Beta Readers

     The Bible may not be a “science book,” but if God inspired the creation stories, then we should not consider them myths either.

     To my great relief, our God has already done what we think impossible. His inspiration produced and preserved stories that will always contain truth. They not only explained the world to a Bronze-Age reader but also accepted a Greek philosopher’s perfect world, a Medieval European monster-filled world, and the 18th-century scientists’ miracle-based world. No other creation story has ever done so much.

     However, our old interpretations impose false conditions restricting the details from matching 21st-century science. For instance, the Bible never mentions a perfect creation with immortal humans. Those “facts” originate from a Greek worldview, not the Hebrew’s inspired text. The amendments change the meaning of the Genesis stories and their ability to describe historical events. We let our religious beliefs reject the evidence or degrade the stories into myths.

     Without the many additions, the Bible tells the same story as the evidence. Genesis 1 records the same cosmologic, atmospheric, geologic, and biological order uncovered by modern researchers. Genesis 2 through 11 describes human prehistory found by archeologists and anthropologists. These chapters match so well that they provide strong circumstantial evidence for the God within those stories.

     Christianity needs a paradigm shift in how we explain God’s creation. The Bible may not be a “science book,” but it does tell the same story. And, it always will.