Best of Spirits

A relative recently tweety-linked to this article.

"...There were others who attempted to mediate between evolution and Christianity. In the most common form of the argument, they asserted that the Bible tells the story of the who and the why of creation, but not the how. The how was left to empirical science and its theory of evolution...."

Back in the text-only pre-Internet days, when the kids were babes, the forums on Compuserve helped me feel connected during many a housebound Chicago winter's day. I was a long-time deeply-involved participant in Religion Forum especially, still one my most cherished experiences. Unparalleled in my life was that intellectual intensity of theological discussions, and I guess I could say sheer quantity of opportunities for sharing and gleaning truth. Like all social groups, there was lots of friendly shmoozing and casual banter, friendships built up through "mere" text correspondence, but mostly I remember sincere seekers of truth, believers of all sorts, debating earnestly, and holding forth about their own moving beliefs and inspiring experiences!

Among so many with whom I held sometimes long and occasionally-sensible (heh) philosophic and theologic discussions was Dr. Jarrell Bairrington (I think I still remember how to spell his name). Jerry was an Air Force.. um.. Major, I think, retired. He was a Bible-believing Gospel-slinging Baptist minister from down in Texas, and while I never saw him, I always pictured him as kind-of a tall drink of water with a shock of wavy white hair. Jerry was also one of the more intensely involved long-term participants in Religion Forum; then, one day, he went noticeably offline for several weeks; then he came back on like gangbusters. Whereas he had been almost as verbose as I (no mean feat), he had always been relatively laid-back. When he came back from his hiatus, he was preaching that Gospel like the End was Near to anyone who'd care to read and with all who would discuss; it was clear he was in a different, high-preacher mode. Shortly after, he vanished again, and then we found out why the change. One last message, posted by his daughter, briefly announced to our heartbroken community that our friend Dr. Jerry had died.

All I've ever found on him on the Net (haven't searched for a while) is a listing of his grave, in a vet cemetery in Texas.

I treasure my friendship with Dr. Jerry, developed through our correspondence and debates. Jerry and I, like old frathouse denizens, had hung around Religion Forum so long and constantly (where did I get the time?), and had so many interactions with one another, and observed each others' interactions with others on the forum, that I guess, looking back, we were a couple of the Main Characters there, but especially he was.

Writing about him now, I realize I miss seeing his handle pop up in a "from" field.

Jerry and I had our differences, unquestionably, on matters theological, but we shared a mutual reverence for faith, for Jesus and our Father. His evangelical enthusiasm was inspiring, and his dedication to Jesus was evidently deep. He was also just a nice guy. All of us, especially those of us who were young then (grin), can lose our tempers or drop a flame-word now and then, but I can't recall Jerry ever doing so; even after he came back blazing like a Nova, he
was not flaming. Some people got offended by him, but that was just wrong, because he was not mean-spirited, he just wasn't mincing words about his faith and beliefs; especially at the end.

Did I mention Jerry had been by training and employment a scientist? Aw, I can't remember now, chemist? As I recall, it was during his intense on-the-way-to-checkout period, in a discussion with a resident atheist (another long-time regular), that Jerry expounded upon his outlook on Genesis 1, a unique interpretation to my knowledge at the time. Jerry surprised our atheist correspondent I think, because he did not deny the millennia-long complicated developmental patterns of scientifically apparent cosmological and biological progress. Jerry respected science and had to reconcile its facts with his belief in the Bible's -- including Genesis's -- inerrancy.

Now, I can't do Jerry justice without digging out our old conversations, which may be stored on 5" floppies somewhere, but I'm pretty sure I don't have a 5" player installed on any of our computers anymore! I'll just do my best from memory.

As I recall, the time scale he dismissed up-front as irrelevant. He wasn't so much of a literalist that he took a day to mean 24 hours before there was earth or sun to give measure to an earthly day. If an age is as a day to God, then six of God's days equals.. as long as it takes. I don't really recall well how he addressed this aspect.

Much better remembered was the primary thrust of his interpretation, that Genesis 1 describes evolution, cosmological and biological Then he carefully proceeded to parallel "formless and empty...," "separated the light from the darkness...," etc., with the evident scientific progression from nothingness to initial energy, matter from light, forms from cosmic dust, then life, vegetation first, then animals, lower forms to higher, fish, bird, mammal, just like evolution indicates, and finally arising from animals, humankind. That's what Jerry saw. (As I re-tell it, anyway.)

Our resident atheist would have none of it, of course. He argued that Genesis was silly, because the earth was created before the stars. I
wish I could remember all Jerry's replies, because in debate our resident atheist was good, but Jerry was good, too. Yes, science doesn't indicate "earth and water" appeared before sky and stars, so the meaning of the initial earth-appearance he related to the coalescence of matter from energy, and the rest of the chemical derivations that occur as space-time progresses. Okay, something like that. He was both a much better scientist and Genesis exegesist than am I. While I don't recall all the details of this long-ago exchange, Jerry gave me a new take on Gen. 1.

What has always impressed me about Gen. 1 was this: In the realm of genesis (origin) stories among the peoples of the earth, you have giants dropping from mother-trees, coyotes barfing up humanity, and turtles all the way down. I mean only to be mocking for the sake of snarkiness :P not really to disparage all these cultures. Everybody, always, wants to know, where did I come from? and in the absence of better understanding, where the fabulous was believed to be real, and reason and science were far in the future, such tales gave people sense of place in the universe.

Of all the origin tales of the world, however, Gen. 1 is unique in every way (except that giving of sense of place, which for my dime it does better than all others). Most tales are absolutely fantastic, beginning with some already-existent Force, or Coyote, or Tree, or something; none other begins with a personal self-purposive Divine Father involved in fiat creation by will alone. Those fables may have provided comfort in a pre-scientific age, but none other describes a progressive developmental plan (under divine guidance).

The words and meanings of Genesis which we've inherited are understood to be the explanations given to pre-scientific peoples in a way that would best inform them and least confuse them, then a certain leeway for metaphorical usage is understandable. Even if it's off in some particulars from what science believes this week, what's most remarkable, under Dr. Jerry's interpretation, is that somehow, millennia ago, long before scientific enlightenment, long before anyone could comprehend other galaxies or Copernican space or graduated biological progression, somebody revealed this origin story which, by golly, holds up purty durn well scientifically! (That's supposed to be my Okie accent, not Jerry's Texan.) Void, check; energy (Big Bang if you will), check; matter, vegetation, animals, humans, in that order, checkcheckcheck, check. Bonus question, God behind it all? Check! Fact is, if this interpretation of Genesis 1 revealing the course of evolution is a stretch, it's not really much of a stretch at all.

HOW COULD THAT BE?!?