Genesis 1: More Random Observations
Day 2 is written from a flat-earth perspective: water above (the blues sky?), water below (springs from the ground) and air in the middle (atmosphere). Imagine this on a flat, linear plane and you can see what the Hebrew mind was thinking 3500-5000 years ago.
God made the vegetation before the sun? How does that work, especially for those who believe in a mixture of creation and theistic evolution?
God rested? Who knew? Of course, this statement notes the end of the creative process. Now, let the micro evolution begin (he said with a smile and bit of sarcasm in his voice)!
God made the vegetation before the sun? How does that work, especially for those who believe in a mixture of creation and theistic evolution?
God rested? Who knew? Of course, this statement notes the end of the creative process. Now, let the micro evolution begin (he said with a smile and bit of sarcasm in his voice)!
posted by Randy Rogers at
9:33 AM
11 Comments:
What I meant to say was why not imagine what is? The scripture allows it, and the date and origin of round earth philosophy is mysterious, otherwise, see the comment to the previous post.
Previous post still does not communicate to me.
Now, by "round earth philosophy" are we talking Galileo, etc?
And do you mean, "The Scripture allows for us to see 'a round earth' "?
I think the principles in the story allow us to apply the creation story to a round earth; but I don't think Moses, or the Judges, or David, or the Rabbis knew the earth was round nor considered the creation story to be about a round earth. The description itself is 2-dimensional. This does not change the principles of the story, but it does accept the human perspective behind the writing. The divine truth still lives in the midst of the ancient perspective/context.
I thought I might hunt down early examples of round earth philosophy, but decided to rely on memory and earlier research about creation legends in primitive cultures and recall that some American Indians believed that Apaches fell out of a hole in the sky and landed on a great turtle floating in the ocean. Now a turtle's shell is not perfectly round but it is not flat. I would guess that there are other examples and they would be interesting to pursue. But in another time and place.
RobeFRe
Randy
It seems to be much older than Galileo and may involve the Cliphate of something or other in 800AD, later than Pythagoras' observations of the lunar eclipse,
here is a link:
http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/flat_earth.htm
RFR
OK. I am not surprised that the Islamic scientists who lived during Europes Middle Ages would have come to some of these conclusions. I suppose you could argue that the Bible is another one of those anomalies where the truth (round earth) shows up before its time. However, as I mentioned somewhere else in the blogosphere, I do not think that the Hebrew or Jewish cultures would have accepted anything other than a flat earth view. I think their version of the creation story reflects that cultural presupposition.
you wrote
'God made the vegetation before the sun? How does that work, especially for those who believe in a mixture of creation and theistic evolution?'
at the bottom of the ocean are plants, in the artic circle are lichen. these do not seem to live on the cycle of the sun days.
OK. These are two small examples of plants that can live with less sunlight--and their living process is much different than other plants.
So, I have two questions concerning your point. 1) Are you suggesting that God made only these types of plants, and then allowed the others to evolve, across species lines, from them? 2) the Hebrews would not have known of such plants, your point is out of context when dealing with the Hebrews thought process and light-sensitive plants.
OK. The second point was not a question, but a statement.
Nobody would have known much of anything except God must have talked with Adam and Adam[the original philosopher(type/class science according to the Greek) by way of naming everything] must have talked with Seth and thus toward Enoch, who may have had his own conversations with God, and thus toward Noah, and thus toward Moses, with God appearing and talking with whom and when He wanted about what ever He deemed needful or otherwise appropriate. This is not to say the Hebrew had direct knowledge of lichen or those sea bottom algae but that they may have heard and whether or not they had they could hear it as possibility in God's word, and while potential is just a another name for 'nothing yet done' it is there and we do not know how or exactly when God made the things He made, but as I noted in another comment He may have spent some time selecting things He had already made, from the teeming waters. I do note that in the creation of the land life it states that they sprang from the earth, which was mzde by God. Brings to mind the old joke where God tells the upstart scientist out to prove his abilty to make life--'get your own dirt'!
Well, I can't argue with your hypotheticals as this point. Sure, God could have placed this in their minds. It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that they would have thought of. It remains an interesting mystery for me.
One point that may have been lost in the mystery of that that is blogging by way of a vanished comment (never made it through publishing) is that the Bible, at times, is supported as truth by the scientific world whether they(the scientists) meant for that to happen or not: for example the health, diet and food handling codes given in the Leviticus and Deuteronomy are such that only a person with multitudes and generations of dead or very sick people around him, or someone with some fairly modern lab technologies, could have understood the ramifications of breaking some of the rules. It seems to me to be a point of support for divine empowerment. I am not sure they would have thought of it either. I think this is one reason we call it God's Word.
Robert
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