Saturday, January 23, 2010

Disneology 7: Does Creation Theology Matter?

ASSIGNMENT 8: RIDE THROUGH “SPACESHIP EARTH” AT EPCOT AND NOTICE DISNEY’S RAPID PRESENTATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION. BEGINNING WITH CAVE DRAWINGS (WHICH SCHOLARS DATE NO EARLIER THAN SOME 30,000 YEARS AGO) HUMANS HAVE FOUND WAYS TO COMMUNICATE SYMBOLICALLY WITH ONE ANOTHER. EGYPTIANS TURNED THESE SIMPLE ART SYMBOLS INTO A LANGUAGE OF HIEROGLYPHICS. PHOENICIANS DEVELOPED A MORE UNIVERSAL ALPHABET. GREEKS PHILOSOPHIZED, AND ROMANS SPREAD COMMUNICATION THROUGH A NETWORK OF ROADS.

Creation accounts have been a part of the religious traditions of these ancient cultures and virtually all other cultures since the beginning of recorded history. While some modern Judeo-Christian theologians find it convenient to distance themselves from biblical creation accounts, others question why that is the case. Science is certainly not afraid to tackle issues of the origins of the universe, as we have been discussing. Even if the author of Genesis could not have personally known what happened so many years before he was born, there is no reason he should be prohibited from offering an explanation of how the world began. Furthermore, there is room for argumentation that could place the account in Genesis 1 in a context similar to that of current scientific theory.


Virtually every ancient culture offered explanations of our origins. The Egyptians focused on the role of the Nile River in creation. They saw the beginning as a mass of chaotic waters, called Nu or Nun. To this beginning they added Sun, Moon, Earth, and Sky gods. The (immortal, but not eternal) earth god and sky goddess eventually gave birth to Isis and Osiris, names better known to our generation, but Egyptian mythology (with such features as the earth god lying on his side to form mountains) did not survive as a serious explanation of the beginnings of the world. According to an account of Phoenician creation mythology dating at least as far back as the first century A.D., there was first chaos; then from a cosmic egg, creation of the universe began. Mayan creation stories begin with sky and sea, and then the creation god Kukulkan (whose pyramid, incidentally, may be seen at the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot) speaks the word “Earth,” and the Earth rises from the sea. Following this, the thoughts of Kukulkan create mountains, trees, birds, jaguars, and snakes; finally, humans are created (first, out of mud; second, out of wood; third, as monkeys; and finally, as full-fledged humans). Vying with Genesis as the oldest creation account is the Babylonian creation myth. The Babylonian account we have is developed from Sumerian myths, in the 12th century B.C. According to this account, god/s did not exist at the beginning of the universe. Instead, sweet and bitter waters comingled and created many gods. Then, one god born of two others, Marduk, eventually defeated and killed the bitter waters, Tiamat, in a colossal struggle. Earth was created, followed by the moon, then the Sun. Finally, humans descended from the gods. Greek creation mythology began with chaos, a watery state ruled by Oceanus, and as in the Babylonian account, reproductive activity on the part of the gods and goddesses produced the Greek gods. Poiseidon, one of the great Greek gods (known by the Romans as Neptune), is featured in a fountain statue in the Italy exhibit in the “World Showcase” at Epcot.

Of all ancient explanations of the origins of the universe, only the Hebrew account has withstood the test of time. Only the Hebrew account has continued throughout years of Modernism and Postmodernism to survive the vast onslaught of scientific skepticism and Postmodern relativism. Even so, the Hebrew account of world origins remains under severe attack and is strongly derided by many. So, should theologians bother to fight this battle? The answer to that question is “Absolutely!” This issue goes to the very heart of keeping the terms “creator” and “omnipotent” in definitions of God. How could the world and everything in it be the product of one omnipotent agent, if there is no agent capable of creating the world? Without an Agent, would the world have any Purpose? How could any hope of an “afterlife” be placed in God, if He was not even capable of creating the “present” life? If there is no afterlife, not only the descriptive terms “omnipotent” and “creator” but also the terms “eternal” and “immutable” should be removed from our definition of God. If God did not create the universe, how could anyone claim that He is “omnipresent” in it? If He is not omnipresent, how could He possibly know all things (be “omniscient”) about it? In short, what happens to our entire definition of God (from my November 28, 2009 commentary, “Disneology 1”), if we apply Occam’s Razor to creation?

If God is not omnipotent, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, and omniscient, are we to assume that no one is and that the humans we call geniuses are at the top of ladder, when it comes to approximations concerning these characteristics? Not even evolutionists are willing to go there. They believe that, since there is “intelligent” life on Earth, logic demands that there must be “even more intelligent” life elsewhere in the universe. There must be aliens who are more intelligent (-scient), aliens who are more powerful (-potent), aliens who can extend their lives further (approximating eternity), etc. Do we have any clear proof of the existence of such aliens? No, it’s just a theory. Yet, here is this Hebrew account of the existence of a God who created the universe, written more than 3,000 years ago, positing a more intelligent, powerful, eternal being, capable of creating the entire universe. This ancient account still stands in basic agreement with the best scientific evidence we have concerning the chronological order of the origins of the universe. It even supplies the missing link that the Big Bang theory cannot: Where did the energy to produce the Big Bang come from? It supplies a dramatistic (cf. Burke’s Pentad) explanation for our existence, something Occam’s Razor had complicated for science. Since humans seem to be hard-wired with a dramatistic nature, it explains why we have that nature. And, since humans have the capacity to be intelligent, powerful, and creative life-extenders, the very existence of the human species seems to argue for the existence of God, a being with even greater supplies of these same characteristics. There is something built into the human psyche that seems to cry out: “God created the heavens and the Earth.” Perhaps, that is why “creation accounts have been a part of the religious traditions of . . . virtually all cultures since the beginning of recorded history.”


The other ancient religious traditions of creation have fallen by the wayside, because they were filled with silly, base, and clearly erroneous stories. How then could a Hebrew author, living 3000 years ago, provide such an insightful (and difficult to destroy) account of the origins of the universe? On pages 95-96 of my book Psychotic Entelechy: The Dangers of Spiritual Gifts Theology, I offer the following obvious observation:

“Genesis provides a rapid-fire account of more than two thousand years of human history prior to Israel’s four hundred year sojourn in Egypt. Prior to the account of human history, Genesis offers a one-chapter account of the creation of heaven, earth, and the plant and animal kingdoms. Presumably, if Moses authored the creation and human history accounts, he would need some inspiration from God to certify that his account was accurate.”

1 comment: