Georgia Congressman Paul Broun has become a minor topic in the news because of his questioning of evolution, science, and everything related to it in a recent video from a speech to a Baptist organization in his district (I believe). I work with a gentleman, wonderful guy actually, who firmly believes that the world is 6000 years or so old, dinosaurs were simply lizards who grew to enormous size because of a lack of apex predators (before the flood, everyone was a vegetarian). This is common is some sections of Christianity, and it has always puzzled me.
For a group that believes some things that are, let’s be honest, exceptionally supernatural (Lehi’s trip, Nephites, Lamanites, etc…) Mormons are fairly even-keeled about matters of science. We have no problem accepting the Genesis story as valid, but see the “day” period as a metaphor that could have spanned millions of years. We think God created the world, but that science played a key part. I think this is a very positive aspect of the faith. If you actually do some reading you can find some GA’s with what you might call creationist ideas, but they are not considered doctrinal.
I do not understand why so much of the Bible is taken as metaphor, but the genesis narratives are considered completely literal by so many in the Christian world, evolution is considered such a dirty word, why science is denigrated? It has never seemed necessary, and I would hazard that it will cause problems in the future as children in these faiths grow up and have to reconcile their faith and science, which oppose each other. We do not have this problem (we have plenty of others) and I think it serves us well.
