Pondering Evolution @ Falls Park

Today we went to Sioux Falls for the day. We spent way too much money with the kids at Chuck E. Cheese's and had a blast playing games. (I suck at skeeball.) Then we had lunch and headed to Falls Park. It is absolutely a beautiful sight...so much glory and majesty. We worked our way up to the top of the falls, and at the top I made some observations which got me thinking.

It's a well-understood fact that water causes erosion. But it's the time frame that bothers me. There is a bit of a disagreement between "creation" scientists and secular scientists concerning the times in which these things take place. Science says millions of years. Creationists say thousands. So, who is right?

I'm going to postulate something here that won't be too popular. Really, I'm just asking a question rather than drawing a conclusion. Christians seem really good at trying to force life to fit within the framework of their theology. Sometimes I wonder if that's not what's happening here. Could it be that the reason Creation scientists maintain that the earth is only thousands of years old is because that's the only way it fits into their "young earth" theology? To me, science would seem to better support the "age-day" theory or [gasp!] "theistic evolution." I'm a firm believer that science and scripture should not collide violently, but rather that there should be a marraige between the two.

On the other hand, there's a whole lot of evidence to show that the "old earth" people don't know what their talking about either, and any Creationist will be happy to show it to you:

• the inaccuracy of Carbon-14 dating


• inconsistencies in "layers" of soil (skeletal fossils spanning multiple "ages" of layers--yeah, that fish stood upright for 2 million years)


• the speed at which erosion can occur under the right conditions


• the fallacy of "neanderthal" man


• etc., etc., etc.

My conclusion here: I don't have one. I think it's another of those things that's "up for grabs." The Bible says that God created the earth in 7 days. Whether that means 7 literal days or 7 figurative days remains to be seen. When my feeble faith gets me to meet God face-to-face, maybe I'll ask Him.

But then again, maybe it won't matter to me then.