1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
This is a fascinating story. After they ate from the tree their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked so they covered themselves. Prior to eating the fruit they knew they were naked; but, it didn't matter. They covered themselves because they felt vulnerable, they had not felt that way prior. To know good and evil means to understand imperfection and that we are all imperfect.
The world we live in strives for perfection and never finds it. We are fascinated with beauty and will modify our bodies to look younger, we take great pride in our physical beauty. We wish to be admired, we wish to be seen as perfect and tell ourselves that we are. We seek to unlearn the knowledge that we gained in the garden, we seek to see and make ourselves as perfect; but our understanding of perfection is flawed. Perfection is a process that allows us to enjoy eternity, it is how God created the world, how he created nature to work.
Why do we seek to be naive and innocent when we are neither? The search for absolute knowledge that we merely have to learn and the search to remove any sense of morality does not create innocence. Adam and Eve were clueless, they were children. If you had the choice today would you have eaten of the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
I would have eaten of the same tree as Eve did. The understanding of good and evil, knowledge, allows us to define ourselves, to become us. God put the tree there for a reason and I am pretty sure he knew what would happen.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Genesis 2: 4 - 25
4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Today we have a slightly longer passage. Many people get confused by this part of the bible. It says that God created Adam prior to creating vegetation or land animals; but, we just finished reading how God created vegetation and animals after man. How could it be that the writer didn't see that he just apparently contradicted himself. There are two possible answers, one that God created humans in two separate events and the other is that God created two kinds of people, you should know this from science, Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. Archaeologists tell us that the Neanderthals had the early advantage, that they died off and we passed them up. We will get back to that when we get to the story of Noah.
God did indeed create two types of people. Humans are descendants of Adam and Eve. Bottom line is that Adam and Eve were created and put apart from all other people in the Garden of Eden and others were created a few days later. The fact is that we don't get a lot of discussion about the people who were created on the sixth day. Later in Genesis when Cain kills his brother Abel, we are told that God puts a mark on Cain and sends him out of the garden and Abel is afraid other people will see the mark and harm him. At some point in time God must have told Adam and Eve about the other people he created after them.
Science has proven that all people currently living on this earth are descended from one woman. It has to do with the genetics that women pass down to their daughters. Funny how the bible said that six thousand years ago and we only discovered it in the last 20 years. I remember reading an article about the scientist that discovered it, she said that the data indicated that the original woman had come from asia; but, because they knew we had come out of Africa, she re-interpreted the data. The article was either in Time or Newsweek and I don't care enough to go find it.
So, Adam and Eve were created and placed in the garden. They were separated from the other people originally, see that pattern again. Now, it says that God created man out of the ground, out of dirt. We are in fact made of the same stuff; but, how did they know that 6,000 years ago? There is a song by Joni Mitchell, she wrote, "We are stardust, we are golden, we are million year old carbon", they didn't know that a thousand years ago. Look at the other religions and see how many got that right. This is why we must understand the context and the time when these things were explained to people. Telling people thousand of years ago that we came from dirt was more outrageous then telling people that we evolved from fish; but, the bible is correct and science says that we are made of the stuff.
When God created Adam it says that he breathed into his nostrils and gave the man life and a living soul. Your "soul", your individuality comes from God, he gave us a part of him so that we could be us, he gave us self awareness and self-determination. We are in his image and that includes getting to decide for ourselves who we are, what we will live by, free will. We are special, everyone of us is unique and a creation of Gods.
After God created Adam, he then created the garden of eden, an oasis in a barren world. Within the garden God made two trees, one gave eternal life and the other gave the knowledge of good and evil. Once again we see the pattern, God created two things the same; but, with great differences.
I wish to pass on something that I was told and believe about the bible and God. Everything God says is important, if he says something once it is important; but, if he says it three times then it is really important. Three times means that a final decision must be made by people. It is the final chance and then we get to live with the consequences, we can turn; but, we will still have consequences. Consider that when you read the bible or make decisions in your life.
Lets talk about the two trees now. God didn't put them there by accident. He knew that they would probably try one or the other eventually, so why did he put them there? It was a choice for us to make. We assume that everything was great; but, Eve did not eat of the tree of life, she chose the tree of death. Satan did not trick Eve, he only thought he did. She knew she might die and ate of it anyways. This, what I am going to discuss is not commonly believed in Christianity; but, I ask you to read what others have said and then consider what I am saying. How can you know when you are learning false doctrine if you do not test everything that others tell you? We will get into this further when we get to the next post in detail, in the meantime, try and answer for yourself why Eve chose the tree that God said led to death rather than the one that he said was the tree of life.
Eve was innocent and Adam was innocent, they did not know how to lie, they were like children and sitting in front of the all knowing. I am pretty sure they understood that God knew more than they did. I want people to learn how to discern, to truly read the bible and think about it themselves and to learn to check everything they are told including what I write; but, don't think that just because the crowd believes it that it is true.
God put both before man knowing that they would eventually eat of one. This upsets some people because they do not understand what our choice was. We should thank Eve for having made the better choice. If Eve had eaten from the tree of life then humans would not know the difference between good and evil, we would remain eternal children. I believe angels are less complex and more childlike than humans because they are incapable of learning, they got eternal life.
God put the trees there and we got to decide which we would eat from. He knew we would choose; but, the choice was left to us and to understand that deeper we have to understand why Eve chose as she did, just not yet. After God made the trees of Knowledge and Life, we are told of four rivers that flowed from Eden. We are told where the rivers went; but, we are not told why he had four coming out of Eden and I don't have a clue; but, there is a reason, God does not do anything without a plan or a reason. He knows every cell of our body and the universe, nothing is an accident.
It says that God put Adam in the garden to take care of it. God could have made it so that it did not need to be taken care of. Why did God put him there to take care of it? Well, I have a couple of thoughts. Either God wanted to give Adam something to do to keep him busy or God wanted him to learn how to farm, learn a skill that he would need later. We do know that Cain was a farmer. My guess is that his father taught him.
We now get back to the trees. God put the two trees in the garden; but, he did not say that it was bad to eat of the tree of life, he only said that they would die if they ate from the tree of knowledge. What would have happened if Eve had eaten from the tree of life?
We will discuss all of this more at a later time; but, I didn't want to put too much out for one post. I think there will be enough to learn from this post for a day. I love Genesis because we are given so little information and so much to consider the possibilities, a puzzle and my little autistic brain loves puzzles. My gift is pattern recognition according to the tests for the military that I took.
The next thing in the story is that God determines to make a mate for Adam. He says that it is not good for man to be alone so he will make him a mate. This is critical to understanding God and the universe. God made us in his image and knew that it was not good for us to be alone. Do you think it was good for God to be alone, alone in the darkness? If you grew up in the church and believed everything you were told then you will probably not be able to answer this question without relying on tradition and tradition would say that God was just as satisfied without us as he is with us and I don't believe that. I believe God created us to have a relationship with him because he knew that it is not good to be alone, not even for him.
Some will doubt this interpretation; but, be careful, I read my bible deeply. Either God created us to just make us happy or he created us to grow. Either he created us so that we would just have no pain or he created us to become better so that we could relate to him on some aspect with our own unique perspective. We were not an afterthought, God created us with a purpose and if our lives are any indication, it is a lot more than just to have fun. God created the whole universe just so that he could create us, we were the ultimate creation that he made everything else for. Please understand how important you are and how important you are to God. We pass through this life to something much more pleasant; but, we have to be us first.
So God decides that Adam needs a help mate and creates all the animals. None of the animals are in the image of Adam, they are different and cannot relate to him. He names all the animals but does not find a mate. God knew that Adam would not. Lets get back to something. God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone; but, Adam was not alone, he was with God. Neither God nor the animals was a mate for Adam, he was not of the exact same stuff, he was not close enough to their level of understanding, smarter than the animals and not as knowledgeable as God.
Why didn't God just create Eve? God knew who and what would be a good helper. God also knew that he was not a mate for Adam. Adam had to understand that. He named all the animals and knew that he had not found the right mate. This is where you begin to get an understanding that few have. God created Adam from Eve because he made us in his likeness and we came from God. We are a piece of God, emphasis on piece. We are not God, we are an aspect of him, we are of him, we are special and loved by him. He loves every part of him because he is worthy of love, he has earned it. A God that created us just for torment would not be worthy of our love and that is not what God created us for, how could he torment himself?
I know that this is a long post and I know that it may take people a day or two to read it, don't feel bad. I want to provide enough content for people to read as they feel comfortable. I do hope that I am providing you some things to think about even if you thought you knew the bible. You can agree or disagree; but, you will have to prove your point and not just repeat what you have been told, I will have an answer.
I had originally only planned on discussing verses 4 - 17; but, I am going to finish off the chapter. God took an aspect of Adam to create Eve, same as he did to create us. God created us in his image and he created Eve in the image of man, similar but different. Women and men are different, we are fundamentally different. God did not simply create another God, he created something in his image; but, different. He created us from within himself in the same way that he created Eve from within Adam. This is very heavy stuff if you think about it, which is why people do not.
God put Adam to sleep, removed a rib and created Eve from that rib. Consider verse 23, Adam says that this is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Verse 24 says that because we are of one flesh and bone and man will leave his family for a woman and they shall become one. Yep. A man and a woman that are meant to be soul mates become one for eternity, everything else is for the here and now.
If we are to unite with God then we must be one and that is a special relationship that many do not find here on earth, their soulmate. From our soulmate we are able to be fruitful and multiply, we are able to have offspring. God referred to "we" when talking to himself. Well, if we are in his image than "we" must be similar but different. He made us man and women in his image while referring to himself in the plural. Something deeper is going on. It is so fundamental that we do not understand it.
After creating Eve, it says that they were both naked and not ashamed. Well, God created a mate for Adam, they had children and neither was ashamed of their nakedness. Why would they be, it was just the two of them and God, he knew what parts he put on them and so did they. They could not be ashamed and were children, they didn't know shame because they had no knowledge of good and evil or other people. I was never ashamed of being naked in front of my wife, she had seen my body many times, she had seen me sick, she had seen me with hemorrhoids, she had seen me sick and seen me at my physical best, I had seen her in the same conditions. No shame, it is your spouse and they should know you fully, that is how we become one flesh. We do not see another body, we see our own when we see our soul mates body and are married and have cleaved, united as one.
When we unite as we are intended we become a new being and it is not about the body, it is about the soul. God does not argue with himself, he is in agreement but shows himself as body and soul to us, Jesus and the wholly spirit are what he is made of and the combination of them is greater than the parts. This is not what the "church" teaches; but, let them correct me, it will confound them. Do not seek for answers, seek for understanding. Problem with the church today is that it seeks short cuts, it seeks answers and stopped looking for understanding, it stopped looking to grow theologically. Nobody can understand God, we can only understand what can be known by us at a time and then learn more about him. The church isn't growing because it is not understanding God better. It is not trying to, it is just repeating what it knew.
The church has often said terrible things about Eve. Eve did not have it easy, she knew she loved Adam, God made her in his image to love him, to be his helper. Adam was Eve's God in a manner. Later we will discuss the proof of this; but, by the time you read it you won't remember that I said it here first. Moses didn't wish to speak to Pharaoh, God said that he could have Aaron do it for him, he said that Moses would be to Aaron as God was to Moses. Get it?
Eve loved Adam with all her heart, his pain was greater to her than her own was to her. We should feel the same way about the lord, we are to be his bride. Life is about pain and pleasure on a level. Our pain is lessoned when we share it and our pleasure is intensified when we share it. This is the God pattern, from one comes all and all variations in between. It is how one becomes many. This is undeniable, in the beginning was God, one. He chose to create us, to become many; but, still remain him. God is all that is, we are part of all that is, we are created by him as part of him not apart from him. Understanding becomes love (forgiveness) and because there is love we can have understanding (thought). Be well and send in your questions.
6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Today we have a slightly longer passage. Many people get confused by this part of the bible. It says that God created Adam prior to creating vegetation or land animals; but, we just finished reading how God created vegetation and animals after man. How could it be that the writer didn't see that he just apparently contradicted himself. There are two possible answers, one that God created humans in two separate events and the other is that God created two kinds of people, you should know this from science, Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. Archaeologists tell us that the Neanderthals had the early advantage, that they died off and we passed them up. We will get back to that when we get to the story of Noah.
God did indeed create two types of people. Humans are descendants of Adam and Eve. Bottom line is that Adam and Eve were created and put apart from all other people in the Garden of Eden and others were created a few days later. The fact is that we don't get a lot of discussion about the people who were created on the sixth day. Later in Genesis when Cain kills his brother Abel, we are told that God puts a mark on Cain and sends him out of the garden and Abel is afraid other people will see the mark and harm him. At some point in time God must have told Adam and Eve about the other people he created after them.
Science has proven that all people currently living on this earth are descended from one woman. It has to do with the genetics that women pass down to their daughters. Funny how the bible said that six thousand years ago and we only discovered it in the last 20 years. I remember reading an article about the scientist that discovered it, she said that the data indicated that the original woman had come from asia; but, because they knew we had come out of Africa, she re-interpreted the data. The article was either in Time or Newsweek and I don't care enough to go find it.
So, Adam and Eve were created and placed in the garden. They were separated from the other people originally, see that pattern again. Now, it says that God created man out of the ground, out of dirt. We are in fact made of the same stuff; but, how did they know that 6,000 years ago? There is a song by Joni Mitchell, she wrote, "We are stardust, we are golden, we are million year old carbon", they didn't know that a thousand years ago. Look at the other religions and see how many got that right. This is why we must understand the context and the time when these things were explained to people. Telling people thousand of years ago that we came from dirt was more outrageous then telling people that we evolved from fish; but, the bible is correct and science says that we are made of the stuff.
When God created Adam it says that he breathed into his nostrils and gave the man life and a living soul. Your "soul", your individuality comes from God, he gave us a part of him so that we could be us, he gave us self awareness and self-determination. We are in his image and that includes getting to decide for ourselves who we are, what we will live by, free will. We are special, everyone of us is unique and a creation of Gods.
After God created Adam, he then created the garden of eden, an oasis in a barren world. Within the garden God made two trees, one gave eternal life and the other gave the knowledge of good and evil. Once again we see the pattern, God created two things the same; but, with great differences.
I wish to pass on something that I was told and believe about the bible and God. Everything God says is important, if he says something once it is important; but, if he says it three times then it is really important. Three times means that a final decision must be made by people. It is the final chance and then we get to live with the consequences, we can turn; but, we will still have consequences. Consider that when you read the bible or make decisions in your life.
Lets talk about the two trees now. God didn't put them there by accident. He knew that they would probably try one or the other eventually, so why did he put them there? It was a choice for us to make. We assume that everything was great; but, Eve did not eat of the tree of life, she chose the tree of death. Satan did not trick Eve, he only thought he did. She knew she might die and ate of it anyways. This, what I am going to discuss is not commonly believed in Christianity; but, I ask you to read what others have said and then consider what I am saying. How can you know when you are learning false doctrine if you do not test everything that others tell you? We will get into this further when we get to the next post in detail, in the meantime, try and answer for yourself why Eve chose the tree that God said led to death rather than the one that he said was the tree of life.
Eve was innocent and Adam was innocent, they did not know how to lie, they were like children and sitting in front of the all knowing. I am pretty sure they understood that God knew more than they did. I want people to learn how to discern, to truly read the bible and think about it themselves and to learn to check everything they are told including what I write; but, don't think that just because the crowd believes it that it is true.
God put both before man knowing that they would eventually eat of one. This upsets some people because they do not understand what our choice was. We should thank Eve for having made the better choice. If Eve had eaten from the tree of life then humans would not know the difference between good and evil, we would remain eternal children. I believe angels are less complex and more childlike than humans because they are incapable of learning, they got eternal life.
God put the trees there and we got to decide which we would eat from. He knew we would choose; but, the choice was left to us and to understand that deeper we have to understand why Eve chose as she did, just not yet. After God made the trees of Knowledge and Life, we are told of four rivers that flowed from Eden. We are told where the rivers went; but, we are not told why he had four coming out of Eden and I don't have a clue; but, there is a reason, God does not do anything without a plan or a reason. He knows every cell of our body and the universe, nothing is an accident.
It says that God put Adam in the garden to take care of it. God could have made it so that it did not need to be taken care of. Why did God put him there to take care of it? Well, I have a couple of thoughts. Either God wanted to give Adam something to do to keep him busy or God wanted him to learn how to farm, learn a skill that he would need later. We do know that Cain was a farmer. My guess is that his father taught him.
We now get back to the trees. God put the two trees in the garden; but, he did not say that it was bad to eat of the tree of life, he only said that they would die if they ate from the tree of knowledge. What would have happened if Eve had eaten from the tree of life?
We will discuss all of this more at a later time; but, I didn't want to put too much out for one post. I think there will be enough to learn from this post for a day. I love Genesis because we are given so little information and so much to consider the possibilities, a puzzle and my little autistic brain loves puzzles. My gift is pattern recognition according to the tests for the military that I took.
The next thing in the story is that God determines to make a mate for Adam. He says that it is not good for man to be alone so he will make him a mate. This is critical to understanding God and the universe. God made us in his image and knew that it was not good for us to be alone. Do you think it was good for God to be alone, alone in the darkness? If you grew up in the church and believed everything you were told then you will probably not be able to answer this question without relying on tradition and tradition would say that God was just as satisfied without us as he is with us and I don't believe that. I believe God created us to have a relationship with him because he knew that it is not good to be alone, not even for him.
Some will doubt this interpretation; but, be careful, I read my bible deeply. Either God created us to just make us happy or he created us to grow. Either he created us so that we would just have no pain or he created us to become better so that we could relate to him on some aspect with our own unique perspective. We were not an afterthought, God created us with a purpose and if our lives are any indication, it is a lot more than just to have fun. God created the whole universe just so that he could create us, we were the ultimate creation that he made everything else for. Please understand how important you are and how important you are to God. We pass through this life to something much more pleasant; but, we have to be us first.
So God decides that Adam needs a help mate and creates all the animals. None of the animals are in the image of Adam, they are different and cannot relate to him. He names all the animals but does not find a mate. God knew that Adam would not. Lets get back to something. God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone; but, Adam was not alone, he was with God. Neither God nor the animals was a mate for Adam, he was not of the exact same stuff, he was not close enough to their level of understanding, smarter than the animals and not as knowledgeable as God.
Why didn't God just create Eve? God knew who and what would be a good helper. God also knew that he was not a mate for Adam. Adam had to understand that. He named all the animals and knew that he had not found the right mate. This is where you begin to get an understanding that few have. God created Adam from Eve because he made us in his likeness and we came from God. We are a piece of God, emphasis on piece. We are not God, we are an aspect of him, we are of him, we are special and loved by him. He loves every part of him because he is worthy of love, he has earned it. A God that created us just for torment would not be worthy of our love and that is not what God created us for, how could he torment himself?
I know that this is a long post and I know that it may take people a day or two to read it, don't feel bad. I want to provide enough content for people to read as they feel comfortable. I do hope that I am providing you some things to think about even if you thought you knew the bible. You can agree or disagree; but, you will have to prove your point and not just repeat what you have been told, I will have an answer.
I had originally only planned on discussing verses 4 - 17; but, I am going to finish off the chapter. God took an aspect of Adam to create Eve, same as he did to create us. God created us in his image and he created Eve in the image of man, similar but different. Women and men are different, we are fundamentally different. God did not simply create another God, he created something in his image; but, different. He created us from within himself in the same way that he created Eve from within Adam. This is very heavy stuff if you think about it, which is why people do not.
God put Adam to sleep, removed a rib and created Eve from that rib. Consider verse 23, Adam says that this is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Verse 24 says that because we are of one flesh and bone and man will leave his family for a woman and they shall become one. Yep. A man and a woman that are meant to be soul mates become one for eternity, everything else is for the here and now.
If we are to unite with God then we must be one and that is a special relationship that many do not find here on earth, their soulmate. From our soulmate we are able to be fruitful and multiply, we are able to have offspring. God referred to "we" when talking to himself. Well, if we are in his image than "we" must be similar but different. He made us man and women in his image while referring to himself in the plural. Something deeper is going on. It is so fundamental that we do not understand it.
After creating Eve, it says that they were both naked and not ashamed. Well, God created a mate for Adam, they had children and neither was ashamed of their nakedness. Why would they be, it was just the two of them and God, he knew what parts he put on them and so did they. They could not be ashamed and were children, they didn't know shame because they had no knowledge of good and evil or other people. I was never ashamed of being naked in front of my wife, she had seen my body many times, she had seen me sick, she had seen me with hemorrhoids, she had seen me sick and seen me at my physical best, I had seen her in the same conditions. No shame, it is your spouse and they should know you fully, that is how we become one flesh. We do not see another body, we see our own when we see our soul mates body and are married and have cleaved, united as one.
When we unite as we are intended we become a new being and it is not about the body, it is about the soul. God does not argue with himself, he is in agreement but shows himself as body and soul to us, Jesus and the wholly spirit are what he is made of and the combination of them is greater than the parts. This is not what the "church" teaches; but, let them correct me, it will confound them. Do not seek for answers, seek for understanding. Problem with the church today is that it seeks short cuts, it seeks answers and stopped looking for understanding, it stopped looking to grow theologically. Nobody can understand God, we can only understand what can be known by us at a time and then learn more about him. The church isn't growing because it is not understanding God better. It is not trying to, it is just repeating what it knew.
The church has often said terrible things about Eve. Eve did not have it easy, she knew she loved Adam, God made her in his image to love him, to be his helper. Adam was Eve's God in a manner. Later we will discuss the proof of this; but, by the time you read it you won't remember that I said it here first. Moses didn't wish to speak to Pharaoh, God said that he could have Aaron do it for him, he said that Moses would be to Aaron as God was to Moses. Get it?
Eve loved Adam with all her heart, his pain was greater to her than her own was to her. We should feel the same way about the lord, we are to be his bride. Life is about pain and pleasure on a level. Our pain is lessoned when we share it and our pleasure is intensified when we share it. This is the God pattern, from one comes all and all variations in between. It is how one becomes many. This is undeniable, in the beginning was God, one. He chose to create us, to become many; but, still remain him. God is all that is, we are part of all that is, we are created by him as part of him not apart from him. Understanding becomes love (forgiveness) and because there is love we can have understanding (thought). Be well and send in your questions.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Now We Talk About the World
Before returning to Genesis I want to talk about what is going on in the world because you cannot trust everything in the news. We are to discern, to understand, to analyze, to question and understand the world. True discernment begins with thinking about what you are told and then testing it against logic and personal knowledge. We must always question ourselves; but, we must always question everyone else also, especially if they are experts and we think we can rely on them and not have to put in any effort.
That is really the key. Just because someone has a doctorate and honors does not mean they are right. I have both and that doesn't mean I am always right, I am still learning. Just as Doctors and Lawyers refer to what they do as practicing law and practicing medicine, the same is true for scientists and other "experts".
I read an article that said that Atheism and Autism had a connection. Being autistic I was intrigued by what stupidity I would read and I was not disappointed. The MailONLINE published the following article,"Is atheism linked to autism? Controversial study points to a relationship between the two". I have a form of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome. I am what is described as "High functioning", that just means that I have an IQ over 135; but, still have certain autistic traits.
I will attempt to explain autism to the readers and I am not going to use some Psychology book; however, I did take sufficient coursework to have received a degree in it. Autism is not what you think, it is not some child who bangs his head into a wall and doesn't talk. It is a understanding that the world is not where we should be, it is a rejection of this world. We see it for what it is and don't understand all the lies. Basically, we find it very hard to lie to ourselves. That makes it pretty hard to understand the world.
That is what underlies autism, that and the fact that we can understand things for what they are, that is why some of us can understand things, specific things more fully than anyone else, we see it for what it is. We are observers of the world more than we are participants. It is not so much of a condition as it is an attitude, an understanding, a way of looking at the world. Some people are color blind and others can see colors, same thing.
For those who have lower IQ's, for those of us who understand little; but, see the contradictions, life is horrible. These are the ones who people refer to as low functioning autistic. It is no different than being color blind and having a low IQ. Then there are those of us with higher IQs, because we are narrow in scope we can understand things to a greater degree than most, we are the ones who they say have "Asperger's". That is sufficient background to understand what I am going to say about the article.
The "study" looked at 192 different posters on an Aspergers Forum and surveyed 61 people with Aspergers. Lets start with the simple things, the sample size was too small, the approach was wrong and therefore it fails to meet the basic requirements for a valid survey or statistical analysis. The individuals were not chosen at random, they were posters on a forum, that is a no-no for a valid statistical study. As for the survey, it didn't meet the bare minimum required to be statistically valid. Oh, I took advanced statistics in college.
The study did not meet the basic scientific requirements to even be considered valid. Next, the study looked at people with "mild" forms of autism, there is no such thing, it is like being a little bit pregnant, you either are or you are not. What they really meant was that they looked at people who were autistic; but, really smart, that is what is called "high functioning" unless they change the definition to the traits we share in common and having an below average IQ. That is not what psychology has done, in fact they are now calling for high and low functioning people to just be called autistic and to eliminate the term "Asperger's".
Let us now consider the conclusions, pretty useless indeed. The study found that 26 percent of people with Aspergers (High Functioning) were Atheists. People who do not have Aspergers have a 16 percent rate of Atheists. The conclusion is that people with autism are more likely to be atheists. The conclusion is unrelated to the evidence. Firstly, they only looked at high functioning autistics, not all of us, so they cannot extrapolate for the rest. Secondly, they imply that more of us are atheists than are not and that is also wrong, we are just more likely than non-autistic people to be atheists. I don't find this surprising at all. We don't trust anyone, we are very direct and don't understand how the rest of the world cannot see itself for what it is.
So what was the point of the article? Who cares what religious beliefs we hold? What is it that they were attempting to prove and to whom? If you are not autistic, what conclusion will you draw? Probably none, you will think of us as the people who run into walls and hate the world, you will disregard anything that we think or say. This study was aimed at people with Asperger's. It was aimed at high functioning autistics, it is intended to be ammunition for other autistic people to prove to the believers who are high functioning that we are more likely to be atheists; but, it is flawed, it shows something else. It shows that 75% of us are not atheists. It shows that the vast majority of people with Asperger's know that there is more to this life than what we see, that there is a higher power, a larger mind, a greater sentience at work here.
For those of us with Asperger's, we just know certain things. It is how we are wired. Some of us know numbers, many can look at rows and columns of numbers and just know what the answer is if they are added together, that is very common and not something I do. Others as children can just know the most amazing music, just the right way to put sounds together to achieve an emotion, a response, I am not like them either. A study of the genetics of people with Asperger's found that we all had a particular genome and that it was never in the same place in any two of us, not surprising, God loves diversity.
God's love is everywhere, we all get his love and his blessing, his blessing is that we do not get more than we can handle and we don't. How far we are tested and what our special knowledge is, is unique to the individual. Remember that you are of God, he created you and each one of us is unique and as more of us are born we see more and more diversity. Isn't that what he told us to do, "be fruitful and multiply". This does not mean to just go about and make babies, we are told to be fruitful first. We are told to be fruitful before we are told to multiply.
I do hope that this post was of value. It is about how we should react to the news, which is to think and research. It is about how we should view experts, with caution and questions. Finally, it is about showing you how information is manipulated and misrepresented by "experts". If you rely on an expert because you are lazy then you have fallen into one of Satan's traps, you have given up your free will which includes your decision to understand, investigate and live the strenuous life for yourself so that you can fully become all that you can be, your best you and that includes your understanding the world around you in the best way that you can. Be well.
That is really the key. Just because someone has a doctorate and honors does not mean they are right. I have both and that doesn't mean I am always right, I am still learning. Just as Doctors and Lawyers refer to what they do as practicing law and practicing medicine, the same is true for scientists and other "experts".
I read an article that said that Atheism and Autism had a connection. Being autistic I was intrigued by what stupidity I would read and I was not disappointed. The MailONLINE published the following article,"Is atheism linked to autism? Controversial study points to a relationship between the two". I have a form of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome. I am what is described as "High functioning", that just means that I have an IQ over 135; but, still have certain autistic traits.
I will attempt to explain autism to the readers and I am not going to use some Psychology book; however, I did take sufficient coursework to have received a degree in it. Autism is not what you think, it is not some child who bangs his head into a wall and doesn't talk. It is a understanding that the world is not where we should be, it is a rejection of this world. We see it for what it is and don't understand all the lies. Basically, we find it very hard to lie to ourselves. That makes it pretty hard to understand the world.
That is what underlies autism, that and the fact that we can understand things for what they are, that is why some of us can understand things, specific things more fully than anyone else, we see it for what it is. We are observers of the world more than we are participants. It is not so much of a condition as it is an attitude, an understanding, a way of looking at the world. Some people are color blind and others can see colors, same thing.
For those who have lower IQ's, for those of us who understand little; but, see the contradictions, life is horrible. These are the ones who people refer to as low functioning autistic. It is no different than being color blind and having a low IQ. Then there are those of us with higher IQs, because we are narrow in scope we can understand things to a greater degree than most, we are the ones who they say have "Asperger's". That is sufficient background to understand what I am going to say about the article.
The "study" looked at 192 different posters on an Aspergers Forum and surveyed 61 people with Aspergers. Lets start with the simple things, the sample size was too small, the approach was wrong and therefore it fails to meet the basic requirements for a valid survey or statistical analysis. The individuals were not chosen at random, they were posters on a forum, that is a no-no for a valid statistical study. As for the survey, it didn't meet the bare minimum required to be statistically valid. Oh, I took advanced statistics in college.
The study did not meet the basic scientific requirements to even be considered valid. Next, the study looked at people with "mild" forms of autism, there is no such thing, it is like being a little bit pregnant, you either are or you are not. What they really meant was that they looked at people who were autistic; but, really smart, that is what is called "high functioning" unless they change the definition to the traits we share in common and having an below average IQ. That is not what psychology has done, in fact they are now calling for high and low functioning people to just be called autistic and to eliminate the term "Asperger's".
Let us now consider the conclusions, pretty useless indeed. The study found that 26 percent of people with Aspergers (High Functioning) were Atheists. People who do not have Aspergers have a 16 percent rate of Atheists. The conclusion is that people with autism are more likely to be atheists. The conclusion is unrelated to the evidence. Firstly, they only looked at high functioning autistics, not all of us, so they cannot extrapolate for the rest. Secondly, they imply that more of us are atheists than are not and that is also wrong, we are just more likely than non-autistic people to be atheists. I don't find this surprising at all. We don't trust anyone, we are very direct and don't understand how the rest of the world cannot see itself for what it is.
So what was the point of the article? Who cares what religious beliefs we hold? What is it that they were attempting to prove and to whom? If you are not autistic, what conclusion will you draw? Probably none, you will think of us as the people who run into walls and hate the world, you will disregard anything that we think or say. This study was aimed at people with Asperger's. It was aimed at high functioning autistics, it is intended to be ammunition for other autistic people to prove to the believers who are high functioning that we are more likely to be atheists; but, it is flawed, it shows something else. It shows that 75% of us are not atheists. It shows that the vast majority of people with Asperger's know that there is more to this life than what we see, that there is a higher power, a larger mind, a greater sentience at work here.
For those of us with Asperger's, we just know certain things. It is how we are wired. Some of us know numbers, many can look at rows and columns of numbers and just know what the answer is if they are added together, that is very common and not something I do. Others as children can just know the most amazing music, just the right way to put sounds together to achieve an emotion, a response, I am not like them either. A study of the genetics of people with Asperger's found that we all had a particular genome and that it was never in the same place in any two of us, not surprising, God loves diversity.
God's love is everywhere, we all get his love and his blessing, his blessing is that we do not get more than we can handle and we don't. How far we are tested and what our special knowledge is, is unique to the individual. Remember that you are of God, he created you and each one of us is unique and as more of us are born we see more and more diversity. Isn't that what he told us to do, "be fruitful and multiply". This does not mean to just go about and make babies, we are told to be fruitful first. We are told to be fruitful before we are told to multiply.
I do hope that this post was of value. It is about how we should react to the news, which is to think and research. It is about how we should view experts, with caution and questions. Finally, it is about showing you how information is manipulated and misrepresented by "experts". If you rely on an expert because you are lazy then you have fallen into one of Satan's traps, you have given up your free will which includes your decision to understand, investigate and live the strenuous life for yourself so that you can fully become all that you can be, your best you and that includes your understanding the world around you in the best way that you can. Be well.
Genesis 2: 1 - 3
1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made
The bible did not originally have chapters, this manner of separating the bible was added later for convenience in referencing it. I believe these three verses could just as easily been included in the first chapter because it completes the first aspect of the story.
On the seventh day God rested from all the work he had done. Creation is a hard thing and very tiring. Now we come to a point which many will disagree with me over. God is all knowing, he knows all that can be known at this point in time; but, can he continue to learn? Most would probably say that God knows all that can ever be known; but, I question this. Let us consider that he said that "they" would make man and woman and that it would be in "their" image. We will discuss this more when we get to the rest of Chapter 2.
If God can continue to learn then he could also become tired. The universe is the totality of all that exists, it is not the totality of all that will exist. God's instruction to us is to go forth and multiply. We live in a closed universe that is eternally expanding and changing. The perfect solution for eternity, eternal growth and change, always something new to learn and understand. I believe that God created a universe that he set in motion to provide him with new things to learn and think about. The universe was created by God from within himself, he created it completely and understands his creation and what he expects it will do. It was a lot of work and we must ask why he did it.
God could have just been content to be himself; but, he didn't do that, he chose to create us and we are messy things indeed. God did not want an eternity of numbness or he would have lived it. He did not want an eternity of mindless followers who loved him because he gave them nothing but joy. Would you? I would not, I would like a similar being, one capable of being independent; but, still loving. That is something that is achieved and not something that you create, it is a co-creation and that is why we have free will.
With this post I think I will take God's advice and rest. I have laid out the story of creation. What comes next is the second story of creation. Yep, there are two versions of the creation story and the second one immediately follows the first one. It isn't really contradictory; but, you have to understand the first one to understand the second. You have to understand the purpose behind both stories or it can be confusing, the same writer wrote the whole book, he knew what he was writing. If you read the bible casually then you will have a casual understanding. Be well and take care.
3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made
The bible did not originally have chapters, this manner of separating the bible was added later for convenience in referencing it. I believe these three verses could just as easily been included in the first chapter because it completes the first aspect of the story.
On the seventh day God rested from all the work he had done. Creation is a hard thing and very tiring. Now we come to a point which many will disagree with me over. God is all knowing, he knows all that can be known at this point in time; but, can he continue to learn? Most would probably say that God knows all that can ever be known; but, I question this. Let us consider that he said that "they" would make man and woman and that it would be in "their" image. We will discuss this more when we get to the rest of Chapter 2.
If God can continue to learn then he could also become tired. The universe is the totality of all that exists, it is not the totality of all that will exist. God's instruction to us is to go forth and multiply. We live in a closed universe that is eternally expanding and changing. The perfect solution for eternity, eternal growth and change, always something new to learn and understand. I believe that God created a universe that he set in motion to provide him with new things to learn and think about. The universe was created by God from within himself, he created it completely and understands his creation and what he expects it will do. It was a lot of work and we must ask why he did it.
God could have just been content to be himself; but, he didn't do that, he chose to create us and we are messy things indeed. God did not want an eternity of numbness or he would have lived it. He did not want an eternity of mindless followers who loved him because he gave them nothing but joy. Would you? I would not, I would like a similar being, one capable of being independent; but, still loving. That is something that is achieved and not something that you create, it is a co-creation and that is why we have free will.
With this post I think I will take God's advice and rest. I have laid out the story of creation. What comes next is the second story of creation. Yep, there are two versions of the creation story and the second one immediately follows the first one. It isn't really contradictory; but, you have to understand the first one to understand the second. You have to understand the purpose behind both stories or it can be confusing, the same writer wrote the whole book, he knew what he was writing. If you read the bible casually then you will have a casual understanding. Be well and take care.
Genesis 1: 24 - 31
24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
This then is the sixth day. Lots going on. First God creates all the animals of the earth. He makes them of their kind and found that it was good. God makes everything before man so that the earth would be ready for man. He got the earth ready so that man would have what he needed. After God had made everything that we would need, he then made man.
Before creating man, God spoke to another and said that they would make man in their image. Who was God talking to? God was not talking to the angels as they were not in his image. He also created man in two forms, male and female. Not one form; but, two. Now we return to how he did all of his creations and the pattern begins to make sense.
God creates a thing and the variation begins. On the sixth day God created land animals and finally man and woman. Unlike any of his other creations, God gave man authority over the earth and all the other animals. It is only once man is created that God saw that his creation was "very good". Each creation by itself was good because it was part of a plan; but, only when man was created was it very good because by that time everything that was needed for us to advance was here.
This is the story of creation, the rest of the bible is the story of our evolution. Our evolution as individuals and as societies. The story of the creation of the earth is short and sweet because it is not the focus of the bible. It is as much as the people of the time needed. It showed that the earth was prepared for us.
Some questions that you might ask should include, "Why did he bother creating the earth for us, why not just have us in heaven?" The angels lived in heaven, so why did we have to live in separation on the earth? Good questions and to understand the answers we have to see how the rest of the bible plays out. Know that we were born to be challenged and laying around in heaven would not have challenged us. We would not have defined ourselves or found our limitations or what we were capable of on our own, we would be forever children.
A lot of this life is about finding one's own answers. We, humans, are special, we are in the image of God, we have to find our own answers and face our own challenges if we are going to be capable of having a good relationship with him. God does not want mindless zombies to interact with, he wants self defined, self aware beings who have their own perspective. He also does not want cruel and hateful people; but, we are left to determine who we are. What kind of person would you want to spend eternity with?
Life is hard at times, I know this and of course God knew how it would be for us. He knew something that we seem to forget, the strenuous life, a life of challenge can bring out the best of us. In our lives we should see our best and learn to control our worst, that takes practice, understanding and experience. In keeping with God's process, I would assume that overtime we would only see greater and greater extremes in people and we do.
The story of creation is minimal because we didn't need to know more. It does however give us an understanding of how God does things and our role in history. Before we are challenged in our lives, God has already given us everything we need. Life will not be easy, it will be challenging and this is good on many levels. Can you imagine growing without challenges or living for eternity without any challenges and nothing left to learn, these would be horrible things.
Eternity is a very long time. When I was young, my mother once told me that the concept of eternity was beyond her, that she couldn't conceive it. Eternity is the problem, how does God create a situation where an eternity exists that we could find continually changing and not become boring, not become hell and painful. That could only be if we were born capable of continually learning and growing ourselves. As I grew older, I continually attempted the idea of living forever, of how boring and hard that would be with nothing to surprise us. Love is the greatest feeling; but, if everyday was nothing but the feeling of love, we would lay down and die. Let me try and explain that.
Drugs, certain drugs can make us feel really good; but, people who take the ones that feel the best become lost to the world and themselves, they cease to grow and wither and die. You can get enough of a good thing. I have never had heroin or meth or exstacy, I have heard about people's experiences with them; but, I have never had them. I did however have four impacted wisdom teeth removed and they gave me Percodan for the pain. I don't like pills as a rule, I am a lightweight. I liked Percodan, I liked it a lot. After taking it for a week, I had to throw them all out and just live with the pain, I liked it too much and knew it. I should mention that I had two teeth removed at a time and it was done a week apart. During the second extraction they caused a slight fracture in my jaw.
Many want a life of pure joy and cannot accept a God that would create us to learn to find joy in less than perfect situations. We have the opportunity to prove ourselves in these times. We are facing many problems and have the opportunity to take short cuts (equivalent to drugs) or face the challenges and find the best that is within us. If we do find the best within us we will prepared for an eternity where things only get easier; but, never so easy that we seek being us. Be well.
25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
This then is the sixth day. Lots going on. First God creates all the animals of the earth. He makes them of their kind and found that it was good. God makes everything before man so that the earth would be ready for man. He got the earth ready so that man would have what he needed. After God had made everything that we would need, he then made man.
Before creating man, God spoke to another and said that they would make man in their image. Who was God talking to? God was not talking to the angels as they were not in his image. He also created man in two forms, male and female. Not one form; but, two. Now we return to how he did all of his creations and the pattern begins to make sense.
God creates a thing and the variation begins. On the sixth day God created land animals and finally man and woman. Unlike any of his other creations, God gave man authority over the earth and all the other animals. It is only once man is created that God saw that his creation was "very good". Each creation by itself was good because it was part of a plan; but, only when man was created was it very good because by that time everything that was needed for us to advance was here.
This is the story of creation, the rest of the bible is the story of our evolution. Our evolution as individuals and as societies. The story of the creation of the earth is short and sweet because it is not the focus of the bible. It is as much as the people of the time needed. It showed that the earth was prepared for us.
Some questions that you might ask should include, "Why did he bother creating the earth for us, why not just have us in heaven?" The angels lived in heaven, so why did we have to live in separation on the earth? Good questions and to understand the answers we have to see how the rest of the bible plays out. Know that we were born to be challenged and laying around in heaven would not have challenged us. We would not have defined ourselves or found our limitations or what we were capable of on our own, we would be forever children.
A lot of this life is about finding one's own answers. We, humans, are special, we are in the image of God, we have to find our own answers and face our own challenges if we are going to be capable of having a good relationship with him. God does not want mindless zombies to interact with, he wants self defined, self aware beings who have their own perspective. He also does not want cruel and hateful people; but, we are left to determine who we are. What kind of person would you want to spend eternity with?
Life is hard at times, I know this and of course God knew how it would be for us. He knew something that we seem to forget, the strenuous life, a life of challenge can bring out the best of us. In our lives we should see our best and learn to control our worst, that takes practice, understanding and experience. In keeping with God's process, I would assume that overtime we would only see greater and greater extremes in people and we do.
The story of creation is minimal because we didn't need to know more. It does however give us an understanding of how God does things and our role in history. Before we are challenged in our lives, God has already given us everything we need. Life will not be easy, it will be challenging and this is good on many levels. Can you imagine growing without challenges or living for eternity without any challenges and nothing left to learn, these would be horrible things.
Eternity is a very long time. When I was young, my mother once told me that the concept of eternity was beyond her, that she couldn't conceive it. Eternity is the problem, how does God create a situation where an eternity exists that we could find continually changing and not become boring, not become hell and painful. That could only be if we were born capable of continually learning and growing ourselves. As I grew older, I continually attempted the idea of living forever, of how boring and hard that would be with nothing to surprise us. Love is the greatest feeling; but, if everyday was nothing but the feeling of love, we would lay down and die. Let me try and explain that.
Drugs, certain drugs can make us feel really good; but, people who take the ones that feel the best become lost to the world and themselves, they cease to grow and wither and die. You can get enough of a good thing. I have never had heroin or meth or exstacy, I have heard about people's experiences with them; but, I have never had them. I did however have four impacted wisdom teeth removed and they gave me Percodan for the pain. I don't like pills as a rule, I am a lightweight. I liked Percodan, I liked it a lot. After taking it for a week, I had to throw them all out and just live with the pain, I liked it too much and knew it. I should mention that I had two teeth removed at a time and it was done a week apart. During the second extraction they caused a slight fracture in my jaw.
Many want a life of pure joy and cannot accept a God that would create us to learn to find joy in less than perfect situations. We have the opportunity to prove ourselves in these times. We are facing many problems and have the opportunity to take short cuts (equivalent to drugs) or face the challenges and find the best that is within us. If we do find the best within us we will prepared for an eternity where things only get easier; but, never so easy that we seek being us. Be well.
Genesis 1: 20 - 23
20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day
We arrive at the fifth day and God ups the ante. As before he creates sea life and separates it into various kinds and he creates birds and separates them into their various kinds. This is the first animal life and he treats it differently than the plant life, he blesses them and gives them instruction, he tells them to be fruitful and multiply. As with the rest of his creation he gives it his sign of approval finding it good.
God could have created everything in a second; but, he did not. I have often been asked if I believe in evolution and my answer is yes and no. I absolutely believe that fish preceded the creation of man just as science tells us; but, I do not believe that man came from fish and we have no fossil record showing a fish-mammal or a fish-vegetation split. Theoretically these splits would have occurred long ago; but, we have no fossil evidence of it and therefore no proof of it.
If we assume these splits occurred later then we have a different problem. If the creation of new species occurs as life becomes more complex than it should be an ever increasing process and it isn't. We see greater variation among species; but, we do not see the creation of new species increasing. You cannot have it both ways, either species splits occur the most when the objects are the least complex and therefore we should see very fundamental splits long ago or these splits occur as the objects become more complex and therefore they should be increasing and we don't see that going on around us.
I was an agnostic for a little over a decade. I went through college as an agnostic. Growing up I was told (and you can watch old commercials or read old school books) that oil came from dinosaurs that had died long ago, that is what everyone believed and that is what science told us; but, it is not true. Think about what we are told gas is, we are told it is a "fossil fuel". We are told that vast amounts of plankton and algae settled to the bottom of the ocean, were covered by sediment and eventually became oil from the pressure. We are told this but given no evidence at all. In fact if we consider the total amount of oil that has ever been discovered and the places it was discovered, this answer makes absolutely no sense. In addition, if what we are told is true then the earth should still be producing oil as plants and algae are still with us.
If one looks at the size of the oil fields that can be miles below, we need to consider just how much vegetation would need to have fallen all in the same place and it makes no sense. Many scientists are now questioning this explanation also. It does not matter what answer they come up with, the problem is with the answers we were given as being absolutely true when there was no firm evidence.
I don't know where oil came from and I could be good with the answer if it made sense; but, it doesn't. This is not a question of religion because the Bible doesn't say where oil came from either. It is a question of receiving "scientific" sounding answers without any proof and little logic. When I was a child, we were told that the sailors stories about giant squids were just the ramblings of superstitious and uneducated men. Today we have filmed and found these creatures. We are always told to disregard the stories of people from the past; but, if we read the words of Plato or Aristotle or Buddha we find that these people were just as smart as people today. If we look at their creations such as the Pyramids, then we must conclude that they were much smarter than we give them credit for.
21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day
We arrive at the fifth day and God ups the ante. As before he creates sea life and separates it into various kinds and he creates birds and separates them into their various kinds. This is the first animal life and he treats it differently than the plant life, he blesses them and gives them instruction, he tells them to be fruitful and multiply. As with the rest of his creation he gives it his sign of approval finding it good.
God could have created everything in a second; but, he did not. I have often been asked if I believe in evolution and my answer is yes and no. I absolutely believe that fish preceded the creation of man just as science tells us; but, I do not believe that man came from fish and we have no fossil record showing a fish-mammal or a fish-vegetation split. Theoretically these splits would have occurred long ago; but, we have no fossil evidence of it and therefore no proof of it.
If we assume these splits occurred later then we have a different problem. If the creation of new species occurs as life becomes more complex than it should be an ever increasing process and it isn't. We see greater variation among species; but, we do not see the creation of new species increasing. You cannot have it both ways, either species splits occur the most when the objects are the least complex and therefore we should see very fundamental splits long ago or these splits occur as the objects become more complex and therefore they should be increasing and we don't see that going on around us.
I was an agnostic for a little over a decade. I went through college as an agnostic. Growing up I was told (and you can watch old commercials or read old school books) that oil came from dinosaurs that had died long ago, that is what everyone believed and that is what science told us; but, it is not true. Think about what we are told gas is, we are told it is a "fossil fuel". We are told that vast amounts of plankton and algae settled to the bottom of the ocean, were covered by sediment and eventually became oil from the pressure. We are told this but given no evidence at all. In fact if we consider the total amount of oil that has ever been discovered and the places it was discovered, this answer makes absolutely no sense. In addition, if what we are told is true then the earth should still be producing oil as plants and algae are still with us.
If one looks at the size of the oil fields that can be miles below, we need to consider just how much vegetation would need to have fallen all in the same place and it makes no sense. Many scientists are now questioning this explanation also. It does not matter what answer they come up with, the problem is with the answers we were given as being absolutely true when there was no firm evidence.
I don't know where oil came from and I could be good with the answer if it made sense; but, it doesn't. This is not a question of religion because the Bible doesn't say where oil came from either. It is a question of receiving "scientific" sounding answers without any proof and little logic. When I was a child, we were told that the sailors stories about giant squids were just the ramblings of superstitious and uneducated men. Today we have filmed and found these creatures. We are always told to disregard the stories of people from the past; but, if we read the words of Plato or Aristotle or Buddha we find that these people were just as smart as people today. If we look at their creations such as the Pyramids, then we must conclude that they were much smarter than we give them credit for.
Genesis 1: 14 - 19
14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day
We now come the fourth day. God creates lights in the firmament. This is generally understood to be the stars at night and the sun during the day; but, if we go back we understand that God had already created the stars and light. We are therefore presented with a couple of choices. Firstly that the stars were still undefined or that their light could not be seen on earth (possibly because of the firmament and the water that was above the earth blocking the light). My personal belief is that the water and firmament in the sky blocked the suns rays.
One might ask if it is possible to have plant life without any sunshine and science has proven that it is possible. We have discovered animals and vegetation at the bottom of the ocean floor where there is no light and in caves where there is no light.
The ability to see the stars and lights was created to be for "signs and seasons and days and years". In other words so that we would be able to predict what would happen by looking to the sky and for thousands of years people did and it allowed them to be farmers. It also says that it was for "days". Prior to the fourth day of creation there was no way to have a day on earth, the earth spun; but, you could not tell when a day had passed as a day is based on the sun rising and setting. This is further indication that the first three days were not 24 hour days; but, were instead "God" days, the length of which we cannot determine.
Just a reminder, all of my posts will be "tagged" with the Book and Chapter at the bottom. This will allow people to search for all posts by chapter.
16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day
We now come the fourth day. God creates lights in the firmament. This is generally understood to be the stars at night and the sun during the day; but, if we go back we understand that God had already created the stars and light. We are therefore presented with a couple of choices. Firstly that the stars were still undefined or that their light could not be seen on earth (possibly because of the firmament and the water that was above the earth blocking the light). My personal belief is that the water and firmament in the sky blocked the suns rays.
One might ask if it is possible to have plant life without any sunshine and science has proven that it is possible. We have discovered animals and vegetation at the bottom of the ocean floor where there is no light and in caves where there is no light.
The ability to see the stars and lights was created to be for "signs and seasons and days and years". In other words so that we would be able to predict what would happen by looking to the sky and for thousands of years people did and it allowed them to be farmers. It also says that it was for "days". Prior to the fourth day of creation there was no way to have a day on earth, the earth spun; but, you could not tell when a day had passed as a day is based on the sun rising and setting. This is further indication that the first three days were not 24 hour days; but, were instead "God" days, the length of which we cannot determine.
Just a reminder, all of my posts will be "tagged" with the Book and Chapter at the bottom. This will allow people to search for all posts by chapter.
Genesis 1: 11 - 13
11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Once again we have God creating a thing, vegetation (plant life) and separating it into types. So God's creation follows the same order that science has only "proven" in the last couple of hundred years. First he created matter, from matter came the stars and planets, on the earth first came water and then came plant life. Show me another religion that got the order of evolution correct, I will wait.
When we read the story of creation we see how God ordered the universe not in scientific terms; but, instead in very plain terms that anyone could understand at the time. It was presented in a way that simple shepherds could understand. People didn't even have a concept of a million in those days, so how could they use such a term? If anyone can show me that there was a word for a "Billion" 6,000 years ago in Hebrew I will be surprised; but, I don't think they will. We have to keep in mind the audience to understand the context.
Some might wonder why I am approaching the story of Genesis in parts. I am attempting to create a daily lesson plan for those who are new to the bible. I believe anyone who wants to know Christianity should understand the bible and read it in order for the maximum benefit. My Sunday discussion will be topical and this blog is meant to provide an easy way to read and learn the bible. These posts are meant to help people to understand the context of the verses as they were written and to give people of today an easy overview. The resources links are meant to assist the readers in investigating for themselves. While I am using the King James Version of the Bible, the links on the right will take the reader to web resources that let you compare all of the different English translations.
13And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Once again we have God creating a thing, vegetation (plant life) and separating it into types. So God's creation follows the same order that science has only "proven" in the last couple of hundred years. First he created matter, from matter came the stars and planets, on the earth first came water and then came plant life. Show me another religion that got the order of evolution correct, I will wait.
When we read the story of creation we see how God ordered the universe not in scientific terms; but, instead in very plain terms that anyone could understand at the time. It was presented in a way that simple shepherds could understand. People didn't even have a concept of a million in those days, so how could they use such a term? If anyone can show me that there was a word for a "Billion" 6,000 years ago in Hebrew I will be surprised; but, I don't think they will. We have to keep in mind the audience to understand the context.
Some might wonder why I am approaching the story of Genesis in parts. I am attempting to create a daily lesson plan for those who are new to the bible. I believe anyone who wants to know Christianity should understand the bible and read it in order for the maximum benefit. My Sunday discussion will be topical and this blog is meant to provide an easy way to read and learn the bible. These posts are meant to help people to understand the context of the verses as they were written and to give people of today an easy overview. The resources links are meant to assist the readers in investigating for themselves. While I am using the King James Version of the Bible, the links on the right will take the reader to web resources that let you compare all of the different English translations.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Genesis 1: 9 - 10
9And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Once again we have a demonstration of how God creates things. He created land first then he created water. Two separate creations and then he separated the two. It is a math problem, one exists and one can be divided into parts. Do you begin to see how special you are? You came from God, everyone and everything came from God, we are of his essence. Don't get me wrong, we are not God, we are merely a piece of him, his creation.
We cannot hate one another, he does not hate any of us, we are all of him. Later, in the New Testament, we will discuss how Jesus said that because God loved us so much he created the world. He loved all of himself and we are part of what he loved. Do you not love your body and mind?
We, each one of us, is a thought of Gods. I don't act on every thought that I have and I certainly have thoughts that are not right; but, every thought has meaning and value. Each thing I think may or may not be acted on, if I act on it not every action works out to an acceptable end; but, it was my thought. We are all a thought of God. You have probably never heard that; but, no pastor or preacher will ever correct me on it if they believe that God is all knowing.
Understand the end of the passage that we are discussing, "And God saw that it was good". God creates good, before God there was no good and nothing existed before God. We still do not really understand fully the difference between good and evil. Evil does not exist at this point of creation. God has figured out what is true, he has made his decision. God is capable of all knowledge and all thoughts have been considered. God creates that which is good, he also takes risks, he considers all alternatives. God is all knowing, not partially knowing. He is a sentient (self aware) being that is capable of knowing everything.
Understand creation, understand that you are as important as anything else that has ever existed, you matter. You are a thought of God that has been set free to find yourself, to define yourself, to see how far you can be you. Some of us get to be with God for eternity and some do not. Nobody knows whom; but, we definately get free will and the freedom to be us. The moment you stop defining yourself is the moment that you cease. If you define yourself correctly, if you are of the mind and heart of Christ then, you are eternally with him. If you are not eternally with him, you are eternally of him and free to be you.
I say this so that you understand when we talk about hell, when we talk about eternity. God has a plan for everyone and everything and it is always what is best. All works to God's plan and his plan is for our good and not our bad. Be well and love and peace.
Once again we have a demonstration of how God creates things. He created land first then he created water. Two separate creations and then he separated the two. It is a math problem, one exists and one can be divided into parts. Do you begin to see how special you are? You came from God, everyone and everything came from God, we are of his essence. Don't get me wrong, we are not God, we are merely a piece of him, his creation.
We cannot hate one another, he does not hate any of us, we are all of him. Later, in the New Testament, we will discuss how Jesus said that because God loved us so much he created the world. He loved all of himself and we are part of what he loved. Do you not love your body and mind?
We, each one of us, is a thought of Gods. I don't act on every thought that I have and I certainly have thoughts that are not right; but, every thought has meaning and value. Each thing I think may or may not be acted on, if I act on it not every action works out to an acceptable end; but, it was my thought. We are all a thought of God. You have probably never heard that; but, no pastor or preacher will ever correct me on it if they believe that God is all knowing.
Understand the end of the passage that we are discussing, "And God saw that it was good". God creates good, before God there was no good and nothing existed before God. We still do not really understand fully the difference between good and evil. Evil does not exist at this point of creation. God has figured out what is true, he has made his decision. God is capable of all knowledge and all thoughts have been considered. God creates that which is good, he also takes risks, he considers all alternatives. God is all knowing, not partially knowing. He is a sentient (self aware) being that is capable of knowing everything.
Understand creation, understand that you are as important as anything else that has ever existed, you matter. You are a thought of God that has been set free to find yourself, to define yourself, to see how far you can be you. Some of us get to be with God for eternity and some do not. Nobody knows whom; but, we definately get free will and the freedom to be us. The moment you stop defining yourself is the moment that you cease. If you define yourself correctly, if you are of the mind and heart of Christ then, you are eternally with him. If you are not eternally with him, you are eternally of him and free to be you.
I say this so that you understand when we talk about hell, when we talk about eternity. God has a plan for everyone and everything and it is always what is best. All works to God's plan and his plan is for our good and not our bad. Be well and love and peace.
Genesis 1:6 - 8
6And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
A simple reading of this might lead people to believe that the author is merely saying that there was water in the sky (the clouds) and the oceans below. Some have speculated that people lived longer prior to the flood because the firmament protected people from the aging properties of ultraviolet light. I should explain that the word that we translate for firmament is closer to an expanse.
Some have speculated that the rain of the great flood occurred when the firmament was removed. If this is so then we would have had less water on the earth prior to the great flood and there is archeological evidence for this. The standard explanation in science is that long ago a great ice age trapped the water in glaciers; but, it is agreed that there was less water in the oceans and seas than there is now. I find it interesting that the authors of the bible knew that the earth had less water in the seas and oceans long ago.
As we read the creation story we should begin to see a pattern. As with dark and light we see the same approach with water. God creates a thing and then separates it in two with all the different mixtures in between. This approach allows for maximum variation. God likes diversity.
As we go through the bible we are going to see certain themes again and again. If you read the bible from beginning to end in order you begin to get a deeper understanding of how all the pieces fit together. It is not just individual stories, it is a progression, an evolution of mankind. To really understand the bible one must understand this progression.
In creating everything God started with very little, he started with him and darkness. God did not create the universe from outside of himself, there was nothing other than him and darkness. He created the universe with what was inside of him by his will alone. This is also a theme that we will return to. At present we are merely looking at the progression of creation. By the way, the bible says that the earth and planets were created in a certain progression. We should find it interesting that it is the same progression that science describes, although the time frame is often debated. As we don't know how long a day for God is, I have no idea how many human years were involved.
Well I hope this gives people something to think about. Be well.
7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
A simple reading of this might lead people to believe that the author is merely saying that there was water in the sky (the clouds) and the oceans below. Some have speculated that people lived longer prior to the flood because the firmament protected people from the aging properties of ultraviolet light. I should explain that the word that we translate for firmament is closer to an expanse.
Some have speculated that the rain of the great flood occurred when the firmament was removed. If this is so then we would have had less water on the earth prior to the great flood and there is archeological evidence for this. The standard explanation in science is that long ago a great ice age trapped the water in glaciers; but, it is agreed that there was less water in the oceans and seas than there is now. I find it interesting that the authors of the bible knew that the earth had less water in the seas and oceans long ago.
As we read the creation story we should begin to see a pattern. As with dark and light we see the same approach with water. God creates a thing and then separates it in two with all the different mixtures in between. This approach allows for maximum variation. God likes diversity.
As we go through the bible we are going to see certain themes again and again. If you read the bible from beginning to end in order you begin to get a deeper understanding of how all the pieces fit together. It is not just individual stories, it is a progression, an evolution of mankind. To really understand the bible one must understand this progression.
In creating everything God started with very little, he started with him and darkness. God did not create the universe from outside of himself, there was nothing other than him and darkness. He created the universe with what was inside of him by his will alone. This is also a theme that we will return to. At present we are merely looking at the progression of creation. By the way, the bible says that the earth and planets were created in a certain progression. We should find it interesting that it is the same progression that science describes, although the time frame is often debated. As we don't know how long a day for God is, I have no idea how many human years were involved.
Well I hope this gives people something to think about. Be well.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Genesis 1:1 to 5
1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
I can think of no better place to start this blog than with this five sentences. The Hebrew word that means in the beginning is Rosh. The word means "head". Rosh Hashanah actually means the head (beginning) of the year. I find it interesting that head is the beginning. Everything starts and comes from the mind of God.
The bible says that God created the heavens and the earth; but, that they were without form and void and that all was dark. So my question is what was God's existence like prior to creating the heavens and earth. Was alone in the darkness? At what point in time did he create angels?
After creating the heavens and earth he created light and separated it from the darkness. It was not until he created light that there was a single day. The question then is how long was God in existence prior to creating light? The answer is that he was. The great I Am.
So how did he create the universe? He thought it into being and he spoke it into being. We can imagine worlds, we do it when we sleep. We can imagine other beings, we dream about others when we sleep also. The difference is that the beings we imagine do not exist while we are awake; but, is that really different? God is always aware; but, he does rest. What does rest look like for God?
These may seem like silly questions that we can never know for sure; but, I think they can help us to understand the nature of our existence and God's attitude. God, like us, is a self aware being. He is an independent consciousness from which we all come. Everything created is of God, an aspect of him. The difference is that God is complete while we are incomplete, we are not everything and everything is not us; but, we are all from the same place, the mind of God.
God called the change from light to dark a day. A time of light and a time of dark combined equal one day. The length of a day depends on how long the period is between light and darkness. The passage of a day on Saturn is not the same as the number of hours that the earth sees light and day. My question is, how long is a day for God. There is a passage that says that the length of a day for God is like a thousand years for us. His days are slightly longer than ours and we don't know how long that is.
What if a day for God lasted a billion years? Might make you understand that the age of the earth cannot be measured using the bible. We have to be careful when we read the bible to understand that it is always written from a particular person's understanding and context. I believe the bible to be inspired; but, it is a book of stories about individuals with free will and their experiences come through it.
It is believed that the first five books of the bible were written by Moses. It is assumed that he was given the history by God. God did not get into the method of creation or how everything worked, it wouldn't make sense for God to explain what he did using advanced math to Moses nor would it make sense for him to explain it in terns of quantum physics. Moses would not have understood it in those terms nor would he have been able to explain it to others. The bible is not a science text book; but, God clearly works with nature.
There are many things that are not discussed in the bible. They are not discussed because the bible was written for us, the Old Testament was written primarily for the Jewish nation and people. It is both a history and an instruction manual of a sort. When we look at the progression of the book we begin to see a plan unfold. The plan was to take us from being self absorbed, selfish children to become loving and forgiving adults.
The bible chronicles our development as a society. We are not told much of what occurred prior to Noah because that was a different society and the book was not written for them. In reading the bible we should always take into consideration who the particular book is primarily aimed at.
The creation story is a very simplified story of what occurred. The details are all left out. The purpose of the story is merely to let us know that God created everything, that he did it in a particular order and that he was pleased with how things came out. It was not meant to answer all of our questions about creation and doesn't attempt to do so. We are left to investigate the details and better understand how things work.
We now turn to science for a moment. We turn to the big bang, there was one you know. We can see the stars and see that they were all created from a central point. We live in a closed universe without boundaries. It seems sort of contradictory; but, it is how things look. Our sun lies towards the edge of the universe and not towards the center.
The universe is considered the totality of all that exists, it appears to have a center from which all radiated from. That is kind of funny, In all of history we are not aware of, nor do we see, that another creation of this type has ever existed. Everything from nothing seems to have only ever happened once just like the bible described. And what did this creation look like when it occurred, it was a blast of light. Hey, I think we read that he created matter that was without form and void, a thought if you will that became light. Prior to the light there was only darkness.
For all we observe about the universe we cannot come up with an explanation of why it exists. We have developed very good models of how it works; but, we cannot come up with an explanation for why it started. Science and philosophy both are at a lost for why.
The one thing they forget is self awareness. We attempt to explain the universe and minimize the importance of people. We are part of the self awareness of the universe. Without us, without people to observe and experience this creation, the creation would be meaningless. Without us to observe it, it would not matter if it didn't exist at all. The universe only has meaning because we exist, without life there is no need for the universe. God created it for us because he knew in advance that he was going to create us. It is his gift to us and we should cherish it and seek to understand it. He created it so that we would have everything we need; but, some of it we cannot use until we are ready.
What we are aware of in this universe is light, matter and awareness. We can assume that these three things always existed or that one of them created the others. The bible teaches us that a great awareness created the universe. Many attempt to use science to prove that matter and light created awareness, that our awareness is merely a mechanical thing. Science does not like the Near Death Experience because it presumes that awareness can exist when the physical has ceased.
To attempt to explain the universe without understanding free will, creativity and self awareness is arrogant and an avoidance of the inevitable questions of why are we here.
3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
I can think of no better place to start this blog than with this five sentences. The Hebrew word that means in the beginning is Rosh. The word means "head". Rosh Hashanah actually means the head (beginning) of the year. I find it interesting that head is the beginning. Everything starts and comes from the mind of God.
The bible says that God created the heavens and the earth; but, that they were without form and void and that all was dark. So my question is what was God's existence like prior to creating the heavens and earth. Was alone in the darkness? At what point in time did he create angels?
After creating the heavens and earth he created light and separated it from the darkness. It was not until he created light that there was a single day. The question then is how long was God in existence prior to creating light? The answer is that he was. The great I Am.
So how did he create the universe? He thought it into being and he spoke it into being. We can imagine worlds, we do it when we sleep. We can imagine other beings, we dream about others when we sleep also. The difference is that the beings we imagine do not exist while we are awake; but, is that really different? God is always aware; but, he does rest. What does rest look like for God?
These may seem like silly questions that we can never know for sure; but, I think they can help us to understand the nature of our existence and God's attitude. God, like us, is a self aware being. He is an independent consciousness from which we all come. Everything created is of God, an aspect of him. The difference is that God is complete while we are incomplete, we are not everything and everything is not us; but, we are all from the same place, the mind of God.
God called the change from light to dark a day. A time of light and a time of dark combined equal one day. The length of a day depends on how long the period is between light and darkness. The passage of a day on Saturn is not the same as the number of hours that the earth sees light and day. My question is, how long is a day for God. There is a passage that says that the length of a day for God is like a thousand years for us. His days are slightly longer than ours and we don't know how long that is.
What if a day for God lasted a billion years? Might make you understand that the age of the earth cannot be measured using the bible. We have to be careful when we read the bible to understand that it is always written from a particular person's understanding and context. I believe the bible to be inspired; but, it is a book of stories about individuals with free will and their experiences come through it.
It is believed that the first five books of the bible were written by Moses. It is assumed that he was given the history by God. God did not get into the method of creation or how everything worked, it wouldn't make sense for God to explain what he did using advanced math to Moses nor would it make sense for him to explain it in terns of quantum physics. Moses would not have understood it in those terms nor would he have been able to explain it to others. The bible is not a science text book; but, God clearly works with nature.
There are many things that are not discussed in the bible. They are not discussed because the bible was written for us, the Old Testament was written primarily for the Jewish nation and people. It is both a history and an instruction manual of a sort. When we look at the progression of the book we begin to see a plan unfold. The plan was to take us from being self absorbed, selfish children to become loving and forgiving adults.
The bible chronicles our development as a society. We are not told much of what occurred prior to Noah because that was a different society and the book was not written for them. In reading the bible we should always take into consideration who the particular book is primarily aimed at.
The creation story is a very simplified story of what occurred. The details are all left out. The purpose of the story is merely to let us know that God created everything, that he did it in a particular order and that he was pleased with how things came out. It was not meant to answer all of our questions about creation and doesn't attempt to do so. We are left to investigate the details and better understand how things work.
We now turn to science for a moment. We turn to the big bang, there was one you know. We can see the stars and see that they were all created from a central point. We live in a closed universe without boundaries. It seems sort of contradictory; but, it is how things look. Our sun lies towards the edge of the universe and not towards the center.
The universe is considered the totality of all that exists, it appears to have a center from which all radiated from. That is kind of funny, In all of history we are not aware of, nor do we see, that another creation of this type has ever existed. Everything from nothing seems to have only ever happened once just like the bible described. And what did this creation look like when it occurred, it was a blast of light. Hey, I think we read that he created matter that was without form and void, a thought if you will that became light. Prior to the light there was only darkness.
For all we observe about the universe we cannot come up with an explanation of why it exists. We have developed very good models of how it works; but, we cannot come up with an explanation for why it started. Science and philosophy both are at a lost for why.
The one thing they forget is self awareness. We attempt to explain the universe and minimize the importance of people. We are part of the self awareness of the universe. Without us, without people to observe and experience this creation, the creation would be meaningless. Without us to observe it, it would not matter if it didn't exist at all. The universe only has meaning because we exist, without life there is no need for the universe. God created it for us because he knew in advance that he was going to create us. It is his gift to us and we should cherish it and seek to understand it. He created it so that we would have everything we need; but, some of it we cannot use until we are ready.
What we are aware of in this universe is light, matter and awareness. We can assume that these three things always existed or that one of them created the others. The bible teaches us that a great awareness created the universe. Many attempt to use science to prove that matter and light created awareness, that our awareness is merely a mechanical thing. Science does not like the Near Death Experience because it presumes that awareness can exist when the physical has ceased.
To attempt to explain the universe without understanding free will, creativity and self awareness is arrogant and an avoidance of the inevitable questions of why are we here.
So It Begins
This blog is intended for people who attend church with me. We meet on Sundays at 5:00. Our mission is to have conversations about God and the bible. We seek to meet with others who are not comfortable with "normal" churches. We have no rituals and seek none. We don't take offerings and challenge each other to understand the truth.
For over 2,000 years the New Testament has spread across the earth; but, today people are leaving the church. God has not changed and neither has the bible, we believe it is the church that is faltering. It is losing people because it has turned from the simple truths. The most important truth is that we are to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Pretty simple and it is the basis for all of our belief.
We promote people finding direction rather than running from mistakes. We promote questions. We promote active participation is discussions and we promote fellowship in a personal manner. We also promote service to others as people feel drawn, it may be as simple as letting a car merge on the freeway in front of us or taking in the homeless; but, we must be of service or it is just words.
My job is to bring up issues for discussion and that is what this blog will be about. I will raise issues and this is a place where others can bring their questions and thoughts. Non-believers are more than welcome here; but, this blog will be moderated and profanity and insults will not be allowed.
For over 2,000 years the New Testament has spread across the earth; but, today people are leaving the church. God has not changed and neither has the bible, we believe it is the church that is faltering. It is losing people because it has turned from the simple truths. The most important truth is that we are to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Pretty simple and it is the basis for all of our belief.
We promote people finding direction rather than running from mistakes. We promote questions. We promote active participation is discussions and we promote fellowship in a personal manner. We also promote service to others as people feel drawn, it may be as simple as letting a car merge on the freeway in front of us or taking in the homeless; but, we must be of service or it is just words.
My job is to bring up issues for discussion and that is what this blog will be about. I will raise issues and this is a place where others can bring their questions and thoughts. Non-believers are more than welcome here; but, this blog will be moderated and profanity and insults will not be allowed.
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