Sunday, September 18, 2005
re:creation
Part of the post-modern concern is re-imagining the Biblical creation stories. These stories continue to influence the way we see life; they are designed to answer the questions of life, the universe and everything.
Why?
Because?
I don't know enough about them to comment in depth, but I've been thinking about an idea...
If God created a universe that was intended to have free will then it could not be tampered with. If God stepped in to 'fix' things all the time we (the created) couldn't claim freedom...It would be like a child with a very complex ant farm. Or a fantasy in the mind of God.
However, if God created the first hydrogen atom, queson or whatever and imbued that with the potentiality to form everything we know...if God designed creation to evolve on its own...then God created something that could determine its fate.
Left here we have theism: God wound up the universe like a clock and left it to wind down. God doesn't get involved. There's no point to anything, it's very mechanical.
However the testimony of mankind is that God does get involved...often in creative communicative ways, sometimes in miraculous interventions. Christian tradition imagines a goal in sight, a narrative that humanity is living out.
This is conceptualised as a wedding feast, a consummation.
So within that first sub-atomic particle was something of God's heart, desire, spirit. It's re-created in all creation and desires to emerge, to manifest, to make itself known within the created order.
This story makes sense to me (although I've communicated it poorly here). No quick fixes, no divine interference...but something divine within the created order. That something allows communication with the transcendent and connects creator and creation. It avoids traps of mechanism, lack of free will and it accounts for our place in the world.
It's still very faulty though.
Why?
Because?
I don't know enough about them to comment in depth, but I've been thinking about an idea...
If God created a universe that was intended to have free will then it could not be tampered with. If God stepped in to 'fix' things all the time we (the created) couldn't claim freedom...It would be like a child with a very complex ant farm. Or a fantasy in the mind of God.
However, if God created the first hydrogen atom, queson or whatever and imbued that with the potentiality to form everything we know...if God designed creation to evolve on its own...then God created something that could determine its fate.
Left here we have theism: God wound up the universe like a clock and left it to wind down. God doesn't get involved. There's no point to anything, it's very mechanical.
However the testimony of mankind is that God does get involved...often in creative communicative ways, sometimes in miraculous interventions. Christian tradition imagines a goal in sight, a narrative that humanity is living out.
This is conceptualised as a wedding feast, a consummation.
So within that first sub-atomic particle was something of God's heart, desire, spirit. It's re-created in all creation and desires to emerge, to manifest, to make itself known within the created order.
This story makes sense to me (although I've communicated it poorly here). No quick fixes, no divine interference...but something divine within the created order. That something allows communication with the transcendent and connects creator and creation. It avoids traps of mechanism, lack of free will and it accounts for our place in the world.
It's still very faulty though.
Craig (mars-hill) Sunday, September 18, 2005
2 Comments:
Can't we have a bit of both, a God who chooses not to interfere too much, like a parent who has to let their kids make some mistakes etc. but who if the kids asks for help, or really needs it will sometimes step in - often trying to hide what they are doing...
Absolutely.
I claim sanctuary in the fact that (almost) everything on this site is claimed to be half-finished ideas.
I'd be interested to hear what you think fits into the creation stories; other people's ideas and how they were arrived at...
I claim sanctuary in the fact that (almost) everything on this site is claimed to be half-finished ideas.
I'd be interested to hear what you think fits into the creation stories; other people's ideas and how they were arrived at...