Please turn away from cherry-picked, forced evidence to view the world as it actually is. The “Missoula Flood” (findable on the web) is the result of easily understood natural processes. It has no correlation to a flood thousands of times larger, i.e. a global flood.

I was born Christian, and remain a devout servant of Jesus Christ. But I realized, somewhere along the way to age 75, that for reasons I’m not privy to GOD chose to adopt the Abrahamic tribes. HE adopted them along with their origin story – which was as unique to them as the origin stories of all other ancient cultures.

No ancient culture’s origin story correlates to today’s perception of geological or genealogical cause-and-effect. They differ greatly from each other, as well. What does a faithful Christian do with this information?

I suppose there are some who persist in believing that science is in the hands of Satan, or at least deluded into Error, for having the temerity to dispute the Holiness and Purity of the Genesis account. To them (in my eyes) Genesis compares well to a seminar held by GOD to teach us how HE formed the universe.

This introduces a temptation to either-or Scripture – either Genesis is literal and full science, or all of Scripture is equally untrue. This is a debate technique called the False Alternative. Either A is true or NOT—A; take your pick. But first you have to formulate an exact A, which is where the idea breaks. A is always, in matters this complex, tailorable, modifiable, removable from A / NOT—A.

GOD did say “Let there be light” and the heavens say HE did that 13.78 billion years ago. Our Sun formed 5 billion years ago and planet earth coalesced 4.6 billion years ago. All of these numbers are considered beyond dispute due to the accumulation of decades of research, experiment, and plain hard work. Not liking what science says is hardly grounds for belittling it.

We look into the heavens to see HIS handiworks; HE asks us to. Does HE also add a caveat, a “Don’t look too close, lest you become confused?” No, there is no such warning.

We look into the heavens and find two hundred sextillion stars – that takes twenty-three zeroes to write – and realize that GOD didn’t just make our planet. HE didn’t just set lights in the sky to make a day and light the night.

HE did arrange the orbits of the planets and the positions of the stars near earth, to a degree of precision we can’t even calculate. Those signs in the starry skies of Babylon shortly before Jesus’ birth were enough to alert a set of scholars, probably Jewish descendants and keepers of Jewish prophecy.

Their ancestors had remained behind half a millennium earlier when Cyrus sent the Jews back from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem. These holdouts, the magi, saw the constellations do something that had never been seen before; it fulfilled Old Testament prophesies; the “fullness of time” had arrived.

This was when the angel came to Mary. When she delivered Jesus, other signs appeared to announce that as well. That same night “shepherds in the fields watching their flocks” witnessed angels from heaven singing their joy that Jesus had been born.

This put the scholars / magi astride their camels. Roughly half a year later they entered Jerusalem and saw a third sign, which Scripture today records as “the star stood over the place where Jesus was born.” Bethlehem sat five miles south of Jerusalem, and what had happened was that ‘star’ Jupiter had gone retrograde in the southern skies. Retrograde means that the star’s changing location in the skies, night by night, halts, reverses, halts again, then reverses again and resumes its path. We know this via a “star gazing” personal computer app.

One of those two halts happened on 25 December. Does GOD have a sense of humor?

EVOLUTION: let me recall the example of Job, who questioned GOD. You recall that GOD wasn’t offended, and Job’s ultimate faithfulness led to considerable earthly reward. We also look for great reward, in the form of spending eternity in GOD’s presence.

So, who are we to quibble with GOD over time? A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day? 13.78 billion is roughly six thousand years times 2.3 million. Is that too great a challenge for GOD? Is that too much of a burden on HIS patience? Especially considering he advertised it in the heavens?

Who are we to quibble with GOD over methods? HE invented particle physics, which reveals numerous arbitrary arithmetic constants – the ratio between matter and energy which results in the exact speed of light, or the relative strengths of the four different elemental forces, or the ratio of mass between proton and neutron?

Changing any one of these by a tiny amount would mean that, yes, there was light, but no, when it cooled enough for matter to precipitate out, the matter wouldn’t make stars in a way that would create more elements than the hydrogen and helium that started out. When those stars managed to go supernova, they wouldn’t have generated any higher kinds of atoms to form GOD’s fabulous table of elements.

Or if the elements did form, they wouldn’t work together the way we see them working. Biochemists are realizing that the chemistry of DNA is primed to do what we see it do – once there is a single cell, life is unstoppable. And all because GOD created the universe so that it would be so.

GOD numbers the hairs on our heads and has known, from the instant of creation, who would live and every word that would come out of their hearts, from the first humans to you and me and to all of our descendants, forever until the Second Coming.

Given that, what possible justification is there to suggest that the process we know as evolution is in any way not under GOD’s total control? Do we want to chop logic with GOD and debate with HIM, “Why did you do it THAT way?” – hardly.

We all sin.

We all have sins that we cannot shake – we repent, repeat, repent, – – –

Homosexuality, on the other hand has celibate life as an “out.” The sin-smacking straights don’t need that out – and ride that tiny pony for all it’s worth. Here’s the deal, from my (straight) point of view:

a) Leviticus condemns homosexual sex; it also condemns a raft of other sins, one of which is weaving with blended fabrics (cotton and wool, for instance.) Guess which one gets the spotlight, while all of the (many) others aren’t on anyone’s radar, or fall under other general categories.

b) Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin wasn’t the sexuality – all those guys were likely straight. What happened when this was written, at least twenty-five centuries ago, was that the city’s moral fabric was so despicable as to ritually humiliate a visitor present within the walls at sundown. Particular sexualities drift up and down as human cultures evolve – but in that era inhospitality to a stranger inside a city’s walls was a hanging offense. Rehearsing the details isn’t the agenda here – merely that what we fix our gaze on what it meant in that era and how we interpret it today are miles apart.

c) Jesus never said much about sexual sin – definitely not about homosexual sin. If he ever mentioned it, any such remarks are absent in the Gospels.

d) That leaves Paul, who on some other topic (marriage, I think) said he preferred that all Christians should stay single thus celibate, but he knew better than to try to override lusts because some would find them ungovernable. Putting those two points together, Paul is telling us that Christians may be faced with ungovernable lusts. His condemnation of gay ungovernable lust, then, rings hollow.

(**) – conclusion: the rule of interpreting the intensity of a given issue is to find how many places Scripture addresses it. We have one remark in a window-dressing list of stoning offenses, most of which we ignore completely, a second remark which is in fact off-topic, and a third remark which is questionable at best.

My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that being homosexual isn’t the same as being born a murderer. Who’s born a murderer, anyway?

Sexual orientation chooses the person, and not the other way around.

Period.

Rather, Christians are to honor their bodies as gifts and to use their sexuality in a way that reaffirms two lovers’ commitments to each other. So if you want to cruise gay bars and do high-risk behaviors, recognize that GOD won’t smile at that. But if you and your beloved form a life bond, go to California (or anywhere in the US, since SCOTUS made gay marriage legal) and tie the knot. Or find a partner first, but head for the ring, cake, groomsmen, and so on.

SIDE NOTE: antagonists will point out that, as ancient cultures softened, gay sex came way out in the open. This, to a limited extent, is true, but coincidental. Social strictures accustom the kind of shoulder-to-the-wheel rules that make empires great, and in those situations men not making babies with women get a lot of negative press. When the ethos that made them great begins to ossify, age, soften, fade away, so does the negative press. But that isn’t causation, just simple correlation. Both occur as symptoms of cultural fatigue. I don’t believe that Western culture is fatiguing – I prefer to see it as becoming more aware.

Cold is the absence of heat; but since GOD really is everywhere, and evil really does exist, it’s evident that GOD in some way permits or tolerates the existence of evil. You’ve heard of “nature red in tooth and claw” because predators eat prey animals. (Herbivores are predators on vegetation, too.)

So, is the red tooth / claw predator evil? Good cases exist for both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, for instance “Without predators disease and deformity would degrade a species’ entire membership.”

But let evil be relegated to choices that favor oneself over the possibly better outcome of someone else. Sometimes the choice is so subtle we don’t even notice the effect, may mourn the effect as “necessary but minor collateral damage that everyone else will agree was “just the way these things work.”

Try this on for size: a newborn infant doesn’t choose hence can’t be deemed “evil” yet operates on a scale of one hundred percent me and nothing else even exists. Around age eighteen months this developing person realizes that, alas, those active elements called Mamma and Dadda have wills of their own. They can no longer be controlled with a smile or grabbing fingers. This prompts what are called “the terrible two’s” when the child pushes every edge of the envelope to find weak spots, situations in which the external will can be modulated or even defeated.

We grow up, but never reach “pure” in our relations with others. We admire the extremes such as Saint Francis or Mother Teresa – but even they might have agreed with Saint Paul who wrote in one of his letters that, compared to the holiness of Almighty GOD, his “most righteous acts were as filthy bandages.”

GOD is holy; GOD created the universe, and made it such that mankind would eventually evolve. GOD planned that mankind, born with zero hope of ever becoming holy (blamelessly righteous in every thought and act – refer back to Saint Paul) would still have a way to make the transition from human sinfulness into blameless perfection via what you can think of as a bailout program. Jesus, a part of GOD with all GODly powers set aside, died for our sins. We turn to HIM with “a broken and contrite heart” to receive the blessing of forgiveness, which “washes away” all our sin.

While alive we live in corruption. While saved we have Jesus’ promise; HE will wash away our impurity to make us acceptable in the presence of Holy GOD for eternal life.

Short answer: GOD abhors evil yet loves HIS children. HE confined them to at least this one planet (no telling if there are more, way above my pay grade) and sent a part of HIMself to live as human yet also pure, sinless, to die in our place thus bear the consequence of our sinful nature.

Before the Renaissance, which began the scientific revolution, no explanation for the world existed outside religion. Then as science grew and expanded, people decided that GODs were (a) inconvenient (b) too diverse to pick one reliably (c) – you get the point.

So for someone who does have a strong faith, it’s no longer merely important to persuade someone who already believes in a god, it’s required to explain GOD to someone who believes that science already answers every question.

It may not answer “meaning” or “purpose” or give you comfort when everything is blowing up in your face, but then from a standpoint where “GOD” as a concept is already a non-starter, discussions must be long and intimate, friendships of years’ duration, before the religionist gets very far sharing his/her answers to those most important questions.

Me? I am a Christian, for a thousand reasons, none of which involve any argument with science. For one, the universe we inhabit is exquisitely tuned such that particle physics permits a table of chemical elements, which themselves are so finely tuned that DNA life virtually explodes (once there is a first cell.)

Getting that first cell to form is an immensely long shot – but then we have two hundred sextillion stars, so that makes the odds a little easier. And if GOD decided to create that first cell, who am I to argue? Doesn’t matter to me either way, because the existence of GOD is, for me, a complete certainty.

That trust and confidence exists on the inside, supported by so many minuscule details no friend would ever spend the time listening. But it is vastly more probable that Jesus lived than that he did not; and it is vastly more probable that he died on the cross than that he did not. And it is very demonstrable that the odds against any of the non-resurrection scenarios are very much on the long end of the spectrum compared to the odds that he really did return from the tomb.

If that last idea is a non-starter, fine. But you also accept hugely long odds on several bets in sequence to place your money on that outcome. Rather, IF there is a GOD, then all of the above come together beautifully. And IF there is a GOD, then Jesus’ resurrection is clearly possible. In other words, to take the position that there is no GOD, you wind up betting on the long shot of all long shots.

As it says on late nite TV, “But wait, there’s more.” Because there is more. A beautiful DVD called Star of Bethlehem presents the birth (and death) of Jesus in context of numerous Old Testament prophecies: using a “star gazing” app the DVD demonstrates what the “wise men” would have seen, and when, that set them on the road to Jerusalem. Further, when they arrived, what took them five miles south to Bethlehem. Yes, it’s that close.

So if you want science, I offer up the stargazer app, via the DVD, to see for yourself whether there is a reason to believe based on facts. Real facts.

What you need to learn on earth is “relevant to existing in heaven” only in the sense of being taken into the companionship of Holy GOD.

What’s that? For reasons mankind will probably never find consensus on, we are the creations of a holy and loving GOD – yet for having free will and for needing to be evvvvver so slightly inconsiderate of others just to stay on par, we are not holy and we are not pure.

Yet GOD is holy, and fair. HE sent the second part of the trinity, the WORD, to confine himself (toss away his own divine power) into human form as Jesus to take our place, expunge all of our punishments [bad karma if you will] – and all that is necessary on our end is to acknowledge our debt. That results in us bringing “broken and contrite hearts” to GOD in prayer to ask for forgiveness. It’s in the Lord’s Prayer.

GOD grants mercy, washing, forgiveness, purification – at death the Christian soul (meaning broken and contrite) emerges as a pure and holy being in a perfect body (whatever that is) eternally accepted into the fulness of GOD’s love.

What’s relevant to heaven? I have no clue. I just know the actual price of admission.

Looking at it as a Christian (but not a young earther) it appears that GOD is, among many other attributes, love. HE desires a connection with beings which HE created “in HIS own image” i.e. with purpose and freedom to choose. Yet the way in which HE went about this, for reasons we can only guess at, involved creating a vast universe (two hundred sextillion stars) designed (particle physics, anyone?) such that a Table of Elements would exist, and be tuned to exquisite precision such that nitrogen-based DNA life would not just occur but do so in lavish fashion.

Further, in this lavish universe with lavish built-in chemistry, HIS time scale was as far beyond human understanding as the size of HIS universe. It took neutron stars in close enough proximity to collide; this is physics’ current best idea on how all of the heavy elements formed – and without them, key ingredients of various enzymes etc. can’t even exist.

Further, once a star and its planets formed from the remnant of that collision, several billion years passed while life developed through stages of increasing complexity to the point where homo sapiens could appear. Getting to ‘sapiens’ was a trick in itself, involving pulling a species (primates) out of their trees to venture out onto bare ground, adapt to that, then survive a long series of gross climate changes, each of which favored the ones better equipped to deal with change – – until at last HE reached modern humans.

After all, if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing carefully and well. Patiently.

And GOD arranged the nearby (naked-eye distinguishable) parts of the galaxy plus the other planets in orbit around the sun, such that they provided clues which HE inspired the Jewish prophets to write down. These led the magi to Jerusalem to discover the Christ Child in nearby Bethlehem. A modern PC app for gazing at the skies, 24-7-365 from any spot on earth, and going back thousands of years, helped illustrate it (“Star of Bethlehem” DVD) –

All the while ‘original sin’ is the consequence of evolving in a world that requires major self-protective efforts. A new-born is aware (please no arguments about how to define that word) of personal needs – hunger, discomfort, fatigue – and only begins to realize that other ‘wills’ exist after learning to take steps, and begin to speak a few words. Take this as the first existential “Oh CRAP!” moment of the developing life; this is where the “terrible twos” begin. Various stages of increasing acculturation to living among other wills improve the new person’s sensibilities, but no one ever gets to “perfect.”

In other words, we are born into sin and cannot escape it.

GOD knows full well that HIS perfection and love are a kind of infinity that mortals can never attain – here’s the kicker – that prevents mortals from reaching the necessary perfection HE set out to make – [here we come to a concept of karma] GOD sent HIMself in a form we call the second person of the trinity, to surrender the aspects of GODhood and live the human life we know as Jesus. HE suffered the penalty of our imperfections. HIS sacrifice paid, in some way we’re too poor in mind to understand, the cumulative “badness” or “bad karma” of every human life. When our human life ends, HE washes clean the souls of those who understand their need of cleanliness and have asked to be forgiven.

Short answer, I haven’t the foggiest clue as to “why” – way above my pay grade – but I do believe that GOD created the universe, embodies love to an extent I’m not equipped to understand, and desires my being connected to HIM now, and in the greater life to come.

He made me what I am, paid my dues for being what I am, and loves me dearly.