Updating the Genesis Creation Story

[sealchan]

I thought I would share a draft of an updated Genesis Creation story I have created...it needs more work...indeed it could be an endless work.

I share it here to further illuminate my own views of understanding the optimal way to understand Biblical scripture and the responsibility we now have as scientists, believers and artists to grow the Christian faith into what it should be today and not leave it dying of the floor of yesterday.

Any sincere thoughts or comments are welcome...

Before the Beginning

Before the beginning there was the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential. It was "nothing yet" because
nothing-yet had been created. It was potential because it could become something. And It was infinite
because there was nothing yet to stop it.

The first thing that the Nothing-Yet felt like doing was to prove to itself that it was there. The Nothing-
Yet thought, "If I create something then I will know that I am what I think I am."

So the Nothing-Yet created something; it does not matter what it was. It was happy at first. But after
contemplating its creation it thought, "What if this is a hallucination?" There was nothing other than the
Nothing-Yet and its creation that could tell the Nothing-Yet whether its creation was real or not. For a
long, long time the Nothing-Yet thought about how it could prove to itself that it existed.

One day the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential had given up trying to solve its dilemna and decided to play
around with creating some more things. First, It created a basketball. Then it created a mouse. The
Nothing-Yet soon discovered that some of the things it created would destroy what it had already created,
but some would exist along with what was created. It decided It would try and see how many different
things It could create and coexist. The Universe began to take shape.

The Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential then realized, "I am. I do exist. I can't prove it to myself but I
know now that what I am creating is not an illusion. Since I am all there is, I can decide what is real and
what is an illusion." Having said this, no one told the Nothing-Yet that it was wrong.

The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he
separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day", and the darkness he called "night." And
there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

And God said, "Let there be a space that separates heaven and earth, water from water." So God made the
stars to shed light and the planets to receive the light from the stars, and a great space in which to place
the stars and the planets. The stars formed great lakes of their own while the planets were formed in
families around many of the stars. And some planets had families called moons formed around them.
And the planets and the moons were hot with a great fire and they were bombarded with mountains of ice
so that steam and fire covered the face of the planets.

And God said, "Let the water on the planets be gathered to one place, and let the dry ground appear."
And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw
that it was good.

Then God said, "Let there be life. Let it cover the planets and be fruitful and multiply." And it was so.
On some planets God looked with favor and on these new life forms were born. These forms multiplied
and diversified and filled the seas and the air and the land. There were plants to receive the light of the
sun and there were animals to eat the plants and receive their share of the light. And God saw that it was
good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Then God said, "Let there be great creatures to rule over the earth." And it was so. God made creatures,
great beasts that ruled the ocean and the air and the land. There were leviathans in the ocean, dragons in
the air and behemoths on the earth. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there
was morning—the fourth day.

Then God said, "Let us make way for a new creature" And it was so. God sent one more great mountain
of ice and it struck the earth causing all the great beasts of old to die and be buried. And God saw that it
was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish
in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures
that move along the ground now that the great destroyers and eaters are gone."

So God created humankind in His own image,
in the image of God He created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule
over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has
fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the
sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give
every green plant for food." And it was so.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—
the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from
all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, becase on it He rested from all the
work of creating that He had done.

When God was resting He heard a voice that came not from anything that He had created. "I am, I am
here."

Yahweh spoke and said, "Who are you?"

Elat spoke and said,

I am your chaos
and your depths
When you divided the waters
you divided me
But when you made time to allow all things,
you gave me back my strength

My body grows from the stock
of which all things are made
Like a tree I am reaching out to you
from across the way

Come find me my love
forget me no more
And then may we stop our two sons
from fighting their war

 

[Katzpur]

I thought I would share a draft of an updated Genesis Creation story I have created...it needs more work...indeed it could be an endless work.

I share it here to further illuminate my own views of understanding the optimal way to understand Biblical scripture and the responsibility we now have as scientists, believers and artists to grow the Christian faith into what it should be today and not leave it dying of the floor of yesterday.

Any sincere thoughts or comments are welcome...

Before the Beginning

Before the beginning there was the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential. It was "nothing yet" because
nothing-yet had been created. It was potential because it could become something. And It was infinite
because there was nothing yet to stop it.

The first thing that the Nothing-Yet felt like doing was to prove to itself that it was there. The Nothing-
Yet thought, "If I create something then I will know that I am what I think I am."

So the Nothing-Yet created something; it does not matter what it was. It was happy at first. But after
contemplating its creation it thought, "What if this is a hallucination?" There was nothing other than the
Nothing-Yet and its creation that could tell the Nothing-Yet whether its creation was real or not. For a
long, long time the Nothing-Yet thought about how it could prove to itself that it existed.

One day the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential had given up trying to solve its dilemna and decided to play
around with creating some more things. First, It created a basketball. Then it created a mouse. The
Nothing-Yet soon discovered that some of the things it created would destroy what it had already created,
but some would exist along with what was created. It decided It would try and see how many different
things It could create and coexist. The Universe began to take shape.

The Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential then realized, "I am. I do exist. I can't prove it to myself but I
know now that what I am creating is not an illusion. Since I am all there is, I can decide what is real and
what is an illusion." Having said this, no one told the Nothing-Yet that it was wrong.

I believe that "the beginning" was just the moment at which "the clock started ticking," and that there was something going on before "the beginning" as we know it. The Bible starts with the Creation. It does not even mention any planning that went into the Creation and clearly there must have been some. It deals only with our universe, and I do not believe ours is the only universe God has ever created.

 

[sealchan]

I believe that "the beginning" was just the moment at which "the clock started ticking," and that there was something going on before "the beginning" as we know it. The Bible starts with the Creation. It does not even mention any planning that went into the Creation and clearly there must have been some. It deals only with our universe, and I do not believe ours is the only universe God has ever created.

Sure...and my story isn't meant to be exclusive only a creative and inspired look at how the Biblical narrative might begin to move in a direction that improves its scientific outlook and opens up its characterization of God.

One motif from my "prequel" story is to explain how it was that God might appear to "change His mind". How does he come to regret his creation and seek to flood the earth? To do this I come up with a perspective on God which makes Him less than omnipotent. He is motivated by a need for self-knowledge and creative action. These principles seem to underlie the creative power we can witness in the evolution of physical forms into life and self-awareness. This sacrifice to His character (of complete omniscience) is necessary in order to open up the revelation of the divine Mother that is also a necessary aspect of our understanding of God.

In the end it is the story which is always limited, not the being in faith we choose to believe in.

 

[`mud]

The problem is same in your `copy` of Genesis is the same as the original.
From where did the water that the `Spirit of God` hovered over, come ?
From the same source as the mouse and basketball ?
Where did the water come from ? Who created it !

 

[`mud]

I know, I know....oxygen and hydrogen...and magic from `God` !
And `He` hovered over it, in heaven no less, until `He` created it !
Where'd the water come from !

 

[sealchan]

The problem is same in your `copy` of Genesis is the same as the original.
From where did the water that the `Spirit of God` hovered over, come ?
From the same source as the mouse and basketball ?
Where did the water come from ? Who created it !

Yes the problem is the same...how can anyone get rid of the problem?

What I did was work in some additional ideas that help not only to explain later stories but also elucidate the nature of human experience more fully.

God plays with creation as if it was all only Him. But what He discovers is the Other he refused to see. The mouse and the basketball came to me as two different things with little or no relationship. This is often how a separative (aka masculine oriented) consciousness works. It creates a thing and subsumes its separateness as subservient to its creator. There is no relationship there except in how the creator has had the power to make it. In terms of this story the creator seeks to prove its own existence. That is His primary value in acting in this way. Power and consequence is existence.

Also I have introduced the Other as a compliment, a sort of personification of the mystery that you bring up regarding "where did x come from?" In the Bible there is a brief statement explaining that God created the heavens and the earth...then it seems that detail is provided about God's work on the Earth. There is, in this sense, no primordial substance upon which God worked.

I'm reintroducing the idea that the potter is not the source of the clay and so it goes for God. We cannot comprehend absolute self-creation as a rational thing. In our experience a maker always takes a given substance and works with it. The maker is contained in a reality which includes the substance from which something is made. This is our experience.

So I am playing a little bit of a bait and switch and creating more metaphysical stuff to try and "answer" where things come from...but of course it can only be all turtles all the way down...

This is the story-teller's burden...

 

[sealchan]

I know, I know....oxygen and hydrogen...and magic from `God` !
And `He` hovered over it, in heaven no less, until `He` created it !
Where'd the water come from !

Your question raises, in my mind, important discussion. Revealing the limitations of any story reveals the limitations of human knowledge and the mystery which lies beyond it. To me this is the essence of what a religion should do.

Science has another story which seems to answer your question...water comes from a bonding of hydrogen and oxygen atoms as you say. But why is it wet? Why is it fluid?

Why is water so common? Icy comets as numerous as they are?

Why is water so important for life?

Questions all the way down...

 

[ecco]

Since I am all there is, I can decide what is real and what is an illusion."

The Moody Blues say we decide ...

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow, white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion


... I'll go with the Moody Blues.

 

[`mud]

Genesis is lacking of a lot explanations, isn't it ?
Sure your attempt to correct it is not working well.
First thing needed is a format for creating your `God`.
And then another format for creating `nothingness`.
And then the angels for doing the creating of water.
And then and then and again, to creatures and plants.
Then you can go from there into the wonderous sky.
Remember, we come from Stuff, and will go to Stuff.
From the water added to dust comes the created man.
All else comes from the Cosmos, and there it will go.
A little more and you'll have the answer, good luck

 

[sealchan]

The Moody Blues say we decide ...

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow, white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion


... I'll go with the Moody Blues.

Love that album!

 

[sealchan]

Genesis is lacking of a lot explanations, isn't it ?
Sure your attempt to correct it is not working well.
First thing needed is a format for creating your `God`.
And then another format for creating `nothingness`.
And then the angels for doing the creating of water.
And then and then and again, to creatures and plants.
Then you can go from there into the wonderous sky.
Remember, we come from Stuff, and will go to Stuff.
From the water added to dust comes the created man.
All else comes from the Cosmos, and there it will go.
A little more and you'll have the answer, good luck

Well I don't want to write a cosmology textbook...its going to be dumbed down a huge amount AND it needs to be elegantly intertwined with the rest of the story.

Here is an example of the story of creation from the perspective of a single sub-atomic particle...
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Time-David-Darling-ebook/dp/B00CT3IONQ

The Genesis creation story is already, when compared with other creation stories, pretty darn friendly to a scientific understanding. It is pretty no-nonsense about what there is (no cosmic eggs for instance). A little bit of tweaking goes a long ways.

Now I've been thinking about the day, evening and morning reference...

And there was evening, and there was morning...

This is problematic. I thought, in order to preserve the march of time without committing to an earth-centric and pre-space conscious perspective I might use the following...

And God set aside His work...And God picked up again where He left off.

or

And God set aside his tools...and God picked up His tools again.

Here I am obviously retaining the anthropomorphic aspect of the creator as performing a work which is clearly not scientific, nor does it answer any questions about the source of things. All it does is put God into the role of creating using concepts that the audience, you and I, can relate to. It expands the metaphor a bit, but in doing so it also allows for more meaning to be derived from the stories which follow as these stories can...

• Relate God's work to our own
• Tell stories that example this basic dynamic

But this is all that spiritual texts can really claim to do.

Now I can tie in the work that Noah does into this simply by writing...and Noah picked up his tools...

This is a technique that the authors of Genesis use profusely.

Another thought here is that if God was to stop to evaluate His work between his stopping and starting again this would introduce a simple but very profound idea that I have learned in courses on design...one should, when undertaking a major project always pause in stages to evaluate one's progress. This way one can head off design issues early rather than to see them cemented into one's final product.

 

[sealchan]

Genesis is lacking of a lot explanations, isn't it ?
Sure your attempt to correct it is not working well.
First thing needed is a format for creating your `God`.
And then another format for creating `nothingness`.
And then the angels for doing the creating of water.
And then and then and again, to creatures and plants.
Then you can go from there into the wonderous sky.
Remember, we come from Stuff, and will go to Stuff.
From the water added to dust comes the created man.
All else comes from the Cosmos, and there it will go.
A little more and you'll have the answer, good luck

Remember I'm not claiming to answer the mysteries here...just upgrading the story to fit in better with what we all might learn in grade school.

My favorite bit is the reference to dinosaurs...did you catch that? Dinosaurs are awesome for young boys...now I just need to work in more of the romantical part where God meets Elat...

 

[sealchan]

The Moody Blues say we decide ...

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow, white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion


... I'll go with the Moody Blues.

I'll bet you I was channelling Ray Thomas when I wrote that...may he rest in peace.

 

[JoshuaTree]

Sure...and my story isn't meant to be exclusive only a creative and inspired look at how the Biblical narrative might begin to move in a direction that improves its scientific outlook and opens up its characterization of God.

One motif from my "prequel" story is to explain how it was that God might appear to "change His mind". How does he come to regret his creation and seek to flood the earth? To do this I come up with a perspective on God which makes Him less than omnipotent. He is motivated by a need for self-knowledge and creative action. These principles seem to underlie the creative power we can witness in the evolution of physical forms into life and self-awareness. This sacrifice to His character (of complete omniscience) is necessary in order to open up the revelation of the divine Mother that is also a necessary aspect of our understanding of God.

In the end it is the story which is always limited, not the being in faith we choose to believe in.

If the words were the point of the thing Jesus would not have spoke in parables.

 

[sealchan]

The problem is same in your `copy` of Genesis is the same as the original.
From where did the water that the `Spirit of God` hovered over, come ?
From the same source as the mouse and basketball ?
Where did the water come from ? Who created it !

Oh wait there is an answer ;-)...

As I said...

Before the beginning there was the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential. It was "nothing yet" because nothing-yet had been created. It was potential because it could become something. And It was infinite because there was nothing yet to stop it.

This is the source from which all things have come and by reason I have described it

But seriously, this is my somewhat comic answer to the mystery of where things come from and I hope that its circular logic shows that logic is inadequate to addressing this question. Neither scientific nor non-scientific logic.

 

[`mud]

Once again, chalk without a blackboard,
drop your smart-phone.

 

[Audie]

I thought I would share a draft of an updated Genesis Creation story I have created...it needs more work...indeed it could be an endless work.

I share it here to further illuminate my own views of understanding the optimal way to understand Biblical scripture and the responsibility we now have as scientists, believers and artists to grow the Christian faith into what it should be today and not leave it dying of the floor of yesterday.

Any sincere thoughts or comments are welcome...

Before the Beginning

Before the beginning there was the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential. It was "nothing yet" because
nothing-yet had been created. It was potential because it could become something. And It was infinite
because there was nothing yet to stop it.

The first thing that the Nothing-Yet felt like doing was to prove to itself that it was there. The Nothing-
Yet thought, "If I create something then I will know that I am what I think I am."

So the Nothing-Yet created something; it does not matter what it was. It was happy at first. But after
contemplating its creation it thought, "What if this is a hallucination?" There was nothing other than the
Nothing-Yet and its creation that could tell the Nothing-Yet whether its creation was real or not. For a
long, long time the Nothing-Yet thought about how it could prove to itself that it existed.

One day the Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential had given up trying to solve its dilemna and decided to play
around with creating some more things. First, It created a basketball. Then it created a mouse. The
Nothing-Yet soon discovered that some of the things it created would destroy what it had already created,
but some would exist along with what was created. It decided It would try and see how many different
things It could create and coexist. The Universe began to take shape.

The Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential then realized, "I am. I do exist. I can't prove it to myself but I
know now that what I am creating is not an illusion. Since I am all there is, I can decide what is real and
what is an illusion." Having said this, no one told the Nothing-Yet that it was wrong.

The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he
separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day", and the darkness he called "night." And
there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

And God said, "Let there be a space that separates heaven and earth, water from water." So God made the
stars to shed light and the planets to receive the light from the stars, and a great space in which to place
the stars and the planets. The stars formed great lakes of their own while the planets were formed in
families around many of the stars. And some planets had families called moons formed around them.
And the planets and the moons were hot with a great fire and they were bombarded with mountains of ice
so that steam and fire covered the face of the planets.

And God said, "Let the water on the planets be gathered to one place, and let the dry ground appear."
And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw
that it was good.

Then God said, "Let there be life. Let it cover the planets and be fruitful and multiply." And it was so.
On some planets God looked with favor and on these new life forms were born. These forms multiplied
and diversified and filled the seas and the air and the land. There were plants to receive the light of the
sun and there were animals to eat the plants and receive their share of the light. And God saw that it was
good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Then God said, "Let there be great creatures to rule over the earth." And it was so. God made creatures,
great beasts that ruled the ocean and the air and the land. There were leviathans in the ocean, dragons in
the air and behemoths on the earth. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there
was morning—the fourth day.

Then God said, "Let us make way for a new creature" And it was so. God sent one more great mountain
of ice and it struck the earth causing all the great beasts of old to die and be buried. And God saw that it
was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish
in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures
that move along the ground now that the great destroyers and eaters are gone."

So God created humankind in His own image,
in the image of God He created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule
over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has
fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the
sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give
every green plant for food." And it was so.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—
the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from
all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, becase on it He rested from all the
work of creating that He had done.

When God was resting He heard a voice that came not from anything that He had created. "I am, I am
here."

Yahweh spoke and said, "Who are you?"

Elat spoke and said,

I am your chaos
and your depths
When you divided the waters
you divided me
But when you made time to allow all things,
you gave me back my strength

My body grows from the stock
of which all things are made
Like a tree I am reaching out to you
from across the way

Come find me my love
forget me no more
And then may we stop our two sons
from fighting their war

HOW could you leave out the moment when
He said
"I have a Divine Idea!"

 

[sealchan]

HOW could you leave out the moment when
He said
"I have a Divine Idea!"

Does this count?

The Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential then realized, "I am. I do exist. I can't prove it to myself but I know now that what I am creating is not an illusion. Since I am all there is, I can decide what is real and what is an illusion." Having said this, no one told the Nothing-Yet that it was wrong.

This is the moment when God convinces Himself that He is "I am" and is self-congratulatory. I edited this down to the following yesterday to be less tell-y...

The Nothing-Yet of Infinite Potential then realized, "I am. I do exist. What I am and what I am creating is not an illusion because some things can coexist and some cannot. Since I am all there is, I can decide what is real and what is an illusion."

This is God implicitly self-naming Himself I AM.

 

[sealchan]

Once again, chalk without a blackboard,
drop your smart-phone.

The blackboard is the truth. The chalk is human reason. Its like the Goddess and the God trying to relate...a mobius strip of meaning for us flat-earthers to endlessly puzzle over.

 

[Audie]

The blackboard is the truth. The chalk is human reason. Its like the Goddess and the God trying to relate...a mobius strip of meaning for us flat-earthers to endlessly puzzle over.

Oh dear, pernicious hypermetaphoriasis.
We see this most often in English students.


We suggest some herbal tea, and that you
read only assembly instructions or operating
manuals. Samsung driers, that sort of thing.
Two weeks of that and you will have forgotten
all about metaphors.