I just wanted to try to clarify my own position a little bit, to the extent that I'm able to. Some people here have seen me as being an evolutionist, theistic or otherwise, and that's not accurate. So this is just my best try at stating where I stand.

I'm definitely a believer in God and Jesus and the Spirit and salvation. I'm a Christian, not an agnostic on any of that stuff.

I also believe God is the Creator of the universe, Earth and life.

What I'm agnostic about is the method he used to achieve that goal. There is an enormous possible range of ways in which He could have done it - in fact, the range is infinite, as is His power. The universe could have been created 5 minutes ago, with everything created to seem mature and have a history, including our memories, and there is no empirical way to know that that is not what happened. I certainly do not rule out the possibility of a 7 day creation 6000 years ago.

I say I'm agnostic because I just don't know. Unlike many here I do not believe that this is the only possible conclusion available that is consistent with Scripture. The evidence for that statement is Scripture scholarship... but one of the issues that makes this discussion difficult is that we continually slip over the lines between theology and science.

One more clarification: sometimes I explain evolutionary ideas to people, particularly in situations where they are misunderstanding them. That shouldn't be interpreted as advocating those evolutionary ideas as the Truth about how things came to be as they are. I am acting as a science educator (which is my job, profession and vocation) in those instances, rather than making any statement about my own beliefs.

I've come to appreciate this quote for several reasons, one being its beautiful poetry.

"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever." [DEUT. 29:29.] Just how God accomplished the work of creation, he has never revealed to men; human science cannot search out the secrets of the Most High. His creative power is as incomprehensible as his existence. {CE 193.1}
God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world, in both science and art; but when professedly scientific men treat upon these subjects from a merely human point of view, they will assuredly come to wrong conclusions. It may be innocent to speculate beyond what God's word has revealed, if our theories do not contradict facts found in the Scriptures; but those who leave the word of God, and seek to account for his created works upon scientific principles, are drifting, without chart or compass, upon an unknown ocean. The greatest minds, if not guided by the word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to trace the relations of science and revelation. Because the Creator and his works are so far beyond their comprehension that they are unable to explain them by natural laws, they regard Bible history as unreliable. Those who doubt the reliability of the records of the Old and New Testaments, will be led to go a step farther, and doubt the existence of God; and then, having lost their anchor, they are left to beat about upon the rocks of infidelity. {CE 193.2}


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