On the rare occasion that I get some tube time, I tend to shy away from the reality tv that seems to have plagued even the highest echelon of American society and culture and go for some real grit…typically along the lines of Ancient Aliens or the like. During tonight’s Netflix browsing session I stumbled upon “Is Genesis History?”, a relatively new documentary film that probes the deep question of how to interpret the Biblical book of Genesis.
I’m no Biblical scholar, nor would I say deeply religious, but being one who is constantly in search of better understanding our humanity through personal experience and interaction with the natural world, it is hard to ignore the Old Testament as a body of work that challenges our fundamental existence. Genesis of course is best recognized for guiding us through the 7-day plan of creation which vastly contradicts scientific theories of evolution. This film does a superb job in pleading a case for mistaken truths in both cases, and left me wanting to revisit my own thoughts on the subject.
Like many documentary films, the featured interviewees are subject matter experts biased to the filmmaker’s position on the subject. In this case, there was a clear bias towards the argument that Genesis should be interpreted literally, though I did find the arguments and scientific evidence compelling. In more mainstream society, we’re only exposed to the opposite argument, where Genesis should be taken more figuratively as a representation of billions of years condensed into a seven-day period for ease of understanding by the layperson of the days when the passage was written. The scientist in me is skeptical of this seven-day creationist theory, but I must say that the film well presented scientific arguments that contradict mainstream acceptance of evolution – with even a few anecdotes from the ocean realm…
In the end, I’d say it’s worth a watch. I was happy to see a recent effort made to address the topic in a serious way, especially in the wake of all the conspiracy theory stuff that is easy to get wrapped up in these days. As someone striving to be out there on the edge everyday and continuing to make progress, it’s always useful to reflect back on history to better understand where we came from, and more importantly how we got to this very place. When we learn those cycles of life and of time, we can better manipulate our space moving forward for everyone’s benefit.
Until then, plenty of rocks unturned since Biblical times, so get out there start turning them over…
