Choice

Reading: Today we read Genesis 20-23

Cornelius' Take:

When I meet new people, I always try to bait them into a conversation about fate. I'm curious to see if they believe in free will or if they believe everything is predestined to happen and they have no control over their actions. God indirectly tells us that we have a choice in Genesis.

Genesis 20:7- "Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine"

Here, God gives Abimelech an ultimatum: He can either return Sarah to Abraham and live or he can keep her and die. We know that the choice is real because if it were not, it would mean that God lied to Abimelech and lying is not in God's nature. Now it gets interesting.

Choice inherently has an element of uncertainty. In order for Abimelech to have a choice, and in order for God to present that choice, God must not know the outcome of that choice. That is to say, he does not know the future. You say "But wait, God certainly knows the future because he has revealed elements of it to us in the form of prophecy about his son Jesus. At the very least, he knows how the world will end and that is in itself knowledge of the future."

I have a theory that circumvents this seeming contradiction. I call it the "Branched Future" theory. In this theory we have two distinct points: a beginning and an end. Between these points is not a straight line but instead a series of diverging and then converging paths. See the diagram below.


(Click for larger and clearer image)

I'll be honest, that graphic is a poor MS Paint representation of my theory. What it is supposed to be is a series of diverging "V's" or "yes/no choice lines". of Essentially, we start at the beginning with a choice, let's say "yes" or "no". If we say yes, our trajectory moves upward, if we say "no" then our trajectory moves downward. At some point, our own choices set us onto a path of converging choices. That is to say that instead of "the possibilities are endless" the possibilities are "increasingly limited".

In my theory, God gives us a beginning and an end. We are free to make whatever choices we want in between, but because of His design we will ultimately end up at the same place: the rapture. This theory is similar to a phenomenon observed in science: wave particle duality which is a central concept to quantum mechanics. In wave particle duality, we say that matter behaves as both a wave and a particle at the same time. A photon is a classic example. When a photon is observed to travel between two points it does not actually travel one path. Instead, it travel multiple paths (indeed, every single possible path) at the same time.

It is fittingly elegant, then, that we can find a corollary between observed science and the Christian Faith. We can see that God gives choice: not just to us but to all of creation.

Evolution, Creation of Man and the Triune God

Reading: Genesis

Ginelle's Take:

Genesis 1:24-25- "And 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. And 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."

As can be observed from the verse above, God created all animals "after their kind". "Kind" is basically a synonym for species. When you ask your friend, "what kind of dog is that? it's so cute!" you're pretty much asking them what species of dog it is. From the verses above, I infer that God most likely created a basic dog model (let's use the dog as an example), and from that basic model micro evolution ran its course.

Evolution isn't a bad word.

There are different forms of evolution. There is micro evolution, and macro evolution. Macro evolution is the bad word. Nobody has ever observed macro evolution. Macro evolution says that a dog can reproduce and form a non-dog (a giraffe for example, or whatever). Crazy scientists will have you believe that some ancient bacteria created all life on Earth. That is macro evolution and its nuts. Macro evolution is almost like a religion in itself. Nobody has any real proof for it, it is a belief system, and it has a large following; a religion if you will.

Now micro evolution is good stuff. It says that a white dog can produce a spotted dog. It is still a dog, but it's physical appearance has only been changed. It is the result of adaptation to the species environment. It exists to help species exist in different habitats, developing camouflage is an example of micro evolution. That is why polar bears are white, and bears here in Florida are brown or black, to help them blend better into their environment. So, God created animals with intent for them to change, only small changes, and for them to breed "after their kind", or after their species. Micro evolution is completely biblical.

Genesis 2:7- "And 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."

Now here is the creation of man. When God made the animals, birds and fish, 'he spake, and it was done.' But with man it was different. God 'formed' him. We were a very special type of creation- we were actually formed by the hands of God, then He got very close to His 'formation' and breathed life into our nostrils.

So much for the whole hypothesis that we are the descendants of monkeys! I told you macro evolution was silly.

It is also curious to note that since we were created of the dust of the ground and then formed or molded into His likeness, that we may have been formed by a clay substance (which would hold our formation together). That being said, look to this article I found not long ago:

'Was First Life On Earth Triggered By Clay?'

It is just an interesting correlation between science and the Bible. I believe that all true science will remain biblical, God created the sciences after all. And God with his infinite wisdom knew exactly what He was doing, even to the smallest detail.

And one more quick note:
My friend Cody pointed out something very interesting:

Genesis 1:26-"And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness..."

In this verse God was referring to Himself plurally, "Us". It is exciting to realize that the triune Lord has existed since the beginning. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; Jesus was there during creation. There are also other places in the Bible where God does this:

Genesis 11:7-"Go to, let Us go down, and there confound their language..."

Again, "Us". How very interesting that God refers to Himself in this manner! All praise and glory be to Him.

Creation, Notes Regarding Its Duration

This is the first post so I'll acquaint you with the format. The first line will contain the day's reading. After that will be sections titled "Cornelius' Take" or "Ginelle's Take." Sometimes both of us will have a section, other times only one of us will have a section.


Reading: We started off with reading Genesis, Chapters 1-19.

Cornelius' Take-

Genesis has always been of great interest to me. After all, what could possibly be more interesting than the creation of the universe?

Genesis 1:3- And God Said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Others will correct me (ahem, Ginelle) but I've always seen this as a metaphor for the Big Bang. Some time ago I was thinking about how elegant the universe is, especially the way so many of its systems balance each other. It occurred to me that if elegance is present throughout creation, should it not also be present in the processes of creating? Thus I came to the analogy of a pool table. It is far more elegant for someone to break and have all of the balls go into pockets on their own than it is for someone to simply use their hand and put the balls into pockets.

What could be a more awesome show of power and knowledge than for God to create the entire universe from a single perfectly arranged explosion? So perfect of an explosion that the matter that came out of it had just the right subatomic forces to hold together. So perfect of an explosion that it created an earth with just the right conditions for life. So perfect an explosion that we have water, a substance without which life as we know it would not exist. So perfect of an explosion that it allowed for the biological systems that support us to appear. Awesome.

Genesis 1:5- "An God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

Genesis 1:16- "And 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."

Before I go any further, let me say that I've always been a bit of an idealist. I've always wanted to work toward unifying the Bible and Science. This is my first, perhaps somewhat naive, attempt.

If there is one thing on which the Scientific Community and the Christian Religion disagree on the most, it has to be the duration of creation. Common theology takes the Bible as literal: seven days. Science tells us that evidence from background radiation indicates that the universe is billions of years old. Quite a discrepancy. I propose a solution.

Genesis 1:5 and 1:16 give us a workaround for the seven day thing. We define a day not as light and dark (after all, it stay light for "days" on end during the summer in Alaska) but as a revolution of the earth. Said revolution can only be measured relative to another body, which, in our case, is the sun. Said sun is absent in creation until Genesis 1:16 (any light would have to emanate from God) which means that the term day in the first three days of creation is a completely arbitrary unit of time. It could be a second or it could be a billion years.

One last thing I'd point out is Genesis 1:28.

Genesis 1:28- "And 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."

The phrase "replenish the earth" makes me wonder what God thinks of our current environmental destruction. Whether or not you believe that global warming is real, it is impossible to believe that humanity is following God's imperative to "replenish the earth."

Introduction

So it begins...

We, C and G, started this blog to document our journey through the Holy Bible. We both have Christian backgrounds, are both self-motivated learners, and are both seeking answers to some very human questions:

"Who are we?"

"How did we get here?"

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Am I doing the right thing?"

While answering these questions will probably take the remainder of our lives, we have decided jointly to attempt to advance ourselves by studying the Holy Bible. Our approach is straightforward. We will read every page of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation and use this blog to document our learning experience.

This is not intended to be an outline of the Bible. Instead, we will use it to highlight passages that are relevant to us and to point out interesting findings. We hope some of our insights are helpful to you.