IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS, between the time I wake up and the time I get up, many thoughts cross my mind.
This morning two thoughts competed.
- 1 How many publications are there IN PRINT — booklets, tabloids, fliers — documents that intend to promulgate information (vs. books, advertisements, etc.). and
2 God.
Granted a strange combination, but at 4:30 a.m. that’s what I got.
Of the two, god is the easy one.
It all started (in my mind) with how the universe (as we know it) started.
The Bible tells us that a power many call “god” spoke and poof the basic universe was created. A few more words and the earth and all its flora and fauna came into being. Finally, man in some form or another was brought into existence.
And then, on the seventh day of creation, this superior being rested.
Big bang theory?
As I understand the Big Bang theory — I am not a scientist nor, unlike Mayim Bialik, do I play one on tv (Ms. Bialik IS a neuroscientist with a PhD) — but supposedly two “things” smashed together and boom! — the Big Bang.
Fine, except where did the things that collided originate?
That leaves me and my Edward Bear mind with an eternal supreme being.
I really don’t care WHAT this being is called. Jews have many names for this being, everything from I Am to The Name to the “real” Name, pronounced once-a-year by the high priest in the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Is Judaism the only monotheistic religion? Probably not.
Ancient cultures around the world were polytheistic1 – a god for this and a god for that. But all had a prime god — Zeus, Thor, Ra, Marduk, Huitzilopochtli , Oden, and Apollo.
Some cultures believed spirits inhabited various things; celestial bodies, animals, inanimate objects, etc. Some had a chief spirit, some not.
I cannot bring myself to believe any god-man story, regardless if it’s “god became man” or “man became god,” be it Gautama Buddha or Jesus or Apollonius of Tyana 2
Going in the other direction, men who were considered gods, there is a Wikipedia list3 too long to include here. Suffice to report that many men-to-gods were rulers who were deified during their lifetime. There were others, such as Imhotep, an Ancient Egyptian architect and physician whose status, two thousand years after his death, was raised to that of a god, becoming the god of medicine and healing. (ibid.)
Most monotheists hold that gods don’t become human except, of course, their god
I can almost hear Jesus’ followers yelling “But Jesus proved he was god by performing miracles." According to the bible that contains Jesus’ history, others also performed miracles, including reviving the dead and providing sustenance.
This scrivener is not an atheist4; I am convinced there is a “superior being,” call this being he, she, or it, or any name you favor.
I do believe in evolution. Even the Jewish bible seems to agree with the theory. According to Genesis 1, “God created the heaven and the earth.” Everything was dark. “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ ” That was “Day 1.”
Many people who read Genesis read it as if it happened in our time. To them, a “day” is 24 hours. Period, end of story.
But Genesis doesn’t equate “day” with 24 hours. In Genesis, a day is dark to light to dark again. (Which explains why a “Jewish” day starts in the evening.)
Was the Genesis “day” 24 hours? Perhaps 24 days, or years, or 24 centuries. I wasn’t there.
But continue reading and you’ll read the order of creation and it correlates to evolution. “Man” — in whatever form — was the final creation, and then the creator “rested on the seventh day.” (A few million years later, a six-day work week finally became the norm; the only question: On which day is the day of rest? Of the three western monotheistic beliefs, Islam thinks it is Friday, Judaism lays claim to Saturday, and Christians opt for Sunday. (So why do most calendar weeks start on Sunday and end on Saturday? Curious.)
“God” is a convenient name — it is short (three letters in English, easily abbreviated in Hebrew, a plus when cutting letters into stone or engraving letters on coins). “Supreme Being” is cumbersome, but those who believe the Jewish bible should have no problem with that term.
I am not an atheist.4
I consider myself an agnostic.5
Sources
1. List of gods: http://tinyurl.com/yasaeudz
2. Proteus: http://tinyurl.com/ydaq5pqz
3. Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/m8oqdbx
4. Atheist: http://tinyurl.com/ya5k8lsv
5. Agnostic: http://tinyurl.com/ybh248a7
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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