Todd and I were shooting poll in the coffeeshop lounge yesterday, and we somehow got into talking about dinosaurs. I think he asked me what I was into, and I told him, and then he asked, "So where do you see dinosaurs in the whole creation thing?" If you haven't heard, or haven't noticed--really, if you don't know me at all--one of my greatest loves is dinosaurs.

It always begins like this. A lot of people don't like the fact that I believe in evolution. A lot of people could even come to look down on me and see me as a liberalist who doesn't believe the Bible (although I might be a liberal, I do believe the Bible). I know there are Christians out there who believe that if we believe in evolution, we really don't belong to God at all. This is because evolution is always associated with atheism. What I want to know is, "Why?"

Evolution wasn't invented because people wanted to take God out of the picture. Honest, God-fearing individuals saw that there were things in creation that didn't seem possible with a literal six-day creation, and in their attempt to figure out what really happened, the theory of evolution developed. I think that, as followers of Christ, we are to embrace all truth, and that includes the fact that evolution has a LOT of evidence. As I told Todd, "Perhaps we should just stop trying to disprove the facts and instead dedicate ourselves to figuring out how it fits into God's ever-continuing story?"

So, as I paced around the pool table searching for a shot, I gave him my reply. "When I look at the creation account in Genesis, I see it as being full of symbolic and evocative language, not literal language... Evolution has a lot of facts. Sure, it doesn't have all the answers. And I know there are some holes in it that may be filled as we grow in our understanding... Evolution is an extremely complex process created by God which we may never understand. But on the whole, I see more truth in evolution than in six-day creationism. I believe God created evolution and has guided evolution throughout the history of earth. More and more evolutionists are coming to believe in the existence of God based on the sheer mathematical and scientific impossibilities of evolution if it is really random. Evolution carries a lot of weight, but I think God is behind it all."

"So you think dinosaurs are..."

"I think dinosaurs are God's creations as much as we are. I don't think they were made in His image, but I believe with all of my heart that they were designed by the mind and heart of God. Evolution, then, could be seen as the paintbrush used to create the masterpiece. But the painter is still God."