I've been holding back on this - I did try to find the source of a quote about the original geologists, but couldn't. It was something about them going out into the field as creationists, but finding there evidence which changed their minds.

And lo, next week, on BBC2, on Thursday, at 9 pm, the current face of Earth Sciences in the media, Iain Stewart, is starting a three part series on "Men of Rock", the founders of geology, with a programme on James Hutton.

These men who tramped Scotland did not go out with preconceptions, to toe the accepted line to keep their place in academe, and were not tied to grant or corporate funding when they established a great age for the Earth. And anyone who goes out there with open eyes can find the same things. (A creationist group went to examine Hutton's Unconformity, and they did not find what they wanted to find, and their report stated they needed more work. Sorry, haven't kept the reference.)

Personally, I think it is irrelevant to living a good life to place too great a concern on a literal belief in the Bible as a history book. It is an issue in which I agree with Galileo. The book is to teach us how to live, not to teach us how the world works. And even that needs care - just look what happens with literalists in Israel now, who are reliving the Bronze Age with modern weapons.

People can live Christly lives whatever they believe about Genesis.

Penny