The Question
To look at this question we first need to consider how we got here, but what is ‘here’ , or might I say – Where is ‘here’? In the beginning, there was no ‘here’, there was only nothing. We cannot grasp the significance of ‘nothing’ for that infers that just thinking about it, that is something. Nothing, however, is the complete absence of anything, no land, no air, no light, no heat or cold, just a void. In terms of relationships, we cannot relate but the closest I can come to is complete darkness. So, did we come from the darkness? I think not.
The Beginning – Creation What It Means To Be HUMAN-1 The BEGINNING
Science tells us that ‘0 X 0 = 0’. or nothing can only produce nothing. There was, however a spirit who was aware of the nothingness. This spirit is known to science as the prime mover who was able to produce something from nothing. This production of something is known by us as CREATION! For this discussion I will refer to this ‘prime mover’ as God for lack of any other adequate defining title.
In order to rationalize the creation of the universe in it’s current state, it must be assumed that this :”God” must be of a benevolent nature, for why else would He have created something so vast and beautiful with, populated with creatures who could know of Him? The first thing He crated was light, so therefore, we are children of light, not darkness. God Himself is pure spirit with no physical being, so He created beings like unto Himself, in spirit. First the angels, then after the other physical creatures, mankind who is of the physical universe but with a spiritual nature like their creator,. We are said therefore, to made in God’s image and likeness.
The Creation of Man What It Means To Be Human-2 Humanity
In the beginning, therefore, mankind is created in the image of God. What does that mean? Can man do what God does? Can man see what God sees? Can man know what God knows? In this sense, man is not like God because man is not God. God is infinite spirit with no physical body, and man has a body that ages and will die. In being infinite and preexisting creation, God therefore existed before time itself. He sees all, past, present and future. Man can know of the past throuth historical recordings, he lives in the present and the future is non existent to him. Man was created by God and therefore is subject to Him. God in turn has given us freedom to chose the life we have been given. To throw it away is the epitome of arrogance. Who of us would refuse food from our earthly father?
Man, therefore, is subject to God, he acknowledges the natural reality around him and lives within it’s precepts. All the cultures of mankind on earth know of God by the natural order found in his environment. We know that we did not make ourselves and that we are responsible to our maker. We see Him through our experiences in life and while those experiences within a culture differ, we therefore see God a little different.
Why We Need God
Being all knowing in His infinite nature as Creator, God knows of our view of himself through our environment and saw fit to more accurately identify himself to humanity through a particular culture in order to spread this knowledge throughout the earth. Man lives in a physical world, where time, being a part of the physical universe governs this distribution of knowledge. So knowledge of God comes a little a first and grows through the ages.
To those of us who subscribe to the non-belief in a supreme being, I am not here to argue the existence of God, only to pose the logic of this belief. Throughout all of human history, cultures have unanimously accepted allegiance to a supreme being. A non-belief in a supreme being leaves one open the belief in something else. I would like to know what that something else is. It is in the TRADITION of mankind to believe in something. Whether it be a spiritual force, a force of nature or the divine wind, I will refer to this essence as God in this discussion.
The Selection What it Means To Be Human-3 SALVATION
I don’t pretend to know the mind of God; that is, why He does things in a particular way. He selected an insignificant group of people in what we now know as the Middle East, through whom He would reveal himself to all the human race. These were the Hebrew People . He inspired them to tell their story, that we now find in the writings of Genesis and later the Book of Exodus. Their descendants, The Jews continued the story, inspired by their life while straining to follow the word of God, and they recorded these books into their writings known as the Torah and the Old Testament. The Jews were selected because their ancestors, through Abraham, were faithful to God as represented by their trust in Him. The traditions advanced by this culture have shaped Western Civilization, the civilization that has melded many cultures into much of what we see worldwide today.
Good vs Evil
All cultures recognize that some things and some activities of man are good, and some bad. Usually the good and bad represent similar categories in most societies. Family and life is good, death is bad; Love and prosperity is good, thievery is bad; generosity is good, selfishness is bad, etc. These are universal truths and why they are so will be explored in my next Blog.
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