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:
JPS Tanakh
RSV Bible
The Book of Enoch
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