IN THE BEGINNING GOD, and thoughts of creation, evolution and gravy

My views on Genesis, on creation, on evolution have always been, well, evolving. I've been all over the board, as I've tried to come to grips with believing in the Word of God through faith and seeing some somewhat glaring difficulties with passages.

Last night there was a mostly worthless debate held between Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and Creation Museum’s Ken Ham over evolution and creationism. Now, I've barely heard of Bill Nye and I must admit sadly I've never heard of Ken Ham or the Creation Museum.

After some rather interesting statements from both men, polls show that Americans — particularly evangelicals — are more likely to side with Ham than the ‘Science Guy’ on the question of the origin of the universe and humanity.

And what have we settled? Dunno. Here's what was asked of audiences after the debate.

I admit somewhat freely that I am in the middle category. I don't know when the earth was created, but I also believe that most of the great minds who say they do really don't. I believe God created, and if it was 24 hour days or thousand year days means little to me.

I believe the cell phone works, but I have no clue how. I believe my car runs, and I don't know what makes it do so. I believe...

I believe the most important words in scripture, even moreso than the resurrection which makes me what I am, are the first four.

IN THE BEGINNING GOD

From those words flow creation, like the river from the throne of God, but also redemption and restoration after we had blown our opportunities (which makes me a chapter one Genesis believer by the way).

I won't go into arguments about whether there was a literal Adam and Eve or what they looked like. That seems fairly immaterial to me.

IN THE BEGINNING GOD...

From those words came my chance, just a breath of a chance at salvation. Otherwise, this world is just a bunch of coincidents happening daily. And I don't believe in coincidence any longer. Only God, in the beginning.

I will say I am surprised at how many Americans actually believe in a literal Genesis creation.

Gallup has been asking Americans about evolution for the past three decades. Just under half of Americans believe that God created humans about 10,000 years ago. Another third believe in theistic evolution or intelligent design — that God guided evolution to create humanity. Just 15 percent side with evolution, a natural process that did not include any help from God.

Last year, Pew Research Center found a similar result, with only a third of Americans believing in natural evolution. Using a slightly different question, Pew found more support for a God-guided evolutionary process. A third of Americans said they believed humanity has never evolved and another quarter believe in an evolutionary process guided by God.

Religion News Service reports that support for evolution increases with education, but the effect of religion is stronger. Pew’s survey found support for creationism was strongest among white evangelical Protestants and black Protestants. Nearly two-thirds of white evangelicals and half of black Protestants believe in creationism. Of those in these groups who believe in evolution, most see it as directed by God.

So, if I understand these numbers, almost 80 percent of the U.S. population believe God created in one form or another, and a miniscule 15 percent believe God had no play in the plan.

If that's the case, why on Earth are we eliminating God from much of the public square? And we argue over every darn issue imaginable?

IN THE BEGINNING GOD...

All else is white noise, or gravy as the case might be.