Last week, a tourist attraction called Ark Encounter opened in Kentucky. Ken Ham, founder of the group Answers in Genesis, masterminded the project as a way to validate the Noah’s Ark story of the Bible.
The entire project, which will include the life-size ark, animatronic animals and a petting zoo will cost approximately $150 million.
However, it turns out all the money in the world won’t be able to prove a 600-year-old Noah actually built an enormous ark and rescued humanity from a catastrophic flood. And, as Christians, we shouldn’t be trying to do so. We shouldn’t take any of the popular Genesis stories, like the creation story, Tower of Babel or destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, literally.
We shouldn’t be like Ham, who calls the events in Genesis “historical,” who believes the universe, humans and dinosaurs were all created at the same time 6,000 years ago. None of those things make rational sense when viewed as real, historical truths.
I don’t make these claims because I have to. I don’t feel backed into a corner by the irrefutable evidence of science, forced to compromise the pillars of my faith to reconcile modern wisdom. This is a historically and biblically supported theology.
The practice of biblical literalism didn’t begin until the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. That means for the first 1,400 years of Christianity, biblical texts weren’t interpreted with hard-and-fast literalism.
Perhaps some, like Dante Alighieri, took the texts that seriously, but for others there was once plenty of room for figurative interpretation. Biblically, it’s a perfectly consistent approach.
So much of Jesus’ teaching was done through parables, which are stories that aren’t literally true but provide a spiritual lesson. Within the Gospels, we’re able to easily sort out what Christians believe are historically and literally true, such as Jesus’ miracles, his Crucifixion and the Resurrection, but no one ever suggests the parables he told actually happened.
The events in Genesis are simply parables meant to teach spiritual and emotional lessons, not to convey any historical or scientific facts. This notion shouldn’t be difficult to believe.
It wasn’t until weeks before his death, more than three years into his ministry, when Jesus claimed to start speaking literally for the first time, according to John 16:25. The Old Testament is no different.
In addition to Genesis, we also shouldn’t reject the science of medicine, climate change or gender identity.
A study from the Medical University of Vienna demonstrated the “personal gender identity of every human being is reflected and verifiable in the cross-links between brain regions.” This is fact now.
No, science isn’t absolute, but clearly the word of God isn’t either, as its interpretations by the church, religious leaders and its masses of followers change throughout the centuries.
The way we read scripture is influenced by culture, and I’m sorry if that doesn’t sit well with you, but it’s true. I would read the Bible a different way if I had been born in 1602 and you would read it a different way if you had been born in 1885.
I’m glad I was born in a time when the knowledge of science allows me to better understand the Bible and the way God communicates. It’s time to stop fighting it.
Perhaps, instead of spending $150 million trying to turn parables into science, Christians should use that money to advance the sciences.
Better yet, they could use that money to help feed the hungry, house the homeless and clothe the naked — you know, those things Jesus told you to do.
thshowal@umail.iu.edu
@TherinShowalter
