Faith at the Fork in the Road

I grew up in a Christian home in a fairly strict, conservative denomination. I also attended a Christian school from first through sixth grade. I am thankful for my upbringing, as it did help me avoid a lot of the pitfalls, mistakes, and heartaches that other people had to go through, at least as young adults, but alas, no one’s upbringing is perfect, nor is there any perfect denomination in the Church.

As a kid, I didn’t really think much about the differences between what I was taught about Genesis and the young age of the earth, and the pretend games I would play about being a space explorer traveling at light speed. I accepted what I was taught about God creating the Earth in six literal days, Adam and Eve being created as perfect adults in the Garden, etc. Everything I read was a literal reading. I never thought or considered allegory as a viable reading lense. During that time, evolution to me equaled atheism. I even remember rolling my eyes at the Darwin car emblems on the back of vehicles.

In my late 20’s, through some tough personal circumstances, I found my faith being tested in ways it never had been up to that point. I came to a fork in the road, and had some choices to make. I could either throw out everything I had ever believed about God, or I could press into God and see if maybe there were new depths to be discovered. By pressing in, it meant reevaluating what I believed and what I had been taught. It was during this time of reevaluation that my faith became more real to me than it had ever been in my life. I discovered God’s love in a deeper way than ever before. However, this also led me on a journey of questioning things and seeking the truth, no matter what the results would be, including things like the beginning of time, creation, etc.

Around this time, I also became a big podcast listener, and began listening to a wide variety of them, including sermon, comedy, health, and science podcasts. The science ones would talk a lot about evolution, and I remember thinking at the time that it sounded right with all the evidence presented, but what about God? What about what I was taught as a child? What about God being the Creator?

At this point I had never heard of BioLogos or The Language of God by Francis Collins. I began scavenging the internet for clues to help me reconcile these seemingly conflicting views. I “stumbled” upon BioLogos’ website and felt like, for the first time in my life, things started to make sense. I spent hours reading the content and watching the videos. I bought The Language of God and read it over the next week.

I am still fairly new to the BioLogos community, but am so glad to have found it. Again, I didn’t really consider sharing my story until I realized that there are probably a lot of people out there who were raised similarly to me. They either might still believe in a young earth, despite the scientific facts that prove otherwise, or they might have abandoned Christianity altogether since they could not find reconciliation between the Bible and the scientific facts. Thankfully there is a resource in BioLogos that can help answer some of the many questions that people from either side might have.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that, as passionate as I am about science, I want to be even more passionate about God. I want to use this as my guide when dealing with all people, even those who may disagree with me, remembering that just a few years ago I too thought evolution was ridiculous.