Delivered by Maureen Fiedler on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" (WAMU-FM)

In the book of Genesis God said, "Let there be light!" Some of that light is sorely needed to inform the raging debate over the Book of Genesis that is currently dominating local school board races across the nation. Especially in need of light are the candidates of the "Religious Right" who want biblical creationism taught in public school science courses on an equal footing with the theory of evolution.

Biblical creationism maintains that God created the world in seven days, that human beings were created directly and did not evolve from other life forms, and that the world is only a few thousand years old.

Now I am a Bible-believing Christian. But Creationists do not represent my point of view, and I suspect that they don't represent the views of most mainstream Christians. I believe that God created the world, but I also accept the scientific theory of evolution. And as I read Genesis, I see no contradiction between these positions.

How can that be? Biblical scholars have long said that the Scriptures are meant to teach theological and moral truths, not science. Those truths are often presented in story form or with literary devices that made sense to early Hebrew writers and listeners - like God creating the world in six days and then resting on the Sabbath - or God creating human beings from the dust of the earth which is the source of life in agricultural societies.

Biblical experts say that the essential theological messages here are two: God created the world and God saw that it was profoundly good. The use of a seven-day framework or creating humans from dust are incidental literary forms.

In short, sound biblical scholarship makes it easy to believe in the Bible and still think that God created the world with a Big Bang or that human beings evolved from other primates. What's essential are two ideas: that God launched the process of creation and our call to cherish the world and the creatures that resulted from it.

The real violations of Genesis in our time, then, come not from those who teach evolution, but from those who plunder or pollute God's creation or those who make war. If the Christian Right wants a curriculum based on biblical values, they might push for courses in ecology, environmentalism or peacemaking, not creationism. Ah yes, "Let there be light!"

Maureen Fiedler is a Roman Catholic nun and co-director of The Quixote Center/Catholics Speak Out. Many of her commentaries can be heard on local broadcasts of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of TIA or TIA's Board of Directors.