Monday, December 31, 2007
What I Believe - Part I
I'm reminded of a quote I heard years ago...
"You're unique. Just like everyone else."
In 2008, I'm going to be blogging about what I believe. What makes me tick. How I am defined. How I am different from you. Not just more Bible thumping but entries about me personally. I'll make every attempt to make my ramblings entertaining and informative, but what I'll really be doing is mapping out my inner workings so I can understand myself better. It is of no consequence to me that I choose to do this soul searching in a public forum. I choose to do it this way in order to stand transparent to those who know me.
What I Believe - Part I
What better place to start than the beginning. "In the beginning", to be exact. I'm going to read and outline Genesis this week in order to have a better understanding of it. From what I know already, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. Now, stop right there.
Interestingly, the first thing it says is what God did. It doesn't establish who God is or justify His existence. The fact of God is self evident in His creation just as the fact of a programmer is evidenced in his computer programs. Would you believe that there are computer applications that had no programmer? This is the stopping point for many people because they believe this is true. But think of it this way then. You're reading a blog online right now and either accepting or rejecting what I just typed. Now, if you're rejecting it, what you just read and what just entered into the reasoning area of your brain is nothing more than a fancy thing that hydrogen does, given enough time. To me, it's preposterous that all the time in the universe is enough for me to be converted from hydrogen into a cognitive sentient being typing this blog entry. Imagine putting a monkey in a room with a typewriter. How long would it take him to create this universe? Longer than the lifespan of a monkey - even if that monkey lived to be 6 billion years old. There are just too many things that need to happen in perfect order for us to be here having this discussion.
So, if you're still with me, the next problem is 6 days and a rest. How can it be that God created all of this in just 6 days. Must the days be actual, or could they be figurative? As for me, I'm holding to what the Bible says. I used the analogy of a programmer and a program earlier on purpose. By profession, I am a programmer. Specifically, I work with databases. I have created databases with employee information including the dates that they started work even though I didn't start writing the program until after these dates. If I (with the limited knowledge and skills that I have) can create something with a preexisting history, how much more can God do? Certainly, that's not the only way God could have done it though. That's just a sample, an example, a suggestion of how 6 days and a rest could have happened. I have nothing to back it up, so I'll just stick to the text. A point I will continue to drive home though is that if you start with something like 6 days and a rest and conclude that they were figurative or anything that isn't found in scripture, you will too quickly be lost. There's no difference between following the basic instructions before leaving earth and following turn by turn directions to any location. The Bible says 6 days and a rest, and I believe it, which brings me to my last point.
It's the "what if" factor. What if the Bible starts with the creation story because the rest of it relies on you having the tiniest particle of faith? A loving father will catch you if you take the leap of faith. This has been proven countless times in swimming pools around the world with nervous children standing at the edge and loving fathers with their arms outstretched. Indeed, if you can't get past the first chapter of Genesis, you're not going to be able to make it through the rest.
For some, it's time to jump off.
"You're unique. Just like everyone else."
In 2008, I'm going to be blogging about what I believe. What makes me tick. How I am defined. How I am different from you. Not just more Bible thumping but entries about me personally. I'll make every attempt to make my ramblings entertaining and informative, but what I'll really be doing is mapping out my inner workings so I can understand myself better. It is of no consequence to me that I choose to do this soul searching in a public forum. I choose to do it this way in order to stand transparent to those who know me.
What I Believe - Part I
What better place to start than the beginning. "In the beginning", to be exact. I'm going to read and outline Genesis this week in order to have a better understanding of it. From what I know already, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. Now, stop right there.
Interestingly, the first thing it says is what God did. It doesn't establish who God is or justify His existence. The fact of God is self evident in His creation just as the fact of a programmer is evidenced in his computer programs. Would you believe that there are computer applications that had no programmer? This is the stopping point for many people because they believe this is true. But think of it this way then. You're reading a blog online right now and either accepting or rejecting what I just typed. Now, if you're rejecting it, what you just read and what just entered into the reasoning area of your brain is nothing more than a fancy thing that hydrogen does, given enough time. To me, it's preposterous that all the time in the universe is enough for me to be converted from hydrogen into a cognitive sentient being typing this blog entry. Imagine putting a monkey in a room with a typewriter. How long would it take him to create this universe? Longer than the lifespan of a monkey - even if that monkey lived to be 6 billion years old. There are just too many things that need to happen in perfect order for us to be here having this discussion.
So, if you're still with me, the next problem is 6 days and a rest. How can it be that God created all of this in just 6 days. Must the days be actual, or could they be figurative? As for me, I'm holding to what the Bible says. I used the analogy of a programmer and a program earlier on purpose. By profession, I am a programmer. Specifically, I work with databases. I have created databases with employee information including the dates that they started work even though I didn't start writing the program until after these dates. If I (with the limited knowledge and skills that I have) can create something with a preexisting history, how much more can God do? Certainly, that's not the only way God could have done it though. That's just a sample, an example, a suggestion of how 6 days and a rest could have happened. I have nothing to back it up, so I'll just stick to the text. A point I will continue to drive home though is that if you start with something like 6 days and a rest and conclude that they were figurative or anything that isn't found in scripture, you will too quickly be lost. There's no difference between following the basic instructions before leaving earth and following turn by turn directions to any location. The Bible says 6 days and a rest, and I believe it, which brings me to my last point.
It's the "what if" factor. What if the Bible starts with the creation story because the rest of it relies on you having the tiniest particle of faith? A loving father will catch you if you take the leap of faith. This has been proven countless times in swimming pools around the world with nervous children standing at the edge and loving fathers with their arms outstretched. Indeed, if you can't get past the first chapter of Genesis, you're not going to be able to make it through the rest.
For some, it's time to jump off.
