3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Questions: To whom is God speaking? Is this the Spirit of God? Is God physically saying these things aloud and through which medium? Why is God lighting up a formless empty earth and waters? Where is the light coming from exactly? Is there a source, like the sun or the stars, or is everyhing illuminated uniformly?
Thoughts: It would seem unnecessary for god to speak for light to emerge. In fact, science provides a rather amazing explanation for the formation of stars. Out of immensely large and dense spheres of hydrogen gas, stars are born. They are enormous collections of gaseous material, whose massive gravitational forces overcome the nuclear forces of the atoms in the core, and in doing so releases an extraordinary amount of energy and light. This natural process has no need for God. It would have happened without anyone there, saying anything. Would it have taken a long time? Yes, billions of years! But did it happen? Of course it did, and it happened long before the earth was even formed. This verse makes no sense and is useless in explaining the origins of the universe and everything in it.
A better verse would have been:
3 300 million years after the birth of the universe, gravity amplifies slight irregularities in the density of the primordial gas of hydrogen, helium, and lithium atoms. Even as the universe continues to expand rapidly, pockets of gas become more and more dense. Stars ignite within these pockets, and groups of stars become the earliest galaxies.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Genesis 1:2
2 Now the earth was formless and empty,darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Questions:
What is the earth if it is formless and empty? Why is there darkness? What is the surface of the deep? What is the Spirit of God? Is it a physical or metaphysical thing? Why is it there? What are the waters and where did they come from?
Thoughts:
Some parts of this resemble the truth of the universe. For example, the first particles of the universe were hydrogen and helium atoms, and these would have been gaseous formless blobs of matter. It would have been dark initially because the stars did not form for a while after the big bang. I'm not sure what is being referred to as "the deep" but perhaps it is the great vast void of space, or perhaps it is a vast empty ocean. My only concern is that the spirit of God is said to be hovering over the waters. If my natural explanation up above is to be taken, then how can these waters possibly exist? We know that water molecules are made from hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and oxygen first formed inside the core of the stars. However, the verse also said that there was darkness over the surface of the deep. This implies that there were no stars to cast light and without stars there is no oxygen, so there cannot be water.
Therefore, this verse cannot be taken literally without contradicting natural laws, before we even attempt to tackle the concept of the "Spirit of God". I have no idea what this means. Is the Spirit of god something separate from God? Or just one facet of God? It seems to me to imply a lack of a physical body, but an intangible presence nonetheless. So far, God has created heaven (as yet undefined) and earth (formless and empty), and there is a spiritual component to God that is also not yet defined.
If the aim of this book is to describe the birth of the universe and the origin of man, then I find this to be a better second verse:
2 For an incomprehensibly small fraction of a second, the universe is an infinitely dense, hot fireball. The prevailing theory describes a peculiar form of energy that can suddenly push out the fabric of space. At 10-35 to 10-33 seconds after the cataclysm, a runaway process called Inflation causes a vast expansion of space filled with this energy. The inflationary period is stopped only when this energy is transformed into matter and energy as we know it.
Therefore, this verse cannot be taken literally without contradicting natural laws, before we even attempt to tackle the concept of the "Spirit of God". I have no idea what this means. Is the Spirit of god something separate from God? Or just one facet of God? It seems to me to imply a lack of a physical body, but an intangible presence nonetheless. So far, God has created heaven (as yet undefined) and earth (formless and empty), and there is a spiritual component to God that is also not yet defined.
If the aim of this book is to describe the birth of the universe and the origin of man, then I find this to be a better second verse:
2 For an incomprehensibly small fraction of a second, the universe is an infinitely dense, hot fireball. The prevailing theory describes a peculiar form of energy that can suddenly push out the fabric of space. At 10-35 to 10-33 seconds after the cataclysm, a runaway process called Inflation causes a vast expansion of space filled with this energy. The inflationary period is stopped only when this energy is transformed into matter and energy as we know it.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Questions: How long ago was the beginning? What happened before the beginning? Who is God? What is heaven? What is the earth? When was this written? Who is the author? Who is the audience? Is this compatible with science and reason?
My current understanding of science provides an answer to some of these questions. The beginning was the Big Bang, a sudden and unfathomably immense expansion of space and a proliferation of energy, which congealed into forces and the simplest, tiniest, atoms. If you're unfamiliar with any of this, dive into some youtube videos :)
I don't know what happened before the beginning, and it seems a difficult question to even begin to tackle.
From the text, we only know that God is or was a creator, and that God existed in the beginning, but maybe not today, and maybe not before. We do not know how God created the heaven, and there is no natural understanding of the concept of heaven. I live on Earth, and I understand the word earth as the dirt, the ground that I stand upon, but is this the way I should understand it as intended by the author?
A google search tells me that this book is the end product of a complex literary process—written, oral, or both—that did not come to a close until the exile (586-539 BC) and may have had several sources and authors, though the traditional view was that Moses had written this book and the next 4 books of the bible, called the Pentateuch.
This passage seems to imply that the earth and the universe (or heaven) were created simultaneously. Our current scientific hypothesis is that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, and the earth is 4.8 billion years old. Perhaps heaven does not mean universe in general, but it is not clear so far from the text what is going on. For the author and audience at the time, this may have been a sufficient explanation, and they certainly did not know what we know today, but for me, the modern scientific explanation of the beginning of the universe is a more beautiful verse:
"The universe begins with a cataclysm that generates space and time, as well as all the matter and energy the universe will ever hold."
-LXE
Questions: How long ago was the beginning? What happened before the beginning? Who is God? What is heaven? What is the earth? When was this written? Who is the author? Who is the audience? Is this compatible with science and reason?
My current understanding of science provides an answer to some of these questions. The beginning was the Big Bang, a sudden and unfathomably immense expansion of space and a proliferation of energy, which congealed into forces and the simplest, tiniest, atoms. If you're unfamiliar with any of this, dive into some youtube videos :)
I don't know what happened before the beginning, and it seems a difficult question to even begin to tackle.
From the text, we only know that God is or was a creator, and that God existed in the beginning, but maybe not today, and maybe not before. We do not know how God created the heaven, and there is no natural understanding of the concept of heaven. I live on Earth, and I understand the word earth as the dirt, the ground that I stand upon, but is this the way I should understand it as intended by the author?
A google search tells me that this book is the end product of a complex literary process—written, oral, or both—that did not come to a close until the exile (586-539 BC) and may have had several sources and authors, though the traditional view was that Moses had written this book and the next 4 books of the bible, called the Pentateuch.
This passage seems to imply that the earth and the universe (or heaven) were created simultaneously. Our current scientific hypothesis is that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, and the earth is 4.8 billion years old. Perhaps heaven does not mean universe in general, but it is not clear so far from the text what is going on. For the author and audience at the time, this may have been a sufficient explanation, and they certainly did not know what we know today, but for me, the modern scientific explanation of the beginning of the universe is a more beautiful verse:
"The universe begins with a cataclysm that generates space and time, as well as all the matter and energy the universe will ever hold."
-LXE
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
An Introduction
I am an atheist. I don't believe in any gods or deities. In fact, I don't believe in any supernatural phenomena, be it leprechauns or alien abductions or Jesus rising from the grave. Although I was born into a Catholic family in Quebec, and I regularly attended church in middle school and high school, I have only had one real moment of religious belief in my life. When I was around 12 or 13, my parents bought me my own Teen Study Bible, which I promptly dove into. It had lots of extra sections with editor commentary and questions for the reader. I was soaking it up like a sponge and quoting passages to my parents. At the time, I did not know enough nor have any real reason the question the veracity of this "holy" book, and I was reading through it at a quick pace until I came to a section discussing Ouija boards. The publishers of this bible were trying to argue that Ouija boards actually could communicate with spirits and that using these, even in jest, was a sin. When I read this, I was astounded at the stupidity. Ouija boards were being sold by Hasbro at my Target retail store, and it was plain to anyone that this was nothing more than a few pieces of cardboard and plastic.
This prompted my first real skepticism and I quickly concluded that everything in the bible that seemed too extraordinary to be true, like people living to age 600+ or two of each animal fitting on one boat, was just completely fabricated. This, combined with a secular education that included mathematics, physics, biology, geology, history, music, literature, and exposure to people of other faiths and ideas rendered the need for any god completely extraneous, and so I discarded it. There was no singular moment at which I knew I was an atheist, but I remember silently arguing with with sermons on Sunday mornings. I never really voiced my disbelief and I was never really anti-religious until my college years, until I was introduced to some really hateful "God Hates Fags" type of people.
They were outside the campus library holding signs condemning us all to hell for "sins" like homosexuality and masturbation and girls wearing pants. I waited for quite a while to speak with this bizarre man, who felt he was on a mission from god to save our souls. He really fascinated me because I had no idea what compelled him to spend his time spewing this hatred of such "sinful" behavior. Patience paid off and I finally sat down to speak with him. A local band was playing a Beatles song across the lawn, much to the chagrin of this god fearing idiot. I asked him why he hated the Beatles, and he responded by telling me that any secular music is an insult to the lord. I asked him for biblical validation and he provided some rather odd verse. I asked him why he was spending his time casting stones and judging others when he had imperfections of his own, and he responded by saying that he lived a completely pure life, devoid of sin. The discussion soon came to the question of whether the bible was literally true, and when I disagreed with him and told him that it includes some good guidelines for behavior, but it's not all completely true, he refused to speak to me any more. This was insanity with religious justification. These people want respect and deserve none for shouting ignorance and evil.
That same year, I read several other "holy" books such as the Bhagvad Gita, the Quran, the Tanakh, etc. and I took a class surveying religions in America. This strengthened my conviction that although all religions laid claim to truth none was capable of following through on this promise. A few years later I discovered some great atheist intellectuals, such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. This changed my mind; I could previously understand the need for religion in our society, but these eloquent men showcased religion as the unnecessary and sometimes plainly evil waste of time that I now see it to be.
In this blog, I will be reading the bible from cover to cover, and using this as a dialectical journal of my thoughts. I don't have any time frame for this project, but I'll try to update this once or twice a week. Feel free to comment with your own thoughts, opinions, or beliefs, and thanks for reading.
-Alexis
This prompted my first real skepticism and I quickly concluded that everything in the bible that seemed too extraordinary to be true, like people living to age 600+ or two of each animal fitting on one boat, was just completely fabricated. This, combined with a secular education that included mathematics, physics, biology, geology, history, music, literature, and exposure to people of other faiths and ideas rendered the need for any god completely extraneous, and so I discarded it. There was no singular moment at which I knew I was an atheist, but I remember silently arguing with with sermons on Sunday mornings. I never really voiced my disbelief and I was never really anti-religious until my college years, until I was introduced to some really hateful "God Hates Fags" type of people.
They were outside the campus library holding signs condemning us all to hell for "sins" like homosexuality and masturbation and girls wearing pants. I waited for quite a while to speak with this bizarre man, who felt he was on a mission from god to save our souls. He really fascinated me because I had no idea what compelled him to spend his time spewing this hatred of such "sinful" behavior. Patience paid off and I finally sat down to speak with him. A local band was playing a Beatles song across the lawn, much to the chagrin of this god fearing idiot. I asked him why he hated the Beatles, and he responded by telling me that any secular music is an insult to the lord. I asked him for biblical validation and he provided some rather odd verse. I asked him why he was spending his time casting stones and judging others when he had imperfections of his own, and he responded by saying that he lived a completely pure life, devoid of sin. The discussion soon came to the question of whether the bible was literally true, and when I disagreed with him and told him that it includes some good guidelines for behavior, but it's not all completely true, he refused to speak to me any more. This was insanity with religious justification. These people want respect and deserve none for shouting ignorance and evil.
That same year, I read several other "holy" books such as the Bhagvad Gita, the Quran, the Tanakh, etc. and I took a class surveying religions in America. This strengthened my conviction that although all religions laid claim to truth none was capable of following through on this promise. A few years later I discovered some great atheist intellectuals, such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. This changed my mind; I could previously understand the need for religion in our society, but these eloquent men showcased religion as the unnecessary and sometimes plainly evil waste of time that I now see it to be.
In this blog, I will be reading the bible from cover to cover, and using this as a dialectical journal of my thoughts. I don't have any time frame for this project, but I'll try to update this once or twice a week. Feel free to comment with your own thoughts, opinions, or beliefs, and thanks for reading.
-Alexis
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