Sunday, October 12, 2008

Spore: EA's new(ish) video game

Recently I was browsing through digg and noticed the topic: Spore is "Biggest Attack on Christian Values to Date." Through a flurry of brewing comments came my first thoughts. "Really? No, Really?"

I know that many conservatives believe in "creation science" and want to find a way to prove that "God does in fact exist." First of all, there is a reason that the Bible doesn't open up with the explanation of photosynthesis or micro/macro evolution. There is a reason that the law of gravity finds no place amongst the law of the Tribes of Israel. The reason for this, is not simply that people were so uneducated that they didn't know, it was that nobody cared.

The Bible if taken literally (which one would have to do in order to understand that the earth was created in seven days) will also tell you ridiculous things like in the end days a giant seven headed, fire-breathing dragon will come out of the sea and convince everyone to get a tattoo of the numbers 666 on their hand or forehead and then put the Anti Christ in power.

If you believe that to be 100% literal, then I'm afraid you're a bit lost and should maybe seek some good theology classes.

However, if you are among the group of Christian think-for-yourselfers it may not be so hard to come to terms with. We can understand that through science, we have received life saving vaccines, groundbreaking technologies that have made life less (or maybe more) stressful, and we can gaze at the heavens with a minute understanding of what we are actually looking at. We can view solar systems that, instead of having some great mystical power, have science to explain how they are forming, and relatively how old they are.

Now I leave you with this last question: Who cares? Teach your children about science and teach your children about the amazing qualities that our God and Father possess. Tell about His saving grace and His Son that took the burden for us should we choose to allow Him. Tell them about Darwin and Einstein and the gifts God gave them, and maybe why you disagree with them. But in the midst of all this understand that in the end it doesn't matter if evolution or creationism is true. Jesus Christ did not say " I am the way the truth and the life, and whoever shall believe in me (and in creationism) shall not perish but have everlasting life." He didn't care about the arguments of science versus faith because they can coexist and they need to coexist.

If you can read through science and can get some good understanding of your Christian beliefs (look at several sources, even outside of your specific denomination) and you still believe that the Bible is 100% literal and the earth was created in seven days, then good for you. You became a think-for-yourselfer. If you can go through the same process, and come to the understanding that Genesis is a literal understanding of what happened and you believe that God created the earth in seven days, then good for you too. At least you thought for yourself and you came to a decision not based on what you were told, but what you were able to understand through an in depth study.