“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.
Without going into my personal beliefs, Christianity does not hinge on evolution vs. creationism. It hinges on the fact that God broke into recorded history, in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. As such he lived a life of perfect obedience and died for sinners. If believing in evolution is indeed a sin, that belief is covered by his death and resurrection.
His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”
Amen. He's got that right.
“When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said. “But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.
That is what Scripture teaches. He just had to dig a bit deeper for that realization.
Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.....
Collosians 1:15. [Now] He is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the firstborn of all creation,
Collosians 1:16. For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.
Collosians 1:17. And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together).
Collosians 1:18. He also is Head of [His] body, the church; seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place [stand first and be preeminent].
Collosians 1:19. For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him permanently.
Collosians 1:20. And God purposed that through (by the service, the intervention of) Him [the Son] all things should be completely reconciled back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through Him, [the Father] made peace by means of the blood of His cross. Amplified Bible
.....or any other 'orthodox' version will give you the same info: The Son was Always extant.... without him, nothing exists...."He is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the firstborn of all creation"
"For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him."
The point being: Christ is God. He is the 'likeness of God. He did NOT 'break into .. history'; He CREATED HISTORY, (and everthing else that exists, including all the unseen dimentions of string theory) [wink, wink]
Let's not be inventing and Scripture here!