Why Creationism

Charles Munroe writes:Why do we need Creationism, or for that matter Genesis? The New Testament functions quite nicely without the Old Testament and avoids all the controversial materiel.

Christians give two reasons for holding on to the Old Testament. The first is that these books predict and promise things about Jesus Christ. Biblical scholars and many Christians now agree that this is not accurate, that the New Testament gospels were written to make it look as though Jesus' coming had been foretold by the older scriptures. For instance when Jesus ordered his disciples to fetch a colt for his ride into Jerusalem (Luke 19:30) this was supposed to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9), 'Behold thy king cometh unto thee having salvation, lowly riding upon an ass and upon the colt of a foal of an ass.' With many such examples it is held that the Evangelists invented the stories in order for it to look like a case of divine prophecy.The gospel writers of the second century certainly knew their scriptures; Matthew pointed to twenty examples of scriptural fulfilment, Luke to twenty-five. In order to persuade Jews to join the new cult of Christianity, they had to show that the Messiah, who was promised by the Hebrew Bible, had indeed materialised in the form of Jesus 'Christ'. There can be little doubt as to what end the gopels were written or which way around the New Testament prophecies occurred. But for those Christians who fervently believe in the Old Testament prophecies, an important questions remains: Is it still worth holding on to the Old Testament (for the sake of the prophecies) when keeping it means continuing with the brutal, embarrassing Old Testament God of Israel?But there is another reason why Christians need to retain the Old Testament which has nothing to do with prophecy. Christianity teaches that Christ was the saviour, he came down to the world to show people how they might be saved from the stigma of original sin. Because of Adam's behaviour God is displeased with the lot of us. By adhering to the doctrines of Jesus, it is believed that God will overlook the inherited disgrace of a chosen few, granting them happiness at a future date. Because of this Christianity needs the story of Adam and Eve and the doctrine of original sin more that Judaism or Islam do; for if Adam had not taken the apple, or worse still if Adam had never existed, Jesus' whole raison d'tre would disappear in a puff of smoke. If mankind had not been tainted by Adam's petty misdemeanour, none of us would need to be saved, and would hence see no poiint in a saviour. This simple fact chains the Christian to the whole Bible not just his beloved New Testament, and the God of Israel has to come along for the ride.

Marcion's contention was that the God of Israel, as represented by the Old Testament was a wholly imperfect being, yet the Christian schema required God to be perfect. From this, Marcion deduced that the God who created Adam and Eve, the one who threw hailstones at the Israelited in the time of Moses, could not be the same God as the one represented by Jesus.To get around the problem of Adam and Eve Marcion suggested that the real reason mankind needs Jesus the saviour has nothing to do with original sin, but is due to the fact that the Creator God, who made heaven and earth, was himself imperfect. Jesus' function, according to Marcion, was to rescue manking from the imperfect creative effort of this Old Testament demiurge.
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Marcion's 'new Christianity' appealed to those wishing to detach themselves from the cruel God of Jewish scripture; however, it made Marcion many enemies...None of Marcion's writings have survived destruction...