Christians Caviler on Creation?

According to Mary Fairchild, the purpose of the Creation story “is for moral and spiritual revelation.”  She points to three main revelations of the narrative: 1) God created you He is pleased by you and you are of great worth to Him; 2) God first references the Trinity; 3) We should not feel guilty when we take time each week to rest.

Seriously, those are, claims Mary Fairchild, the main reasons God saw fit to include the account of Creation in His Word.  It was certainly not, according to Fairchild, to tell us how long it took or how it happened, exactly.

Mary Fairchild is the Christianity Guide on About.com.  She seems legitimate and all the other posts on the site also seem on the mark.  So, I ask myself, why the fade to gray when it comes to the Creation account in Genesis Chapter 1?  If this were an isolated case, I would not be too concerned.  Unfortunately this caviler attitude toward the Creation is the norm with those calling themselves Christian.

A lot, and I mean most, Christians I have talked to don’t have the stomach to take on evolution.  They don’t really understand the claim but for some reason they buy the premise and so, they are forced to water down the Creation account.  I suspect that Fairchild’s summary of the Creation story is at least an attempt to avoid butting heads with evolution.

I am wondering, how do you process Genesis 1: 1 – 2: 3?  Do you dismiss the secular evolutionary tail altogether and accept a young earth?  Do you contort your beliefs in an attempt to reconcile evolution with the Biblical account of Creation?  Do you release Genesis 1 from any historical responsibility as does Mary Fairchild?  Or, do you have some other take on the subject?

This is important because many of the lost do take Genesis 1 very seriously from a historical perspective.  What is more, they become very confused when Christians don’t but do take other sections of the Bible very seriously historically.  They look at Genesis 1 at face value and say to themselves:  “Sounds like a historical account to me.  It does not jive at all with what I have been told about evolution and the history of the universe.  So, it can’t be a historical account.  So, anything else in the Bible that sounds like a historical account is not necessarily so.  Jesus could just be a literary figure used to show how much God cares for us and not an actual person, who lived and breathed, suffered and died for sin.  He just represents the lengths God is willing to go for us.”  This is a logical progression and reasonable given the number of Christians who will not defend Genesis 1 as historical.

I believe that God created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is.  I believe He did it in seven literal days.  I believe He did it less than 10,000 years ago.  I believe He accomplished it by super natural power.  I know that nobody has shown me any discovery of man that contradicts these beliefs and stand, as Elijah did before the prophets of Baal, to mock their efforts to do so.  The efforts of science thus far have only worked to bolster my beliefs in the historical accuracy of Genesis 1.  I look forward to the next scientific discovery with respect to origins and how it will further confirm the account.

Information

Information can be thought of as an indiscernible fluid.  We measure information flow by the ‘diff’ in the mind.  That is to say, the information that flowed is the difference between what was in the mind before and what is in the mind after.  Indiscernible, in that, this fluid is not a real physical substance but the dynamics of information are fluid like.

Fact – a fragment of material reality.

Concept – any derived virtual reconstitute of fact formed in the mind of an intelligent agent.

Consciousness – the set of concepts an individual intelligent agent is aware of at any given moment in time.

Information – the fluid of conception.

For this thesis we will assume that there exists a reality comprised of facts and there exist intelligent agents who are able to derive concepts based on the facts of reality.  These concepts have a dynamic flow.  They flow within the consciousness of the individual and, more importantly, they flow between and among the collective consciousness.  They can readily evaporate (leave the conscious mind), condense (form in the conscious mind), or stream (transition into a separate concept).  Let me give a simple example of this flow.

Suppose Tyqado is a member of a primitive community, Smallville, and has the duty of scout.  Tyqado is to seek out and report on the presence of intruders.  All of a sudden, Tyqado spots some intruders.  Now, there are many things that Tyqado could report about these intruders but we will limit it in this example to the size of the party.  Fact, there are, what we know as, seven, that’s ‘7’, individuals in this party of intruders.  In order for Tyqado to report on this fact to Smallville, Tyqado must be able to conceptualize the fact.  Fortunately,  Tyqado has acquired an internal ordered number system and is familiar with the concept ‘7’.  If Tyqado would have been from, Mayberry, the community down the road, then Tyqado’s number system would have been more simple.  Mayberry’s number system is {one, two, two and one, two twos, many}.  In that case, the conceptualization, ‘many’, would have been less precise and arguably less accurate.  Regardless, Tyqado forms the concept ‘intruders = seven’.

At this point Tyqado is probably feeling pretty good.  There are, however, a number of issues Tyqado has only begun to deal with.  How close Tyqado’s concept (7) is to the real number of intruders must be stirring about in Tyqado’s mind along with a myriad of other concepts.  Tyqado must figure out a way to get the concept ‘7 = intruders’ home safely to Smallville and then come up with a way to communicate it to the tribe.

Tyqado could attempt to record the concept in some way.  This way Tyqado could allow the concept to evaporate and recall it latter.  The trouble is that the concept is not real.  Tyqado can’t record a non-material object on a material medium {chemical neural circuits, pen and paper, computer circuitry, stone and chisel}.  The concept is not a fragment of reality; it is an apparition of reality which could evaporate or stream at any moment.  Tyqado’s idea is to use a proxy material fact to securely inform Smallville.  Tyqado writes the numeral ‘7’ on a piece of parchment.

This ‘7’ is a character on a page.  It is a fact just like the seven intruders.  Tyqado will use it to reduce (abstract) the fact of the actual living and breathing seven intruders with names and families of their own to the fact of a digit written on a page that can represent the quantity of intruders and eliminate the other characteristics of the brutes.  Now, when Tyqado sees the ‘7’ it references the concept of seven intruders condenses it in Tyqado’s mind.  How does it work?  I don’t know, but, I believe that both the concept of making the reference and the concept of seven intruders are not material in any way.  If the concepts themselves are material, then the entire package inside Tyqado’s brian is mechanical.  In that case Tyqado merely reacts and cannot think.  Tyqado is then a zombie; a la David Chalmers.  There would be no Tyqado, just a bag of chemicals with a label on it that reads “Tyqado”.  If no Tyqado, then I do not exist.  Since I know I exist, then concepts themselves are not material.

We now have a glimpse of the information inside Tyqado’s mind.  These concepts are derived by Tyqado from facts and can be triggered by abstractions.  Tyqado will now use another abstraction in an attempt to communicate “intruders = seven” to the tribe.

Tyqado arrives back at Smallville and is asked:  “How many intruders did you find?”  Tyqado forms the word and then speaks “seven” into the air.  What happens next is truly astounding.  The concept ‘intruders = seven’ never leaves Tyqado’s mind.  The fact of sound waves carrying the word ‘seven’ was created by Tyqado.  The concept must be derived in each individual mind that receives the signal through hearing.  The concept does not live in the sound waves any more than it lives in the ‘7’ on the page.  The abstraction forming the concept is made in the mind and stays in the mind.

 The tribe at Smallville experienced the ‘diff’, became aware, was informed, of the seven intruders as information flowed from Tyqado’s original sighting of the seven, threw the abstraction ‘7’, and finally in the concept formed in the minds of the villagers from Tyqado’s sound waves.   

 “But where can wisdom be found?  And where is the place of understanding?  Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living.  The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ It cannot be purchased for gold, Nor can silver be weighed for its price.  It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire.  Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold.  No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, For the price of wisdom is above rubies.  The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, Nor can it be valued in pure gold.  “From where then does wisdom come?  And where is the place of understanding?  It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air.  Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’  God understands its way, And He knows its place.  For He looks to the ends of the earth, And sees under the whole heavens, To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure.  When He made a law for the rain, And a path for the thunderbolt, Then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out.  And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’” – Job 28: 12 - 28

Two Realms

Genesis 1: 4

And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

Here in verse four our attention is turned toward the visible spectrum.  Can anyone argue that visible light is not good?  What is more God has purposefully created a universe in which the light is divided from the darkness, so that two realms emerge.  What?  Light has to be separate from darkness; you say.  Perhaps.  Perhaps in this universe that is so, but it is so because God made it so.

Light!

Genesis 1: 3
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.

That is power (omnipotent)!  God spoke and then what He spoke happened.  What happened?  What is light?  We define it as electromagnetic radiation which is energy emitted and absorbed by charged particles with wave like properties.  So, God turned the universe on with His voice.  Or, God added the wave like energy to the universe.  This would imply that the physical universe is an open system.  This contradicts the popular science notion that the physical universe is closed and isolated.  Open meaning God can put things in it that were not in it before, like, energy.  And it means he can take things out, like, Enoch (Genesis 5: 24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2: 11).  An open universe should not be a surprise, as every other system known to man is an open system.  But this implies things exist outside the material, physical, natural.

God's power is then super natural.  The materialist is here found of saying; "You might as well attribute things you don't understand to The Great Flying Spaghetti Monster."  Were this an honest appeal by the materialist, I would be encouraged for them.  It would mean that there heart was softening toward God.  As it is, this is a scoff most easily refuted with testimony.  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,..." - Hebrews 12: 1.  You will find a scant few scoffers compared to the magnitude of this cloud.  The vast majority of humans that have ever lived embrace the idea of a real god.  As we continue through Genesis Chapter 1, we will gain more and more knowledge about the one true living God Almighty.

Void?

Genesis 1: 2

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

As we go through the rest of the chapter we will be told the evolution of the creation of the universe.  Yes I said evolution.  Things do change over time in the universe.  I am not here talking about any sort of Darwinian evolution however.  Darwinian evolution is irreconcilable with Christianity in general and is totally inconsistent with the Holy Bible in its specifics.

Verse two gives us a murky general idea as to what creation was like in this early stage of the process and it did not look like much.  It had no form and contained nothing substantial.  Yet, I believe it would have been a very exciting / suspenseful time to witness; God’s Spirit moving over the face of the waters.

It is impossible for us to know now of what these waters consisted.  Dr. Russell Humphreys contends, in his book “Starlight and Time” that these waters might have been actual water.  I recommend you read his book for a better understanding of this claim.  Could be “the waters” refers to the recently discovered Higgs field the description of which is consistent with both a void and a fluid of sorts.  The size and scope of the formless deep is not revealed.  Why?  I don’t know but I contend the size and scope of the universe at this time are irrelevant.  I think suffice to say that the formless deep void of the waters or Higgs field formed the elementary basis for what would come next.  That it had some size is evident and that it would become much larger will soon be evident.

How long did the Spirit move on the face?  Was the Spirit performing any task at this time or was the Spirit just building intensity for the tasks ahead?  I am only sure of one thing at this point; Jesus was there!  John 1: 1 – 3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”

In The Beginning!

Genesis 1: 1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

This is a profound statement.  We are being told (creavit – third person singular perfect active indicative form of creo) that God created, made, produced, begat, caused, chose both heaven and earth so that they came into existence solely by His will and power.  We are not pointed to any substantiating evidence nor is any attempt made to persuade us that this proclamation is true.  How is the reader supposed to react to this?  In one of three basic ways, I suppose.

The reader could say: “You know what?  No way.  There is no such possible being that could possibly exist that could possibly poses the power, knowledge, and ability necessary to accomplish such a remarkable feet.”  The honest question put to those taking this track is then:  “Well, the universe – heaven and earth – is here, so how did it get here?”  Used to be, the popular response was:  “It has always been here.  The universe has an infinite past.”  In recent years, The Big Bang theory has risen in fame where these folks claim:  “Billions of years ago, everything that now exists, existed in a point – a singularity with no dimension – where for no discernible reason, it exploded into the universe we now see.”

The reader could say:  “Possible sounds far-fetched but I am willing to listen on.  I mean, I don’t know this God but it is also the case that I don’t know everything.  In fact, I don’t even know half of everything.  This God could exist in the at least half of everything that I don’t know.”

The reader could say:  “Yes.  I know this God!  He is the one who saved me.  I love this, the one true living God, because He first loved me.  His invisible attributes from creation are manifest in the universe He created.”

I would like to take some time to examine the specific, vivid, and chronological Genesis Chapter One account of God’s work in creating the universe.  If you are the first reader, then this process might turn out to be frustrating, painful, or even angering.  Or, it might turn out to be liberating.

Get an Education!

It's little Jimmy's first day of 1st grade.  He is setting out on a journey that is supposed to, among other things,  prepare him intellectually for a professional workplace some 12 to 20 years in the future.  What will the workplace look like in 2025?  Chances are it will not look like the workplace of 1985.  Unfortunately the educational system in place now is preparing young people like Jimmy for a workplace that  now exists only in history books.  This is the premise of my post today.  I am not trying to convince you of this fact, I am going to suggest some things we might do about it.

At the outset, we should make an objective attempt to characterize what the workplace will look like in 2025.  Given the current trajectory and no major calamity between now and then, it will contain six main elements:  {mobility, technology, collaboration, speed, information, skill}.  So, Jimmy chained to his desk, without his computer/cell phone/calculator, in silence, and with only his memory as a resource will leave him out of the professional workplace in 2025.  The idea of a good education must be turned completely on its head.

Jimmy must be able to access, process, analyze, communicate, and store (APACS) an enormous amount of information to be a professional.  Therefore, he will not even be able to begin to function without a computer and a fast internet connection.  What is more, mastering this one device will be the key to unlock his entire professional existence.  He will only be able to APACS at a snail's pace without it.  He will need to have access/skill with the computer at every moment in his professional life.  It will be his phone, his clock, his library, his secretary, his calculator, his post office, etc…

It will not, however, be his brain.  Operating a computer effectively, even today, is a monumental undertaking.  Whatever the professional task may be, not only is it true: "There is an app for that.", there are YouTube videos on how to install, set up, and make basic use of that app.  Also, there exist online documentations and at least a half dozen forums, per app, where more advanced information can be digested concerning the app in a collaborative way.  Some of these resources are better than others and updates to all, apps, videos, docs, and forums are constantly being posted.  What can be known is increasing exponentially.  How it can be accessed is also growing at a staggering rate.

Therefore, young people need to be taught, wait, strike that, must be schooled to mastery in all aspects of APACS via the computer.  APACS = {world wide web, cloud, databases, application software, networking, etc…}.  Students, by the time they reach the seventh grade should already know (at least):  A) How to access information on the world wide web via search engines and be able to set up an automated feed system which can be set to search any desired set of target topics; P) How to process information using software such as MS Excell or MS Access;  A)  How to analyze processed information using rudimentary macros, functions, or routines they have developed on any one of a number of analysis platforms such as Maple;  C)  Publish results via internet using blogs/forums/wikkis/web pages;  S)  Store information via databases or word processing platforms such as MS One Note.  Yes, by the time they reach seventh grade.

Forget reading, writing, and arithmetic.  They have been, yes past tense, by surfing, posting, and apping.  What about the art of taking a piece of paper and exquisitely recording your thoughts with a beautifully developed cursive  pen.  Gone I say.  You can read about it in the history book along side of how they used to chisel out script in the face of a flat stone.  The modern  work station is composed of a pc or laptop with one or two external monitors so that the user can have 5, 10, 15, or more different screens open at the same time.  It is equipped with email access as well as some flavor of instant communicator.  Ten to twenty percent of the workday is spent on google or some other search engine researching the job.  In other words, professional development is an everyday event.  If you don't know how to use a search engine  , then you will not be long on the job.

This all means that for virtually all course activities students be required to engage in computing.  Are the taking notes?  Use One Note.  Are they making a presentation?  Use PowerPoint.  Are they doing research?  Use google.  Are they producing a report?  Use a wikki.  In fact, a personal wikki is a great place to organize their whole effort.  Are they processing and analyzing data?  Use Excel.  When I think of all the things you can do with Excel, so much I get exhausted.  It would take two years of intense study just to become proficient in all the functions that Excel offers.

The professional workplace will require of its force; a comfort producing from portable work stations, seamless proficiency in multiple technologies, group efforts across halls and across oceans,  incredible speed, continuous multitasking open access points to a variety of data sources, persistent proficiency in specific duties.  Let's give Jimmy a fighting chance.