A Liberal Christian's Worst Nighmare

Yesterday evening I took the bus home from Fairway where I was buying a few groceries. On the bus ride I read an article on Jezebel--well--I tried to read the article, but got so dismayed while reading it that I didn't get to the end. 

The article is here. It's "Why My 7-Year-Old Is An Atheist (And Why I’m Okay With That)" by Carolyn Castiglia. 

Here is the part that I had trouble with:

"My daughter, on the other hand, at the ripe old age of 7, is convinced that there is no God. Not even a god. Yup, my kid's an atheist. And she pretty much has been since she was 5.

It's not for lack of exposure to God or god or even gods and spirituality, because she has attended Church and church and a UU "church" and it has made no impact. We've prayed together. I talk about God sometimes, in a good way. When I asked her recently why she doesn't believe in God she told me, succinctly, "Because I know too much about science!"

And there you have it – an evangelical's worst nightmare. Science trumps God."

Here is the thing: I have absolutely no problem AT ALL with the idea that her child doesn't believe in God. That is totally fine. What I do have a problem with is that line "an evangelical's worst nightmare" I don't think Castiglia's right there. This is my worst nightmare. This is liberal Christianity's worst nightmare (I don't want you to misunderstand what I mean by liberal. I am not talking about politics rather theology.). You see after Darwin, Christian theologians had to figure out how to account for science, for natural selection and all that. And you know what? They figured it out. It was and is a fight that was over long, long ago. More than a century ago. And so my worst nightmare is that for a variety of reasons, liberal Christianity has not been able to communicate this very well. Maybe it did better for a time, but we are not so good at it anymore. 

So I want to be very clear: I am a Christian. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. And I also believe in the continued role of the Holy Spirit in our lives moving us towards new understandings. And I believe in science. 

Maybe an example will help. Let's go back to the beginning. Creation.

Science says: big bang. 

And Christianity, well let's start here with the Bible says: well...what does the Bible say? And how do we understand it? Do we read it as a science text book? As a history book? And if we look to the very beginning in Genesis there are actually TWO different accounts of creation right in a row. So I think we have an indication right away that the ancient Israelites were not recording and reading these accounts of creation as exactly what happened. So what are the Biblical creation accounts then? Well, I can't say what they are for everyone, but for me I read them to learn something important about God's relationship to humanity, and about humanity's relationship to the rest of creation. 

Not a perfect example I know, but it is also pretty clear that one can believe the big bang occurred and that the Biblical accounts of creation have something important to teach us. 

So the idea that science trumps God is just so sad to me because it misunderstands so much. 

Oh there is so much more to say. But I think I should leave it there. At least for now. It's late and I should get to bed before it gets much later.