Doubt, Creation, Evolution, and Mystery

I suppose that judging from the title of this post it seems that I will be possibly discussing each of the items in the series…lol…just in time for the summer solstice in our northern hemisphere. What is a bit funny when it comes to these subjects is that we humans argue a lot about all these topics when there is really a lot of room for doubt and mystery when it comes to conclusions on all of them. Perhaps my intention in this post will be similar to what theologian Paul Tillich may have thought when he said: “Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.” But, relax because doubt isn’t so bad. In fact, Paul Tillich also said: “doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one elements of faith.”Although, at times it seems this blog creates doubt quite often, although I think I always try to bring myself back to sanity…lol. In the case of this post, I may just deliver so much doubt to some that they will probably require a whole lot of faith to get back to their point of origin, if they ever do get back. Anyhow, I really hope I leave you with many questions, so that you will start questioning all, and never settle for the simple answers because that is how I am as well. So, here we go!

The other day I commented on a friend’s post on Facebook, and I said: one of the things I find fascinating are bees and how there are many fruits and vegetables we would not be able to serve on our tables if bees did not exist…. Honestly, I think that both Creationists and Evolutionists are possibly way off when it comes to human history…. Of course, with relevance to the Bible, the “sola scriptura” defenders will probably tell you that the Bible is a blueprint from God.  Although, I do believe and read Scriptures it doesn't mean we have enough information in them to explain God fully or understand because the Scriptures are indeed a mystery, and trying to explain some things said in them makes them even more mysterious, perhaps. For example, if we read the first four verses in Genesis Chapter 6 before the story of Noah, it says:

“[1] When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

[2] the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose.

[3] Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."

[4] The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown (RSV Bible).”

This aforementioned passage raises many questions that we have little answers for.  For example, who were the Nephilim? Were they actually a crossbreeding of the sons of God and the daughters of man? Who were the sons of God? The Book of Numbers 13:33 mentions the Nephilim again saying: “And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight (JPS Tanakh).” If the Nephilim were a superior race then why do they appear before and after the flood since supposedly only Noah and his family survived? You see now, how just 4 verses quickly get us doubting if we really understand Scriptures at all. And, we are only in the Book of Genesis thus far. Oh, by the way, the Book of Job 1:6 and 2:1 speaks of the Sons of God as angels, and the Septuagint's Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in Genesis 6:2 says  the angels of God. So if in fact, angels and daughters of men pro-created that is mind-blowing because angels whether fallen or not have and had access to knowledge we do not even have now days as humans. By the way, we do not know the author or the time when the Book of Job that I just referenced briefly was written, it may actually be one of the oldest books ever.

Now, if we go outside the modern canon, for most us, there is the Book of Enoch which tells us about other mysterious creatures like, The Watchers. In Chapter 1: 5 of the Book of Enoch it reads:  “And all shall be smitten with fear and the Watchers shall quake, and great fear and trembling shall seize them unto the ends of the earth (Book of Enoch).” You may tell me: yeah, but that book is not in our canon! And, I will answer that you are right, but it is in the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and Jude quotes from this book in our canon. You might say: woe, what do you mean? And, I will say, yes, Jude [14] reads: “It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads (www.ancienttexts.org)…’” The foregoing verse is the same as Chapter 1: 9 in the Book of Enoch. So, why do we NOT have this book in our canon, when Jude quotes from a manuscript of it in ours? Maybe this starts bringing some doubt as well, but we have no time for this now because we need to move on to other topics like Creationism.

Genesis 1: reads: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (JPS Tanakh). By faith, I accept that this is true. The text goes on to elaborate some other details of this creation account found in the Book of Genesis, also. Furthermore, the story explains how God created humans. The first humans were Adam and Eve and they lived in a place called the Garden of Eden or Eden. The passages do not specify how much time elapsed or how long or how many years or perhaps eons they lived in Eden. The Bible also does say how many children they had before the Fall (when they sinned and were cast out of Eden), not enough details are provided. Moreover, the Book of Genesis is not specific as to how much time elapsed before the Flood in which Noah was saved along with his family in the Ark. In reality, we do not know how much time elapsed in that introduction to the story of Noah in Genesis 6: 1-4, the verses I mentioned and quoted previously. It may have been thousands upon thousands of years that were summarized into four verses. In fact, we don’t know if several civilizations could have existed on Earth before Noah. However, Young Earth creationists believe that the Universe, the Earth and all life were created by God no more than 10, 000 years ago. These creationists believe that the Earth is about 6,000 years old. They also argue against the idea that life evolved into what it is today, but that is another issue altogether since Evolution is still a theory mostly. Although, Creationism cannot be proved either, but we do have very old manuscripts making its claims. If you want to read more about this, you can probably read "Evolution vs. Creationism: an Introduction" by Eugenie Scott. Young Earth Creationists are not the only type of Creationists out there because I consider myself a creationist, but I don’t necessarily think that Evolutionists are completely wrong either since I am also not a Fundamentalist. Trust me; there are many people who think as I do. So, could evolutionists also be wrong when it comes to human history?

I can’t write and give every detail about the topics I am covering in this post because many books have been written about them, and this post would be almost endless, and I normally prefer to be brief. I do suggest that you read up on these topics, and come up with your own opinions when you are more familiar with them, if you are not. As far as evolution is concerned, evolutionists claim that our ancestors were already on Earth around six million years ago, but as the humans we are now or evolved into, we have only been here for about 200,000 years. This time period may actually be realistic if we go by claims others have made which I will perhaps mention later on. Evolutionists believe that our modern Civilization is only 6,000 years old, which to me sounds a lot like the same time-line Young Earth creationists use. Now, the issue with Evolutionism and human history is that Evolution believes that about 90 % of human history, humans were Hunters and Gatherers because that was the best adaptation for this time period. In other words, hunting and gathering ended about 12,000 years ago. At this point in the post, I start to introduce some elements that appear to be a mystery, but offer some tangible credibility. 

The time-lines offered by both Young Earth Creationist and Evolutionists do not seem to line up with Archeology. Why do I say this? Well, either we stopped being Hunter Gatherers more than 12,000 years ago or perhaps there have been many other advanced civilizations on planet Earth in the past 100,000 years or so, or who knows?

For starters let us observe Göbekli Tepe. Here is something someone on the web wrote about it.

“Göbekli Tepe is regarded as an archaeological discovery of the greatest importance since it could profoundly change the understanding of a crucial stage in the development of human society. Ian Hodder of Stanford University said, "Göbekli Tepe changes everything".[3][40] It shows that the erection of monumental complexes was within the capacities of hunter-gatherers and not only of sedentary farming communities as had been previously assumed. As excavator Klaus Schmidt put it, "First came the temple, then the city (essayweb.net)."

My thoughts on Göbekli Tepe are that it is old, and some of the structures around it are even older, but I only recommend that you do your own research. The Sphinx in Egypt has been aged similarly to Göbekli Tepe by carbon dating.  Now, you can believe what we have been told, and assume that the carbon dating was wrong, but the Shinx has plenty of water erosion which could have only been possible in that region about 10, 000 years before the time of its supposed age. How the pyramids were built and cut would even be difficult to do with today’s technology, so there are many of us out here that really believe there may have possibly been other civilizations on our planet that were more advanced than we are now in the past. Here is an interesting headline from India last year: 10,000-year-old rock paintings depicting aliens and UFOs found in Chhattisgarh. The foregoing was an article by Rashmi Drolia, TNN | Jul 15, 2014. The article simply closes by saying:

"The findings suggest that humans in prehistoric times may have seen or imagined beings from other planets which still create curiosity among people and researchers. Extensive research is needed for further findings. Chhattisgarh presently doesn't have any such expert who could give clarity on the subject," Bhagat told TOI (.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)

My question is where these depictions of the Nephilim or the Son’s of God mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4? Who knows!? Obviously, there are many mysteries in our world, but I just wanted to use some minor examples. How do we put all this together, and explain it to try and make it all rational in our mind? Now, if we get into some ideas that the Remote Viewers have brought us like the Farsight Institute. The aforementioned tell us some things that seem very farfetched, but perhaps should be given some ear. For instance, we first heard about Atlantis from Plato. The Remote Viewers tell us that the civilization that built Atlantis existed on Earth about 70, 000 years ago, and were about 100 years more advanced than we are now. We cannot prove any of this, it is a mystery, but when put together, they make us wonder. Well, perhaps this is enough rant for one day, but I hope I got your attention with some of it, and I hope I left you with many unanswered questions, as well.

In conclusion, these topics I have briefly discussed have those who defend them adamantly. And, apologetics is really the same thing, defending the Faith. I am a Christian. The reason why I am a Christian is for very simple reasons, in my opinion. For one thing, we have thousands of manuscripts that say the same things. What Saint Paul wrote in The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15:1-12, which I have posted on here before, sounds very convincing to me, especially when he says that the resurrected Christ appeared to more than 500 witnesses, many of which were still alive in his time carries a lot of weight for me. To end, the Scriptures can bring doubt sometimes, but doubt is part of faith. Perhaps the early church should have listened to Marcion of Sinope instead of thinking he was a heretic because then our canon would have been much smaller with very few books. If anything, for the “sola scriptura” defenders there would have been a lot less text to be fundamentalist about, but that sounds like material for another post or maybe someone else’s. I hope I kept your attention span up to now, instead of the opposite. Blessings, have a wonderful summer, and pray for humanity, we all need that!

References or Sources:

http://essayweb.net/history/ancient/gobekli.shtml

JPS Tanakh

RSV Bible

The Book of Enoch

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/10000-year-old-rock-paintings-depicting-aliens-and-UFOs-found-in-Chhattisgarh/articleshow/38435091.cm

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/ethiopian/enoch/1watchers/watchers.htm

http://www.farsight.org/FarsightPress/Iapetus_main_page.html