REVOLUTION OF EVOLUTION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4EIODEpYXE
I have intentionally utilized by senses to not indulge in the readings of evolution or other theories outside my belief of God’s creation. I didn’t want to be swayed from eternal life. This book was a school requirement that again challenged me to read other views. Author Herari begins his history timeline at 13.5 billion years with matter and energy appears. (Kindle, location 41) Is that matter and energy God? Philippians 2:13 (MSG) says, “That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.”
I’m neither a scientist nor a history buff. I have always been intrigued and leery of human’s versions of what happened on the earth during times where records were not maintained. The years designated in this timeline is one that intrigues me. The author says, “3.5 billion years began the organism and biology. Would that the forming of life. 6 million years was the designation of animals and humans, as well as, 2.5 million years was designated of Genus Homo appearing. (Kindle, location 4)
As a believer in the Bible, I believe at the beginning God created. Genesis 1: 24-31 (KJV) says, And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so…26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat…31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” The mammals, fowls, and animals were the first living things to be created. Many believers have emphasized that God’s time is not the same as ours. Scriptures 2 Peter 3:8 (KJV) says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” So in the creation concept, we agreed that it wasn’t realistic to our calendar days. Could there possibly be millions of years between the creations of the animals to the creation of humanity?
Author Harari addresses his theory through several areas. For example:
- Cognitive Revolution – where man was able to acquire knowledge of human species.
He made a comparison of how the Homo sapiens conquered other sapiens similar to the food chain process. The stronger and smarter species is on top of the chain. At some time, the homo sapiens conquered the other sapiens. Scriptures Genesis 1:26 discusses God’s commandment of man’s dominion over all things on earth.
Author Harari spoke on “humans first evolved in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago from an earlier genus of apes called Australopithecus, which means ‘Southern Ape.’ They were in Africa and moved to Eurasia.” (Kindle, 5) Over his timeline and revolution, he states that “Like it or not, we are members of a large and particularly noisy family called the great apes.” (Kindle, 5) We have seen many movies exploring or demonstrating the life of the past, for example, The Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, and Avatar just to name a few.
Man evolving from Apes is a statement that comes through the evolution theory but has been used as an undertone comment towards the African American race. Do you remember the Facebook attack on the First Lady Obama, as one current example? As I was listening to an animated youtube presentation summarizing this book he made a demonstration on the Genus species. “The Australopithecus ‘southern Ape’ moved from Africa to Australia. He used Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example of a Homo Neanderthalnsis.” [1] He was unusually large. I remember in my youth people would refer to people who didn’t agree with them as ‘Neanderthals.’
- Agricultural Revolution – recognizing the change in the food chain.
He covered several areas in this section. The earlier years the Harari says about “10,000 years ago, humans sowed seeds, watered plants, plucked weeds from the ground and led sheep to prime pastures hoping it would provide them with more fruit, grain, and meat – the Agricultural Revolution.” They broke away from the food chain to a method that they believed would be sustainable. Agricultural is one of the most leading trade missionaries believed essential to teach the poor to the survivor in Africa, China, and other countries.
He discussed the injustice in history pointing out that “humans created imagined orders and devised scripts.” (Kindle, 133) America made a “proclamation of the equality of all men in 1776. It created a hierarchy between men, who benefited from it, and women, whom it left disempowered. It created a hierarchy between whites, who enjoyed liberty, and blacks and American Indians, who were considered humans of a lesser type and therefore did not share in the equal rights of men.” (Kindle 133) The Food chain concept is still active based on economic and race. There is an economic chain: The wealthy are high on the chain. There is a race chain: The non-whites are at the bottom., As a part of his injustice area, Author Harari’s included a picture from South Africa to emphasize the Food chain concept. It was “a sign on a South African beach from the period of apartheid, restricting its usage to ‘whites’ only.” (Kindle, 134) This year, I visited with my cohorts the museum in Capetown, South Africa on apartheid. We learned about its history.
- Scientific Revolution – “the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions.
It was inconceivable that the Bible, the Qur’an or the Vedas were missing out on a crucial secret of the universe – a secret that might yet be discovered by flesh-and-blood creatures.” (Kindle, 251) The natural response of some is that if it were important, it would have been documented. “Darwin never argued that he was ‘The Seal of the Biologists’and that he had solved the riddle of life once and for all…Physicists admit that they don’t know what caused the Big Bang, or how to reconcile quantum mechanics with the theory of general relativity.” (Kindle, 252) We all have to, at some time, reach a point of faith. Having to swallow the evolution for some believers in God’s creation was like swallowing Castrol oil. It just didn’t go down good. The school system included evolution in their history curriculum to provide additional support or views on the existence of human beings. Science isn’t bad it has made many achievements in our world and will continue to.
The Food chain concept will be with us. It’s the nature of survival created in all living creatures. As Homo Sapiens, can we all be respectful of each other and love one another as Jesus commanded? Not based on position or color but as the people of God.
[1] Wolfsuka, SAPIENS BY YUVAL NOAH HARARI | ANIMATED BOOK SUMMARY | PART 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4EIODEpYXE, accessed October 12, 2017.
About the Author
Lynda Gittens
5 responses to “REVOLUTION OF EVOLUTION”
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Lynda,
Thanks for the post. I have always been very interested in the intersection of science and faith. I had a very influential Sunday school teacher in high school who was a scientist (college professor) and then a former scientist as an advisor in seminary…… Those two influences combined with my interest in history allowed me to have a different perspective on the interaction of science and faith.
As a historian, one of the most interesting things about their interaction is that the majority of the conflict – and certainly the assumption that faith and science are definitively in and must be in conflict – is a relatively new concept.
In fact many of our greatest scientific minds were also women and men of faith.
My freshman year of high school, my Sunday school teacher walked my classmates and I through a comparison of Genesis stories (there are 2 after all) of creation and a scientific account of the beginning of the big bang.
He walked us through the points that were complimentary and noted, if you didn’t focus on our current definition of time, there were relatively few points of dissonance.
One thing that he told us that has always stuck with me was this:
‘What is the point of the creation stories in Genesis? Isn’t the point, at it’s clearest, simply that God made it?
With that in mind, now consider the point of scripture – in this case to communicate to God’s people that God created everything.
Now, would a scientifically accurate account of creation had any meaning or value for those that first heard it?
The Bible isn’t intended to be a scientific textbook – it is love story about God’s irrepressible love for all of God’s people.
That perspective has always been meaningful and helpful for me, so I thought I would share it.
‘Food chain” or “hierarchy” those in power do their best to keep the ones they are “feeding on” enslaved for the benefit of the rich/white/male.
There certainly were some connections to what we saw in South Africa.
Thankfully, Jesus turned that upside down and told us what really matters.
It was a difficult book to get through because I didn’t agree with much of it. But Harari’s comparison of religion to evolution was spot on.
Great conclusion Lynda! The economy of God’s system is about loving each other not consuming each to get to the top of the food chain. Beautiful and powerful reminder.
Love this analogy: “Having to swallow the evolution for some believers in God’s creation was like swallowing Castrol oil. It just didn’t go down good.” Having grown up on Castrol oil, I can still taste the horrible after-taste and remember tasting it for hours after consumption. Similarly, evolution doesn’t go down smoothly either and keeps haunting you with its bad after-taste because it never made sense to begin with. Just too many assumptions and unknowns. But the saddest most tasteless part of it all, is the absence of God in the creation process. It’s like having a play without the star performer. Blah and tasteless. Thanks Lynda for the nostalgic childhood memory of Castrol oil and it’s comparison to evolution. It’s a word picture I’ll never forget.
Lynda yes the Food Chain for humanity does provide roots for economic and racial injustices. Unfortunately, this concept would support that fact that everyone cannot be equal and is not destined to survive. We know that is not true. Especially believers we can affirm that God created all creation and said it was good! He calls all of us His sons and daughters. He also made all of his creation with beautiful color to be valued and loved.
“We all have to, at some time, reach a point of faith.”
I think this is the crux of the matter, Lynda. For Harari, it is a bigger leap of faith to assume that God created than to simply say “We don’t know.” I have several friends who are in this same boat. For them, an immortal God is so hard to imagine that they would rather say that science just hasn’t been able to figure out how it all happened than to believe that there is a Being who created everything and wants to be in relationship with all of it.
I am an evolutionary creationist. I believe God created and then things evolved. At some point humanity became a part of the equation and we were tasked with the awesome responsibility to maintain the order that God created from the chaos (“without form and void”). I am comfortable with saying both that God created and that science is slowly discovering how that all happened because I trust science and I trust God. Without either one of those trusts, I don’t know how I could continue.