My Journey out: How I went from Young Earth to Evolution
Introduction
I have encountered many struggles in my faith as a believer. One of the first ones I ever came across was the issue of science vs faith. In a stream I did (Izzy, 2024), I recall a time in 8th grade when I was suffering in my science class because 1: I did not care about the study of rocks and 2: I was a Young Earth Creationist (YEC), thinking the earth was 6000 years old as opposed to the conventional science I was seeing in these studies of rocks (Hazen, 2010). I remember coming home from a Bible camp that featured an apologist called Bob Duko. He showed the evidence of a Young Earth view. I was so happy when I came home to tell my parents all the smart things I had come to learn about these science and faith issues.
In more recent times, I have concluded Evolutionary Creationism (EC). Evolutionary Creationism (sometimes called Theistic Evolution or BioLogos) is a view with two main premises-God as creator and sustainer of all things (Col 1:6–17, NIV), and “…evolution as the best scientific explanation we have for how life on Earth has changed over time” (Biologos, Para 1). In this article, I would like to explain how and why I changed my views (no it’s not because I do not believe in the Bible lol).
Bible
This may be surprising, but I changed my views primarily because of the Bible. The most holy writings do not support the YEC view. This article is not a Biblical exegesis on these issues (That will occur in future articles). However, I will flag some things that changed my views over time. Chief among them was death before the fall. As a YEC, I believed that everything was perfect in the world God made. Then the fall happens, resulting in death and sin for the entirety of the human race. Biblical Scholar Van Ee (2013) has pointed out that there was death and the possibility of human death before the fall of man. There are many reasons to accept this view. For example, it is written,
“And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken,” (Gen 3:22–23)
As we see, Adam and Eve did not take from the tree of life, which would have made them immortal. This shows that humans were made mortal, meaning they could have died in the garden. Again, I will write more articles that dive deeper into death in the garden, the pre-adamic race, and more. Suffice it to say, YEC is not supported by the Bible. Many YECs will argue that you have to reject the Bible and put your faith in science to get an alternative view. Hear me when I tell you that I reject this view because of what the Bible says, not because of what the science says primarily.
Church History
In a rather humorous rap battle between Charles Darwin and Ash Ketchum, Darwin says, “My research reversed the first words of the church…” (1:04–1:06). This is the impression I and many other people had about the history of Christianity. The YEC view is the dominant conservative and biblical view in church history. Then the evil boogyman Charles Darwin comes along and changes everything. Now we have to contend with these “Liberal” positions that threaten the authority of the Bible.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Many have pointed out how recent and reactionary YEC is. Hart (2022) showed how accepting Christians were of evolution in the 1800s. When looking at church history, 2 things seem true. True Christians have always disagreed about how to understand Genesis, and Christians were Theistic Evolutionists (TE) before they were YEC (Jones, 2022a; Breshears, 2014). You can imagine how frustrating it can be to be told you’re a heretic for accepting a view that is older than the view they are accepting.
The character of the movement
I want to be careful of my critique here, as I understand that not all YEC people will agree that this stuff is problematic. I also know all religions have people who can make it look bad for the rest of them, Christianity being no different. That said, a big turn-off for this movement in Protestantism is how nasty and questionable the movement can be. This also goes along with the consequences of the movement.
This movement makes atheists. The dichotomy it makes between science and church lies about what science says, and the insane propaganda makes it hard not to become an atheist. Evolution has been blamed for pornography, racism, and more societal ills. They say these things as if the Roman Empire didn’t have plenty of pornographic material, or Christians didn’t have something to do with racism long before Darwin. As written, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc 1:9).
So much money is poured into creation museums, despite their questionable biblical interpretation and persons (Stanhope, 2020; Jones, 2022b). Some will condemn you to eternal hell because you do not accept a 200-year-old (and that generous) interpretation of the Bible. Again, I want to be clear. There are great YEC Christians, both intellectually and morally. Christ has saved them. The Holy Spirit deifies all believers, including YEC advocates. But given all of this, I hope you can understand why someone would want to leave this movement.
Conclusion
It is important to say, broadly speaking, that all three mainstream creationist views are Christian, held by true Christians throughout the centuries. You are not unsaved if you do or do not hold to a literal 6 days, nor do you threaten the authority of the Bible. Furthermore, I am willing to change my views based on whatever evidence, mainly biblical, someone has. I’m open to being wrong. That said, there are many reasons why I swung the pendulum in the opposite direction. I hope this article explains it well to the viewer. I hope you will join me for this series. Show love and unity in our disagreements, as it is written, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn 4:8) and “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one…” (Jn 17:20–21).
https://linktr.ee/ThatChristianNerd
Originally published at https://www.followersoftheshepherd.org.
Breshears, J. (2014). How young-earth creationism became a core tenet of American fundamentalism, part 2. Reasons to Believe. Retrieved from https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/how-young-earth-creationism-became-a-core-tenet-of-american-fundamentalism-part-2
Ee, V., & John, J. (2013). Death and the Garden: : An examination of original immortality, vegetarianism, and animal peace in the Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia [UC San Diego]. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qm3n0mt
ERB. (2016, November 14). Ash Ketchum vs Charles Darwin. Epic rap battles of history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7H99-7wxk
Hart, S. (2022, March 7). Christianity’s shocking acceptance of Darwinian evolution in the 1800’s. What your Pastor didn’t tell you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFONKtO3mbM
Hazen, R. M. (2010). How old is Earth, and how do we know? Evolution: Education and Outreach, 3(2), 198–205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-010-0226-0
Jones, M. (2022a). The origins of young earth creationism. Peaceful Science. https://doi.org/10.54739/vobv
Jones, M. (2022b). Kent Hovind’s ex-wives tell all! Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBdXgbei7e4
ThatChristianNerd. (2024, June 22). A biblical case for deification: The exegesis of 1 John 3:1–3. Medium. https://medium.com/@ThatChristianNerd/a-biblical-case-for-deification-the-exegesis-of-1-john-3-1-3-fb8b0a239ba5
What is evolutionary creation? (n.d.). BioLogos. Retrieved June 25, 2024, from https://biologos.org/common-questions/what-is-evolutionary-creation
Izzy. (2024). Where did the universe come from? The NerdVision #16. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=457ts5nereg
