Wednesday, April 22, 2009

God is an artist.

conversation between my grandma and I at 9:23 pm April 22, 2009

Grandma: "Oh yes, today was earth day. Did you know?
Sarah: "yeah, I don't care."

That was the inspiration for this blog. earth day? Really? One day a year people do environmentally friendly things and apparently a bunch of students at DePaul get together and make neon green shirts in the students center and then pass out condoms on campus. ( some skater kids were using them as ninja stars and hit me as I walked by)

Want to celebrate earth day right? Read Genesis. and then tell everyone that God created the earth, not science, not a bang of some epic proportions, and that God thinks it sucks when you crap all over his creation for your benefit. He also probably thinks it sucks when people don't acknowledge that He made the earth, the heavens, you, your mom, and everything else you take for granted.

Praise the Lord.
Everyday.
Sometimes just for making the earth.

Genesis 1
The Beginning

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

God probably also doesn't like when you assume things. Is your next post going to be about how evolution is a myth?

Sarah said...

nope, my next post is going to be about Cook County hospital or architectural developments planned for Chicago!

But I agree, God probably does not like when we assume things. Thats why I read the bible, all the time.

Anonymous said...

Curious to hear your thoughts on evolution, seeing as how god created everything.

Steve said...

I knew I liked you for a reason, Sarah :0)

I do wish Christians would lead the way with the concept of stewardship of the earth...

Anon... for a good wrestling with the tension between evolution and creation, there are some very good books. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind touches on the subject in an intelligent way, from a Christian perspective. Timothy Keller just wrote a book called The Reason for God, which might also do justice to the tension you bring up.

The tension is this - people who have believed Jesus find that He is real and that the Bible packs a real punch. You can believe it.

Yet the evidence for biological evolution is compelling.

What is not done justice among most of the scientific community, including most agnostics, is the enormous problems that evolutionary theory runs into, such as the (ultimately metaphysical) problem of the origin of matter, the problem of a "lumpy" universe, the second law of thermodynamics, the improbability that matter organizes itself into complex organisms, etc.

To be fair, most of the Evangelical community does not wrestle adequately with the problems a young earth and other biblical accounts pose.

The nice thing is, we have a supernatural caveat :0)

If you're really curious about what we think about evolution (and it varies), you're welcome to visit my site.

I do wish you would not post anonymously, though.

Anonymous said...

Hey - if confession is anonymous, than my posts can be, too.

Steve said...

It's only anonymous for Roman Catholics :0)

Simon said...

Steve,

I'd just like to point out that the origin of matter and lumpy universe (non-uniform distribution of matter) are not problems with evolution, but other questions. Both have had solutions proposed which are part of another theory of how the universe was created.

The 2nd law of thermodynamics (increase in entropy in a system) and improbability that matter organises itself into complex organisms are both often quoted due to misunderstandings in the way evolution works. Evolution is not a random process but quite the opposite. In a self replicating, survival-of-the-fittest system, there will always be a natural trend towards improvement. Randomness is not part of the selection process but in the mutation process.

The increase of entropy argument is another mis-application of a law - you can start with a pile of lego bricks and build a house from it and you will have appeared to reduce the entropy in the set. However, the overall entropy in the system as a whole has not decreased - in doing so you will have expended energy released as random heat.

Sarah said...

I love my cousin.
But, I re read that comment like 3 times Simon and I still cant understand it. Can you try that again?

Sarah said...

just the last part, the entropy part.

Simon said...

I love you too :)

Entropy is the tendency towards chaos. In physics, things in an ordered state (such as a star) will eventually end up in an unordered state (as a bunch of heat when the star has burned out). A star can easily be turned into heat, but not so easily the other way around.

So how does a bunch of random atoms get turned into a person or a plant? That's essentially the argument.

The answer is that it *is* possible to turn unordered things into an ordered state without breaking the second law of thermodynamics, but you just have to expend more energy in doing so (i.e. it takes energy to make a human being out of a jumble of atoms).

Another example is ice cubes. In making ice cubes, you are reducing heat and thus decreasing the entropy in a cube of water. You have to keep the freezer plugged in to do so because it uses energy, and that heat goes somewhere (feel the back of the fridge and it is really warm). As a result, you're increasing the entropy (heat) in the room!