Does God Speak?

    Does God speak and what does He have to say? In the Book of Genesis God spoke several times. Really? Who was there to hear Him? When we realize how the bible was put together, we have to conclude that although there is an assurance of revelation or guidance understood by Christians and Jews, the books of the bible are also human-theological reflections of that  belief in a variety of literary genres. What this means  is that while essential truths as the believers understood them are presented, they are also transmitted through people who have specific agendas and ways of viewing just about everything. (The church teaches that the words and biblical process are inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit  and are  authentic truth.)

     While the Bible contains many truths and historical records that can and have been verified, when it comes to speaking about God it is often more a poetic description than a photograph. The poet speaks from deeply within his or her own being trying to express an experience or a reality, while the photographer is willing to present his or her experience of reality with the aid of a good camera. Both have specific value.

      Our western minds today play down the value of what we might call mythic experiences as if they were in fact fantasy or made up images, and yet judging from recent movies and video games, the world today embraces fantasy readily. In biblical writings, that which many would like to relegate to the area of myth as they define it, is really a poetic-truth used by someone who is trying to convey reality as he or she experienced it, a believer who wants us to share the impact of his or her experience.

     We must keep in mind that ancient people did not write with the same logic that we use nor with the same grammar nor with the ability to record history and other data as accurately as we can today. To assume and demand otherwise would be false intellectual superiority.   Genesis tells us that the first words of God were: “Let there be light.” This is one of the most interesting of all the “words” of God. Think about it for a moment. What we usually imagine as a contrast to light is darkness or something really black. The truth is we cannot understand absolute black let alone a time when “black” did or did not exist. It is like comprehending the incomprehensible. Today scientists explain reality as we observe it and they search for a recipe that will eventually explain “everything.” In their pursuits they quickly become enthused by things like “dark matter” and this leads them further down the mathematical scale as they struggle to apply formulas to explain what the consequences of this might mean or they apply mathematical equations to elaborate more discoveries such as those that speak of “strings” or holograms in the universe. These “applications” may or may not work and may or may not give a substantial understanding. They are and will remain largely in the theoretical realm remaining  products of the human mind. The question that I like to ask is: what makes mathematical formulas work in the first place?

     How can humans be sure that what they observe and predict is correct or reasonably logical? Can they verify the fact that they might be assuming how something is and then present a formula to show that it is in fact just as they have observed? Scientific tools and other means of observation change. There was a time when science taught that molecules were it, and then came the discovery of atoms, electrons, positrons, and the like. Science is systematized knowledge. It is based on observation and experimentation and like the Bible full of surprises. In all fairness I believe that most scientists  actually cherish surprises.

      When the God of the Bible speaks there is a big difference. In the case of light it is not darkness or a contrast with total blackness that the biblical words compare light with, but a specific darkness called the empty and the void, in Hebrew the “tohu va bohu.” The word “tohu” seems to indicate some kind of basic formlessness while “bohu” seems to express a potential state for fire, earth, wind and water to exist in. In this case, the Bible is clearly stating that God is well beyond measurement and science and when God acts, what is visibly seen or observed is just the result of God's action and not God himself. Science, on the other hand, has testified to what it calls the big bang theory of “creation.” (Many of them forget that this theory was in fact developed by a Catholic priest, a religionist.) Scientists are not sure what caused the big bang, and those who try to say that it was pre-existant gravity or some other force that co-existed that caused it have no explanation as to how and why those specific entities already existed, and what caused them to in essence to create. In the Bible, “Let there be light,” begins it all, the biblical Big Bang.

      Scientists can study the meaning and power of light until the end of time and will probably never understand it completely. The point of Genesis is not that it is out of “nothing” that the universe came to be. We need to ask whether the people of that time comprehended what “nothingness” really meant. On the other hand a few may not have been as intellectually inferior as we might think. The opening lines of Genesis about the world being a formless wasteland with darkness covering it and a great abyss are not meant to be scientific nor an explanation that something already existed that God simply reshaped it in some way. That is the kind of understanding put forth by the Babylonian myth, the Enuma Elish, (Gilgamesh myth) when after a fierce battle Marduk took the bodies of the slain god warriors and created or reshaped them into the universe. What happens in Genesis goes well beyond that kind of reasoning. In many ways the Babylonian myth might be more interesting since a battle between waring gods would really result in a “big bang” ending.

      The Genesis story says that when God speaks things happen, period! There is no explanation nor apologies offered for this. While the texts are not scientific they are not anti-science either. It is notable that many scientists claim that all the elements in the universe that make life possible (including human life) are the result of exploding stars like the super novae pouring out these elements throughout time and throughout the known universe. If that is so then they and the biblical writers might be on the same page. Energized light in science and in biblical record begins it all. “Let there be light” is not just illumination but in fact creative power. (Please keep in mind that the Bible is not a scientific text book yet it does not avoid presenting reality in specific ways.)

      But let us start with the premise of God. How do we know that God exists? The answer to that is simple. We observe. The bible tells us that the fool says in his heart that there is no God. But we need to be more direct. Visible realities exist all around us and we know from science that all these things and the entire universe had a beginning, approximately fourteen billion years ago. Science posits that everything has some kind of transformation and probably an end. Our sun came into existence a long time ago and in this year of 2011 probably has about four trillion years before it disappears forever.

      From observation we too observe that things have both a beginning and an end, and that process somewhat defines what we call time. The “end” can be some kind of finality or a change in direction or some kind of transformation of matter. While time by its nature is fluid or a combination of space and time (space-time continuum) it is not accidental. It is used as a measurement of motion, non-motion, and transformations. Gravity and the entire universe which we thought were once definitive, will end. If things have a beginning and an end or a possible transformation into something different or even into a completely different universe or dimension, then we must determine how this happens --- by what or whom? Some physicists speculate that this is impossible to determine since what we call reality is not reality at all. For them all life, matter, energy and the like are simply illusions. Then why bother to study, observe, and try to manipulate them?

      The point that I am making is that the old idea about a prime mover or agent who kick-starts everything makes a lot of sense. In the universe there are all kinds of anomalies but the universe itself has a definite order even as it continues to expand., despite the presence of what is called dark energy, which scientists claim is bent on destroying all that exists. (The question I raise is: What will destroy the dark energy?)        

      There is also strong indication of evolutionary processes within components of the universe and there are things that happen with predictable regularity, things measurable like gravity, mass, energy, and tiny particles of atoms, yet many of these have not been completely understood. A few physicists posit that perhaps there is a multiplicity of universes with similarities and differences to that which we know and observe. They also point out that there may be as many as eleven dimensions and many universes, and that big bangs happen all the time if these universes collide with each other. Whenever cosmologists speak of gravity and time, it still leaves open the question as to what propels gravity and why time is a movement or a measure of movement and why these things exist in the first place. For most people time measures events that occur in what seems to be irreversible succession --- from the past through the present to the future. We need to ask these questions: is the past ever present? Is the present ever future? Is the future ever beyond what I now observe? While time signifies or indicates motion it never answers the root cause of that motion. Universes need animation, force, power, energy or whatever to get things going. The explosiveness of light energy seems to fit the bill. “Let there be light” seems rather realistic. Why are these the “first” recorded words of God? Wouldn't it be better if his first words were something like “Here I am,” “I, the Lord,” or “Look at me” or even “ta- dah;” but they are not. So in this instance perhaps the Bible is scientific without meaning to be.