Sunday, July 17, 2016

Conflict with Christianity?

Book signing at the Lion & Rose Pub in San Antonio, Tx.
I'm going to share some pictures with you from my book signing at the Lion and Rose Pub in San Antonio while I talk about a few things. I've had several interesting discussions recently with people about Harmonic Wars. Some people are already asking how my storyline conflicts with the story of creation in the Bible. First things first: this is a Science Fiction story. There are aspects of this book that are way out there away from reality. But other aspects will have you questioning the narratives that historians and Egyptologists insist upon. But nothing that I've said or written is to be taken as in conflict with the Bible. I included my Christianity in this book, rather than to exclude it.

"But Doug, your book is about humans coming from another planet. How is that not in conflict with the Bible?" So many Ancient Aliens theorists insist that all great things accomplished in our past had to be done by the aliens. Sorry, but that sells humanity so short, and I just can't accept that.  There is nothing in the Bible that identifies the location of Earth. I know that can seem in conflict, but remember that this is a SciFi story. From that aspect, Harmonic Wars is no different than C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, but more on the edge and written for adults. So to put things absolutely clear, I believe firmly that God created all that is in six days. I don't understand how, where, or even when. Those things really don't matter to me.

Marissa helping me set up
People also get wrapped up in time, and I think that is the most dangerous thing we can do as believers. First, you're putting humanly constraints on an omnipotent God, who exists outside of time as we know it. How many times have self-proclaimed prophets tried to predict the end of the world, only to come out looking foolish? The same thing can happen when looking at our history and trying to force it to fit a preconceived notion of timelines. With that in mind, some biblical scholars claim that humanity has been here for roughly 6,000 years, while others may go as far as 10,000 years. Modern archeologists have uncovered several ruins in the 10,000-year range and older. For example, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey was covered up by its builders roughly 10,000 years ago. For me, this does nothing to change my view of creation as told in Genesis, because time doesn't matter to me. So whether God created everything 6,000 years, 12,000 years or 120,000 years causes no conflict for my belief in the Scriptures.

My Lion and Rose family! 6-25-2016
Let's take the 12,000-year road for fun and say that humanity originated here roughly 12,000 years ago. Now, look at how far humanity has advanced from 1900-2000. We went from a horse and buggy society to building space ships that reached the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars and several asteroids. Voyager 1 is now 20 BILLION km away from Earth and has now exited our solar system for parts unknown. All of this happened in roughly 100 years out of 12,000. That's it. So, what's to have prevented humanity from becoming this advanced in our past? Absolutely nothing.


I know that's too hard for people to believe because in our arrogance we believe that we are at the height of the greatest civilization this planet has ever known. To suggest anything else is heresy, or is it? Actually, I think it's Biblical!

The rest of my Lion and Rose family, 6-25-2016
When God cast Adam and Eve out of Eden, He didn't just say "Boy, did you kids mess up! Good luck, 'cause I'm outta here!" No.  He would have made certain that Adam and Eve would not only survive, but they would also be able to thrive. What types of things would an all-powerful God teach them? What perfect knowledge would He have passed to them? I can't imagine the information being something that would have been out-of-harmony with nature, like a petroleum-based society. In fact, it would have been perfect as God intended. Only mankind would have perverted it into something else.

How many of you have ever played the "Pass-it-on" game in grade school? Teachers put their students in a circle and then tell a secret to the student beside them with the strict instructions to pass the secret to the next student exactly as they heard it. When it gets back to the teacher the secret has changed completely in only 10 minutes after going through 30 students. Imagine the same things happening through our history as it was passed down for 6,000 years through billions of people? How far off could what we believe happened in our past be from reality? Now, what if people were actively trying to hide things in our past? How easy and effective could they be? I would say that we are a people who has lost our history.

Jena coming back to say hello to us at the Lion & Rose
If you want to know what I believe about our origins, read Genesis, Chapter 1. If you want to know about my religious beliefs, read the Nicene Creed. Harmonic Wars is simply a SciFi story. Nothing that I wrote is in conflict with my Christianity, so don't let it be in conflict with yours.

Have a blessed week!
~D.B. Stearns






























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