In The Beginning…

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God 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, one day.

This verse comes from Genesis 1:1-5. I usually read either the New American Standard Bible or the New Revised Standard Version (the verse quoted is NASB), and I’m planning to blog through the Bible in (what is, to the best of my knowledge) chronological order.

According to the Bible the earth was “formless and void” before God created it, except for the fact that water and darkness seem to have already existed. Did water actually pre-exist the beginning of God’s creation on earth? And if so, where did it exist before God brought it to earth? Was water the first of God’s earthly creations? If so, why? Is water uncreated? How could the earth have been void (empty) as the Bible says, if water was already there?

And what about darkness? We are taught (at least, I was) that darkness is simply the absence of light. But darkness exists here before God says “Let there be light.” Perhaps light is the absence of darkness? Was there ever a time when neither light nor dark existed?

In verse three, God says “Let there be light.” What light is this? God doesn’t create the sun, the moon, or the stars until a few days later. And before the sun, moon, and stars are even created – night and day exist. If we were to lose our sun, moon, and stars right now – would we still have night and day? God also separates the light from the dark, is this to imply that light and dark co-existed? Did light/dark ever blend or merge without either one being overtaken by the other? Was there ever a point in time where light and dark were not polar opposites?

These questions may seem useless and unanswerable, but I think that nature has a lot to say about the characteristics of God and/or the spiritual world. So I like to think about them. What about water makes it so important that it was here even while the earth was still formless and void? What about water is so important that it’s creation is not even mentioned in the Bible, but it’s as if water existed before the “beginning?” If light and dark are spiritual symbols for good and evil, then what does it mean that dark pre-existed light? What does it mean that the two perhaps existed together without being opposite of one another, and then had to be separated?

And what made God decide to create anything in the first place?

Free Trade

Religion and spirituality are such sensitive subjects in our society that it’s very hard for me to be honest with others about my own spirituality. I think the reason that I keep starting and re-starting this blog is that I am trying to say something that won’t come out. I keep getting near saying it, and then I back off. I don’t like the type of controversy in which people argue with one another in an attempt to change the other person’s mind and I have this preconceived notion that if I come out with what I really want to say, all the people in my life are going to start trying to “save” me and convince me of their ideas about truth. At the same time, I value and enjoy others’ opinions – even if I disagree with them. I like being challenged to look at one issue from various perspectives. I like being proven wrong and seeing things more clearly than I did before. I like asking questions, and what good are all the questions if there is no one to whom I can ask them? So I have to be honest, at some point. Honesty is the only way toward growth. The respectful “free trade” of religious ideas and perspectives is the only way to really expand one’s mind and take a closer and more unbiased, clear-minded look at one’s own spirituality.

Religion has always been fascinating for me. I remember being eight or nine and making up religions and writing religious texts, and then writing stories about the people who followed my created religion. I remember my first encounters with Judaism, Mormonism, Catholicism, and my conversion to Islam when I was twelve. I used to like to sit on the floor in my room, stare at the ceiling or the wall, and think. One day as I was thinking, I heard this one thought cut through the rest of my thoughts, “Everything you know, you learned from someone else. But what if they are wrong?” After that, I’ve always had trouble taking another person’s word for it. I’ve always had to investigate things on my own. I might still end up coming to the wrong conclusion, but at least it was my conclusion that I took the time to explore and think critically about. That’s a whole lot better than being wrong simply because I was following someone else and too lazy to look into something on my own.

About a month ago, I started a project in which I am to read through and study the main texts of several different religions and take notes on what I am learning. Included in this project is the Bible, and I figure that the best way for me to be honest and ask questions is to blog my notes on what I read in the Bible. Occasionally I will incorporate some add-ins from the other texts that I’m reading, and I’ll throw in a few personal stories here and there. As I type, I’m thinking about connecting this blog to a Facebook page, and finding spiritually diverse people to add their two cents here and there. If I can keep this blog up (I’m a very busy lady), and if people are willing to cooperate and play nice (I.E – no hostile debating, no offensive/rude comments, just stating your own beliefs without degrading the beliefs of others, etc), then this could be a fun and stimulating learning experience.

Anyway. I guess we’ll see.