I just finished reading this really wonderful book by John Walton, called The Lost World of Genesis One, and one of the (many) things he points out is that understanding embryonic development does not make a Christian believe any less that God knits human beings together in the womb. The science does not affect our metaphysical belief. Why then, he says, is it so impossible for so many to reconcile a personal Creator God with biological evolution? Of course, I can't do justice to his reasoning and his arguments here, in a short blog comment, when he spent an entire book working it out, but I really appreciated his point of view, that one does not have to be either/or. It is not evolution that is anathema to a believer, but rather it is the dysteleological, metaphysical viewpoint behind evolution that insists there is no meaning or purpose to it. The actual scientific facts, if one reads Genesis 1 properly, are not opposed to theology, or teleology, at all.

Which is all way more technical than the point of this post, which is a plea for kindness and understanding and GRACE, but I find it fascinating, and I always love finding biblical scholars who say hey, you can hold to the bible as true and still not be a narrow-minded, ignorant, hate-filled jerk. IT IS POSSIBLE.

And I already said this on Twitter, but I am SO thrilled for you to get to see Paul McCartney this summer. Fingers crossed for NO LARYNGITIS.