – Are Science and Faith in Conflict?

http://youtu.be/fxQpFosrTUk – N. T. Wright – What do you mean by literal?

http://youtu.be/aIKNjhdKxrI – Greg Boyd – A Pastor’s Perspective on the Ultra-literal Perspective

http://youtu.be/7ybzcaEXYHQ – Os Guinness – Reading Scripture Faithfully

http://youtu.be/F6Fe63SYe_o – John Walton – Science and the Scripture (reading it in context)

http://youtu.be/hWnOvrHoKGU – Peter Enns – Understanding Origins and the Ancient Mind

http://youtu.be/mbG46dO6P28 – N. T. Wright – Understanding Ancient Text

http://youtu.be/LyO8h35446Q – John Walton – Understanding the Creation Narrative in Context

http://youtu.be/HhOPcFcHW3M – N. T. Wright – How Our Worldview Impacts Our Reading of Scripture

http://youtu.be/EOBRpdF2Wrs – Peter Enns – Incarnational Scripture

http://youtu.be/DMCFXNXYg1A – John Walton – Myth and Meaning

http://youtu.be/UVsbVAVSssc – Fr. Barron on Misreading Genesis

http://youtu.be/ffWo7nzL66o – N. T. Wright – Genesis

http://youtu.be/o26Ad-WdjOw – John Walton – Understanding Genesis

http://youtu.be/0Q1jCbY7jDc – Denis Alexander – Understanding Genesis and the Fall

http://youtu.be/s3uUAgyJfNo – Ard Louis – Interpreting Genesis

http://youtu.be/nkrS_YsJQoM – Dr. Joel Hunter – The Danger of Preaching on Genesis

http://youtu.be/oio93rWFruU – Kathryn Applegate – The Church Must not Ignore the Evidence

http://youtu.be/XwxlrN9ICnE – Denis Alexander – On The Barriers to Traditional Creation Theology

http://youtu.be/3BP1PpDyDCw – N. T. Wright – Adam and Eve

http://youtu.be/js7OObWhxLw – Daniel Harrell – A Pastor Deals with Adam and Eve

http://youtu.be/-X1YFpYhhzY – Ard Louis – Evolution and Intelligent Design

http://youtu.be/Cws74kULQuA – Ard Louis – Irreducible Complexity

Another great resource is The BioLogos Forum.