Re: A profound disturbance found in Yak butter.

Comments below in red.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: glennmorton@entouch.net
  To: glennmorton@entouch.net ; 'Asa' ; 'Beth Zimmerman' ; 'Wil Whitlark' ; 'Debbie Mann'
  Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 5:32 PM
  Subject: RE: A profound disturbance found in Yak butter.

  For Debbie Mann and Burgy:

  Hi Debbie,

  On Tue May 30 11:48 , "Debbie Mann" sent:
  ...........................

  I believe the sun and moon are intentionally out of sequence, defying even
  the logic of ancient man, in order to emphasize that God is the light of
  men. God is life. God is day.

  And, I believe that if you pray and look at other illogical situations in
  the Bible, that you will find similar literary motives for them being thus.<<<<

    Debbie,

    There are 2 things wrong with this approach. First, it means that God didn't
    foresee that we moderns would question the order of Genesis events. Does
    that mean God couldn't foresee? Secondly, you are assuming you know the
    motivation for pulling the moon and sun out of sequence. You may be right
    or you may be wrong, but you have to realize that just because you assume
    something doesn't make it so. There is no place in the bible where God's
    (or man's) motivation for doing things is discussed.

        Of course simply assuming something is inadequate. In the present case there is more to go on. We can observe:

    1) "Sun" and "Moon" shmsh and yrch, are also names of pagan deities of the ANE. These names are not used in Gen.1. Sun & moon are simply "big light" and "little light."

    2) The stars, the subject of much ANE worship, are mentioned almost as an afterthought - "and stars."

    3) The creation of the celestial bodies is placed neither first nor last but in the middle of the creation week.

    4) Sun and moon are created for specific functions for the inhabitants of the earth.

    These facts are consistent with the idea that the creation of these bodies is described as it is in Gen.1 as theological polemic against pagan worship of "the host of heaven." That impression is strengthened by the fact that the creation of humanity in the image & likeness of God, & the giving to them of dominion over the earth, clashes strongly with the picture in Enuma Elish of human beings created merely to do the scut work for the Babylonian deities.

    This doesn't prove that the creation of sun &c was placed on the 4th day for such a theological purpose but it seems very likely.

        & since the subject of accomodation of scripture has come up here, I'll mention again that that idea can be seen to be based upon basic theological considerations & not merely as a way of explaining away scientific inaccuracies in the Bible. My brief recent article "Couldn't God Get It Right?" at http://www.elca.org/faithandscience/covalence/story/default.asp?Copyright=06-03-15&Author=murphy&Pages=1 discusses this.

     
Received on Tue May 30 18:04:29 2006