The Littling of God

For the record, I am a staunch Atheist. Please read this before continuing.

I would also like to say that I am not offended at all by whether or not someone chooses to believe in a God, but I am offended by How they Believe in God.

So, this isn't about the existence of God. This is about the current state of religious thinking that pits God against evolution, imploring believers to throw out one for the sake of Him.

I would like to present an argument that may comfortably allow Christians to still enjoy their faith in God without fear that evolution will bring down the pillars supporting that faith.


In the beginning...

God was a small god. He created the heavens and the earth. The heavens, essentially a curtain surrounding the earth, bore points of light which were stars and supported the sun and the moon. The whole device rotated around the earth, which at that time was nothing more than a small disc containing two or three large landmasses, some fairly decent sized islands, and a scattering of smaller ones.

At that time, god was little more than a parlor magician, who created everything from nothing - poof - hey presto. Upon completion, he felt it adequate to sit back and enjoy the worship owed to Him.

But science stepped in. And science, then as it is now, was considered a bane to organized religion and it's use was severely restricted.

What was missed, though, is how much larger science has made god.

First, new theories about the earths shape arose. It's a sphere said some. Blasphemy, cried the churches of the time.

But that theory made god a little bit larger. Not only did we exist on a larger world than we thought, but God must have pulled off a pretty neat trick to make everything stick to the outside of a sphere. That's a bigger, better God than the god that came before.

Then came theories regarding rotation of the earth. Travelling on it's orbit around the sun, the earth carves itself an area in space much larger than we previously thought. Heresy, shouted the churches.

Once again, God became just a little more marvelous.

With every expansion of our knowledge into the physical nature of the universe, or of our world and it's biology, heresy's became truths and God's creation became much larger, much more complex, and much more involved. And still with each revelation the religious leaders of the day attempted to suppress further developments. And yet still God grew.

Today we have a Universe that was arguably created by God. It is a very large universe. I don't think there is a single person on this planet that can conceive of how large it actually is. We just don't think in those terms. And yet, according to Biblical knowledge, neither did God. The universe He created was infinitesimally small in comparison.

So we still have religious leaders who want to relegate their God back to the status of Biblical times - the parlor magician god. (Poof - hey Presto).

But think now of the mechanism of evolution. The slow onset of the development of life. The minor changes and major leaps forward. The alterations, accumulated over time that resulted in the incredibly complex ecosystem we have now.

Now think of that process initiated by God. Possibly guided at times by His hand. A process requiring much more the efforts of an omnipotent being. It is more a testimony to the infinite patience, the infinite knowledge of a real GOD than merely waving his wand and having everything appear. If you want your god to be a GOD, isn't this the one more worthy, more deserving of your respect. Not the petty, contradictory, malevolent dictator found in the Bible.

The Bible is fallible. There isn't one Christian alive today who follows the letter, or even the full spirit of the law set down the Bible. It just isn't possible. At times it's downright contradictory, and in most modern cultures, elements are downright illegal. Christian minds are open to the idea that it requires editing for a proper Christian lifestyle. The Bible has been heavily influenced, during translation and interpretation, by those that wanted to keep God smaller than his potential. And it has not been nearly as successful in aggrandizing God to the degree that scientific study and development have managed.

Yet still, your religious leaders try to keep him small. Screaming blasphemy at those who continue to contradict their beliefs when history shows that every scientific leap doesn't diminish the breadth of God, but instead multiplies His abilities and accomplishments.

It's your choice Christians. You hold a belief in God as this incredible being, yet seek to limit his scope at every opportunity. And that to me is a poor choice in How to Believe in God.

I would like to hear from a believer in God on how the Theory of Evolution succeeds in limiting his vision of God.