I sooooo should have taken that first link out. However, since I’m already here, I might as well give you this heathen’s two cents. It has always been my hope that the major religions will someday shift the focus of their faith from figurative mastheads to that of personal connection. Sure it exists in today’s church, and in large quantities, but not as the top priority. You can tell me all you want that the writings and doctrines and commandments shape the moral being of a person in a very profound way. Kudos for that. Seriously. My issue is that it’s all ultimately based on worship of (insert deity here), which is used to strong-arm the masses to win his/her/its favor. Not cool.

I am not sure what to say…but I do know what you are going through. You may not find the answers to all of your questions, but your faith will be stronger for having asked them.

I’m not sure whether you’ll find much evidence for the Bible, apart from the places are real, and some of the names may match up to real people. I’m also against bringing childrne up in a given faith - would it not be better to give them all of the information available and let them work things out in their own mind?

I have had exactly the same problem as you, and friends of mine have suggested I try their place of worship–The Unitarian church. Now I don’t know if you have the same problem that I have in my part of the country, the Unitarian church being equated with satanism, but from what I understand they seem to have eliminated the problem of excluding others as they don’t focus on one specific religion. I haven’t actually tried any in my area as Sundays are sleep-in days, but if you want to try I’d love to read all about it!;) Good luck!

As someone who just stuck her neck in out in a post about religion, I hear you. Religion divides us more than anything these days. Anyone can attack anyone else’s faith with fact. But facts are so easily skewed to fit whomever or whatever is being attacked. I don’t get caught up in it when someone attacks something I know in my heart to be true. I am happy, some against my church would call ime brainwashed. But it works for me and I am a better person because of it. I am going to raise my kids in my church but also raise them well enough that they know that everyone is entitled to their opinion on anything and they are not any less of a person because of it.
Grand scheme? I’ve learned in all this bloggy meet and greet and in real life that religion doesn’t matter as long as there’s respect. If your kids can keep learning respect they’ll be ten steps ahead, doesn’t sound like your pastors are very sensitive or respectful of any ideas but their own. Sorry about that.
As a woman said to me out here-”As long as you have Jesus, honey.”
Excellent post though.

I know right where you are coming from. I once got thrown out of a ladies bible study for suggesting that maybe , just maybe, we did not have to be subject to a husband if he happened to be an overbearing asshat and was leading the family to destruction.
Apparently though, according to the leaders, if you just have enough faith and submit to whatever bullshit an asshat husband could come up with God would bless you…or something like that…seemed to me like a recipe to make verbally and physically abused women feel that THEY must be the problem and if only they could have more faith and submit more fully everything would be alright. Hummm. I don’t think so….so I was chastised for being rebellious and not wanting to hear God’s great truth and causing others to doubt. Bad Mary Alice. Bad.

Some people are just way too flippin’ literal. We went through a period where we searched for a new church that was the middle way…some place that embraced the mysterious, embraced faith, and at the same time embraced reason and the evidence that surrounds us. We converted and became Episcopalians. The church is in a bit of turmoil now, trying to decide how liberal it wants to go……but the foundation of being via media…the middle way…is important to our family and our sensibilities.

Ok that is just wrong of your pastor to call Darwin trash. How are we to know how God created the world? Who is to say that he did not start with a primordial soup and zap it causing more and complex life to be on Earth?

I personally accept that I do not understand all the workings of God and that science is not always a %100 correct (views about things are changing all the time) but I really do not think that science and religion should be completely separated. Luckily my own church is not like that at all and I have not had to face my religious leaders questioning science. My questions of science and religion were my own and easily resolved by a little study of my own.

There is some truth to the idea that “you just have to have faith”: there comes a point where intellectual doubts come to seem irrelevant beside the reality of one’s lived experience. But that isn’t the way out of those doubts - it’s something that happens after you’ve grappled and wrestled and tested everything to the best of your ability, knowing that in some cases, there simply are no conclusive answers.

John Polkinghorne is a physicist at Oxford University who has written some good stuff on the relationship between faith and science (you don’t have to be a physicist to understand it, or I wouldn’t have read it!). Ian Barber has also published books on the history of the relationship between science and faith that speak to the issue in a rigorous way.

Here is my perspective: I am Roman Catholic (and yes, Catholics ARE Christians). However, we are pretty scientific, so to speak. The RCs believe in evolution (if you run into some that say they don’t, tell them to go talk to the pope, or catch up on their Vatican documents) and generally embrace science as a way of highlighting God’s existence and creation. Science and all its complexities comes from God as our creator, and there is no reason to believe that everything outside the Bible is false. Actually, the Bible is a book of FAITH, not science. It was written far before any of our current scientific knowledge came about, and we should remember this when we read it.
It really frustrates me when people think that science/philosophy/literature and God cannot coexist and compliment each other in our world. It can, and it’s not that hard to make it work.
PS - I know that a lot of protestant denominations would disagree with me. But there you go, I’m Catholic and they probably think I’m going to hell anyway

I struggle big time with this dilemma. In an attempt to find answers, understanding, enlightenment… or whatever, I tend to read everything I can get my hands on. Books on not only Christianity but also Buddhism, Muslims, etc. The book that I’ve enjoyed the most, that I felt answered a lot of my questions and gave me a position that actually made sense, was The Language of God: A scientist’s case for belief. It’s written by one of the scientists who decoded the human genome and really, really, really great. I love that it’s logical, but shows you how you CAN blend science and faith; that they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And that you don’t have to teach your kid some frankly preposterous and overly simplistic fairy tales to believe in God. Read it. I’d love to know what you think.

O.k. the queen has tried to stay out of this debate knowing how Will feels about some of his questions of faith, but I have to tell you my thoughts.
1) You say this was a guest preacher, do you know how your pastor feels about what was said? Do you know his opinion on Thoreau and Darwin? I personally don’t believe in the theory of evolution as the basis of creation, and there are other theories out there. This would be my number one question about this issue. Then you have to stop and think, do you always agree with the people who are important to you? Disagreement doesn’t mean disloyalty. If your church does agree with this statement, can you agree to disagree?
2) Science and creation seem to have more in common as we learn more about science. There are many scientific Christians out there who are in the business of proving the Bible through scientific studies. Look for them and read their information and proof it against what the Bible has to say.
3) Remember that God said in Isaiah 55:8, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways”, declares the Lord. To me this means that God sees the “all over”picture; what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. If we knew what God knows, could we handle the knowledge? I mean would you want to know that one of your kids might end up in jail, or with a terrible disease, or pregnant before she was 15? It’s good NOT to know those kinds of things… just think of how differently you would treat that kid, knowing that despite your very best efforts they would just go out and screw up their life, and there was nothing you could do about it. (That’s how God must feel when we screw up!)
4) If you don’t agree with something that is said in a Bible study or church, do you just walk away, or do you stand for what you believe? There’s a time to make a stand for your faith. I think that you are a strong young woman who can stand on what she believes, I think that this is one of the problems with the AMERICAN church today. We don’t stand for what the bible has to say. The lady was right, you should test what the “Word” says with the word, but we have to look at what the WHOLE WORD is saying. If they are wrong in their interpretation, just don’t run, but stand up for what you believe. There are many texts out there to vaildate what the word of God is saying, many gifted teachers and preachers who interpret the Bible.
5) Are we supposed to move ahead with the rest of the world, or are Christians to be “set apart”, a “holy people”? Christians aren’t supposed to be just like everyone else, they are supposed to be an example of Christ to the every day world. If the world can’t tell we are different from them are we really Christians or are we a “do good” organization like the Rotary club?

God wants us to be his light in a dark world. He knows more that I will ever know, and knows all the questions each of us have. You know now that I’m almost 50, I don’t need to know all the answers… I like being left out of the answers for now, but know that when I am in the presence of God, he will reveal all to me. The only command that he gives us as Christians is to go into all the world, first in Jerusalem (where you are right now, your home), then in Judea (your neighbors), Samaria (your state, nation) and to the uttermost parts of the earth making diciples in My name. Sounds like you might be in Jerusalem right now…. go on you can do it… stand up for what YOU believe. Let the questions answer themselves later! l LOVE YOU AND THE WOMAN YOU ARE, TEACH THOSE KIDS TO APPRECIATE BOTH GOD’S WORD AND THE WORDS OF MAN~ WHEN THE TIME COMES THEY WILL KNOW THAT GOD’S WORD IS THE WORD THAT WILL NEVER LEAVE THEM!

This is such a struggle. We attend a conservative protestant church and while it really works for my formerly Catholic husband, there are things that don’t “fit” for me because by comparison, I’m a bleeding-heart, tree-hugging, barefoot, hairy hippie. I’ve tried to throw in the towel a few times, but I always end up coming back.

I had a huge comment and I deleted it. I wish I knew what it meant to be a regular cat who believes in Jesus. I wish I knew what it was like to live in a place that doesn’t vote based on one or two issues. I wish my kids could feel saved and loved by God without feeling bad about being born sinners. I wish the church could explain dinosaurs to me. I wish pastors had to wear signs that say, “Remember, I’m just a DUDE like you.” I don’t know what to do about all these things so I just keep plugging along, hoping I give someone a more positive picture of Christianity than they see on T.V.

When I joined the church we attend now, there was a hot issue on the state ballot and I noticed a piece in the church bulletin about it. The piece strongly favored one side, to the point of pushing for a vote in one direction. I told the pastor I wasn’t comfortable with a church that tells me how to vote. I’m in favor of hosting discussion how to sort the issue out based on the Bible, but a “VOTE THIS WAY. JESUS LOVES YES ON AMENDMENT 123!” was wrong. I haven’t seen that happen again. So there is something to be said for sticking it out where we are and working to find some sort of balance.

Okay. Stopping before this is a super huge comment.

Well this is how i look at it…no one has ever proven the bible to be wrong. But scientists are proven wrong all the time. And evolution isn’t fact, that’s why it’s called the “theory” of evolution. I don’t belive in evolution at all, it makes absolutely no sence, not any at all. According to evolutionists, everything began by the big bang, all of a sudden where there was nothing, bang, everything came together. Well, a scientists #1 rule is that something cannot come from nothing. They don’t take that into consideration though, when they are trying to make you believe their goofy ideas. If you want to watch some awesome videos, and educate yourself and your kids, go to drdino.com and order some of his vids. He offers 10 million to anyone who can prove evolution to be correct, he’s debated against several evolutionists, and he make them all look stupid. All they do is try to bash his credentials…none of them have ever proved evolution.

ok…so i’m proud of you for admitting all of this…and not just taking what someone says as truth because they say they’re right. maybe nobody is 100% right. maybe we all have just a piece of the truth and that’s why we’re all here together on this earth. that was one of my HUGE hangups with what i had been taught since birth…that i was right and everyone else (albeit the overwhelming majority of the people on this planet) were wrong.
we’ve been going to a unitarian church since we moved out here. not because we moved out here with the crazies…but because i finally feel the freedom to do what i wanted to do at home. and i can say that it is so liberating. the people there are just further along in their ability to say the things that i have been thinking for a long time…and in public. i realize now that i am a spiritual person…that i want to cultivate this aspect of my life because it has such an effect on everything else. but i also feel very strongly that i don’t have to adhere to one set of guidelines to do so. and honestly…when i examine those people that i know hold tight to a specific belief system i see the same thing over and over and over again. fear. why do they get so defensive if they’re not scared?
everyone has it in some sense…but when you can let go of having to be right it’s so freeing. i can now say that i “believe with all of my heart” that it doesn’t ultimately matter. that i can’t possibly KNOW the truth…but that looking for it anyways is what makes the difference in me, in my life, and ultimately in the lives of those around me.
my pendulum has finally stopped swinging so violently from side to side.

I think everyone, no matter what their background, no matter who or what they believe in, at some point in their life have a “crisis in faith”. Moses, Noah, Peter, just about everyone in the bible had times when they had doubts and questions. I think you, like alot of others are not so much questioning their faith, but their church. I agree that the church has not moved ahead as it should. But on the other hand, so many churches are presenting a watered down version of the gospel in order to build their membership. We are there to offer the sacrifice of praise. Our church has begun to incorporate alot of the Jewish teachings into our worship. We had an organization called Jews for Jesus come lead us through Passover and when you compare that to our traditional Lords Supper, it takes on a whole new meaning. God demanded both praise and worship and sacrifices from the Israelites. Of course we are free fom the law, but personally, I believe God still demands worship and praise today. And He can do that because He is God and we were created for His pleasure. You don’t have to agree with everything the church teaches because it is not the church that you are worshipping. just be clear on your own beliefs and be sure you are living out those beliefs out in front of the kids. I don’t agree that a church should be telling it’s members what toys the kids should play with or how its people should vote. And I really do believe that as technology progresses, science lines up more and more with the bible. For example, have you ever taken a good look at the diet in Leviticus. It’s pretty close to what doctors are saying now as far as more grains,beans, and fruits and less meat. I’m not ready to give up my fried shrimp or oyster stew though!

This is my moms, y’all. She brung me up right.

Hey Kristi,

I don’t have children but I certainly understand the struggle between reconciling being human (the need to question/understand/etc) with your faith. As far as a practical solution goes, I would let your kids watch the Kent Hovind series on Creation Science. It’s all very factual and he explains a LOT, backed up with actual EVIDENCE. Yes, the physical kind, even!

I know there’s a lot of controversy surrounding him right now, but that shouldn’t wipe out an amazing learning tool.

We have the dvd’s and he straight up tells you to copy them and distribute them to get the message out there if you want to; which is why he doesn’t copyright his stuff. If you’d like, I’d be happy to make duplicates and send them to you - or you can write his office and request the set - I think there’s like 10 of them for $90? Something like that.

Anyway, I can’t stress how fabulous they are for getting answers that actually make sense and can be proven using your five senses!

Good luck…

It would be better if I could spell. Ian Barbour’s Religion and Science is the book I was thinking of.

Hey Kristi -
I haven’t read the comments - stupid kids keep me from my blogging duties - but here’s my ten cents, okay? Your guest preacher’s opinions were just that - opinions of one person, and no more enlightened than mine or yours. If you’re involved deeply in the more fundamentalist churches, then yeah, you’re going to find a lot of knee-jerk reactions to current scientific stuff that appears to challenge their world views, but that is only one particular branch of Christianity. My church is very, verrrrrrry liberal theologically and our church magazine regularily has things making fun of Creationists. So there is a broad spectrum of what being Christian means and a broad spectrum of responses to modern science.
Atheism isn’t particularily gathering steam - it’s been hanging sort of steady at what, 3%? for years now (it actually peaked in the 1950s). Yes, there’s been a bunch of atheist books on the best-seller lists, but so was The Purpose Filled Life and The Gift and many other books that suggest that people are, at best, theologically confused. I think the influence of religion is dwindling because of a lot of factors, but the atheist books are only preaching to the choir. Here’s my precis of pretty much all of them:
1) set up a strawman of what religion and religious people are like
2) defeat said strawman with brilliant arguments
3) feel smug.
And while I know lots of smart atheists, I also know many, many smart people of faith - so don’t let intellectual peer pressure strip you of your faith. You are ALLOWED to have doubt. Your doubt does not hurt God.

I’ve been there, done that. The more I searched for answers, the more questions I found. I came to the conclusion that religion is difficult for intellectually curious people. The only thing I can say is that not all denominations believe that there is a conflict between science and God. You might be happier ultimately in one of the more liberal religious denominations that don’t believe they have all the answers.

For me, I’m happier sleeping in on Sunday and saving 10%. But I really think that you should never feel like you have to stifle your quest for answers that work for you inside your head, whatever they are.

I struggle with these kinds of things too. I identify with the Christian faith because it’s where I come from and, whether I like it or not, it affects my worldview. I’m inspired a great deal by its ideals of love, compassion, peace, and equality, but appalled by many of its more vocal adherents who are anti-science, pro-violence, homophobic, and often downright racist. I grew up in a setting where people seemed completely unable to view the Bible in any other sense than the literal, and that’s what drove me away from it. To me, that just ruins it. I find it ridiculous to take a text like the Bible, one that is thousands of years old, written in ancient tongues, and whose contents are politically motivated in a variety of ways, and interpret it as the literal word of God. A few years ago when I started having spiritual yearnings of my own, the thought of setting foot in a church again made me want to vomit. I had to hit the books pretty hard and do a lot of work on my own to really start to learn the history of this faith, breaks things open and reexamine them, and explore different theological viewpoints than the ones you usually hear screeched. I also managed to find a church that does not support, and even actively opposes, hateful and backwards thinking. I don’t think I could be in a place otherwise. So I don’t know if that helps you any, but that’s my take on it, for what it’s worth.

I don’t have time to read all the comments, so I may be repeating myself, but my advice? Check out the friendly local United Methodist Church. I’m continually pleased to see how they balance intellectual common sense, tolerance for others’ differences, and an open-armed love of God and one another. It’s not perfect by any means - show me a perfect church, and I’ll… uh… I dunno - but it’s a good fit for someone who believes that spirituality and science can be “on the same team.”

Er, not repeating myself, per se, but rather repeating someone else… d’oh.

Kristi, I’m a little late in posting but read Case For A Creator. Scientific fact that points towards “intelligent design” WITH scientists backing it up. There are so many the theories out there and ALL of them have holes in it, including Darwinism. I’m a Buddhist and I personally became a Buddhist because they WELCOMED questions and if they didn’t know, they simply said: “We don’t know.” Which I respect much more than to have faith and not ask questions.
I believe in intelligent designs but do I think it is the ONLY possible explanation? NO. I think you should teach your children different theories and points of view and emphasize the fact that religion and people can all argue about how we came to be until we are blue in the face but the fact of the matter is: We will never know and probably won’t in this lifetime. So be open, learn, ask questions and always think for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

Great post! Found you on Kellyology.
You might be interested in reading Shari Macdonald Strong’s column in Literary Mama.

Kristi,

I so completely know what you are going through. I remember sitting in a Sunday school class one day and being told that “it matters intensely what you believe.” But it apparently didn’t matter whether you knew *why* you believed it, and I just couldn’t hang with that.
My personal search led me to the Orthodox Christian church (known primarily as Greek Orthodox, but there are other jurisdictions; I’m Orthodox Church in America–oca.org).
I don’t recommend this book to everyone, but I think you should read “Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells,” by Matthew Gallatin. I think you might find that it helps you at least know where to start looking.

To what Beck said, I’d add that one can be theologically orthodox without embracing young-earth Creationism or Biblical literalism. In fact, outside the U.S. there are LOTS of people like that. The two issues are culturally conflated when people use evolution as a kind of litmus test for inclusion in the in-group, but there is no necessary connection between believing in the trinity or the atonement and adopting a conspiracy theory about modern science.

wow this is a hot topic. here is how i look at this whole thing, again from listening to rob bell. you should all check out rob. he is the pastor of a huge church in Grand Rapids, Michigan and has a great series of videos called “Nooma” you can actually find several of them on youtube.
“when it comes to faith, everybody has it. people often tell me they could neve have faith, that it is just too hard. the idea that some people have faith and others don’t is a popular one. but it is not a true one. everybody has faith. everybody is following somebody. what often happens is that people with specific beliefs about God end up backed into a corner, defending their faith against the calm, cool rationality of others. as if they have faith and beliefs and others don’t.
but that is not true. let’s take an example: some people believe we were made by a creator who has plans and purposes for his creation, while others believe there is no greater meaning to life, no grand design, and we exist not because of some divine intention but because of random chance. this is not a discussion between people of faith and people who don’t have faith. both perspectives are faith perspectives, built on systems of belief. the person who says we are here by chance and there is no greater meaning has just as many beliefs as the person who says there’s a creator. maybe even more.
think about some of the words that are used in these kinds of discussions, one of the most common being the phrase “open-minded”. often the person with spiritual convictions is seen as close-minded and others are seen as open-minded. what is fascinating to me is that at the center of the Christian faith is the assumption that this life isn’t all there is. that there is more to life than the material. that existence is not limited to what we can see, touch, measure, taste, hear, and observe. one of the central assertions of the Christian world-view is that there is “more”. those who oppose this insist that this is all there is, that only what we can measure and observe and see with our eyes is real. there is nothing else. which perspective is more “close-minded”? which is more “open”
an atheist is a person of tremendous faith. in our discussions about the things that matter most then, we aren’t talking about faith or no faith. belief or no belief. we are talking about faith in what? belief in what? the real question isn’t whether we have it or not. but what we have put it in.”

sorry for that long quote, but he is much more eloquent than i am. i guess people who disagree would just rather not be around someone who doesn’t have the same view as them, and that goes both ways. i’ve seen Christians isolate themselves from all that is “worldly” and i’ve seen people who can’t stand “Christians” and it is a dirty word to them.
i prefer to build things like this.
faith is not a wall built on bricks. because if one of the bricks is not there the wall falls. besides walls are meant to keep things in and out.
i prefer to think of faith as a trampoline. there is a frame that is solid. these are things that are foundational to faith that i believe. then there are flexible ideas that are like springs. it’s alot of fun to invite someone to jump on a trampoline.

in other words i prefer to walk in the middle. i know what side of the fence i’m on. i’m not straddling it, i just like to have conversations over it.

have a good one
chuck

Hi there - here from Bub and Pie,
I struggle with these issues too (though I wouldn’t last long in a church with sermons like that). What I struggled with for a long time was finding a church that both didn’t take the bible literally or use it as a weapon, but still took faith, and the responsibility to teach our children, very seriously. The church I went to before my current one of 6 years was great in its theology, and the sermons were wonderful, but the members just weren’t committed. Having “both” has been a tremendous blessing, and worth the search and the wait.

this is a wonderful post; sorry to come late to the party.

the bible says that all scripture is inspired by god, yes. however, that doesn’t mean it is ineffable or infallible, it just means inspired. it just means hey, take a minute to read it, it could be good, it comes from a good and divine source, that being God. fundamentalists take huge leaps and bounds with this and say that it’s the “only” and it’s the “one” but that is not true. i am presently reading this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Catholicism-Fundamentalism-Attack-Romanism-Christians/dp/0898701775/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3955270-4423246?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183040039&sr=1-1

…and there is is a section therein which discusses the crazed literalist interpretation of the bible by fundamentalists with dignity and frankness, and in truth. literalism is terrifyingly circular and ignorant. arguing with a literalist goes nowhere.

if God were a painter, he’d not be the kind of painter who’d paint just one portrait and then quit. if God were a composer, he’d not be the kind of composer who’d create his magnum opus and then quit, that’s all folks. no, God is new every morning, and as this pertains to the bible, he has more revelations, he cannot be contained in just one book, and as it concerns what *is* in the bible, it is for inspiration, for guidance, it is not the sole truth, it is not the end of what he has to say, it does not even begin to scratch the surface of explaining who God is or what He has in store for us. this is where fundamentalists get lost, in my opinion. i know, as i was a fundamentalist for years upon years, and it is a sad life, as it is devoid of mystery, mysticism, fascination and adventure.

it pains me that he called Walden’s book trash. just *pains* me. this is the kind of wanton ignorance i saw in the churches of my day, all the time, and it’s a blazing red flag for you.

beware.

Great post! I just wanted to say that sticking with a church that makes you feel spiritually or intellectually uncomfortable seems unwise to me. A church should be more than just a place you spend your Sunday mornings; it should be a community of people who you love and trust. This is especially important for your kids because this community will have a big influence on them as they grow. If you find yourself at odds with the beliefs espoused by this community, it can undermine your faith. I know that my own faith grows and flourishes in places where I don’t have to constantly question the ethics of my church’s dogma or practices. Growing up, that place for me was the United Church of Christ, and now I lean more towards the Unitarians. I don’t see any problem in “shopping around” for churches…finding the right one makes it all worth while. Also, I have to respectfully disagree about your comment that churches are not the place to do good works…how can we model ourselves after Christ if we do not use our religious lives to do good works? I think that one of the main problems with modern religion is that the religious people are not seen doing enough good works. Possibly, if volunteerism and activism was a bigger part of church life, there would be less backlash against religion. Anyways, I’m rambling now…

Aren’t you in Idaho? Why don’t you go ask some Mormon missionaries? Seriously…yeah you busted me, I’m a lurking Mormon!

[...] mean it’s good. Ahem, The Left Behind series. Which brings me back to this post I did a while back. Remember? The one where I FREAK out over the guest preacher calling Thoreau ‘trash.’ [...]

we just started a bible study called fbi (faith bible institute http://www.faithbibleinstitute.com/) which covers many of the theories that churches believe and why. the teacher even tells you to examine them all with the bible and study for yourself to determine the truth. we use a book called willmington’s guide to the bible (http://www.amazon.com/Willmingtons-Guide-Bible-Harold-Willmington/dp/0842388044) which is huge and unwieldy for studying, but it’s packed with ideas and the different theories of belief. i’m learning a lot and i’m thinking quite often, why didn’t anyone tell me this before?

There is a plethora of evidence corroborating the plain reading of the Genesis account. Peruse the material at http://www.DancingFromGenesis.com to see that this is so.