God the Creator
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." With those words the entire Biblical epic opens up before us. Unfortunately most of us have become so accustomed to this opening line that we give it little attention, even though it is an extraordinarily remarkable statement.
It is a remarkable statement first because it implies that what exits does not exist as an accident of physics and chemistry. In other words the creation of the universe (including the "Big Bang" for which there is great evidence and for the moment is still the most plausible explanation for the origin and character of the universe) was not simply a random act of a spectacular nature. It was instead, somehow, an intentional act which offered the possibilities and potentials for life. Many of the "new atheists" have argued that if one were to replay the Big Bang any number of times the odds are against life emerging at all. Other evolutionary theists take exception to that view and argue that if one could replicate the Big Bang that things would turn out very much like they are today. The nature of our understanding and experience of God would have us agree with the latter group…God was intentional in the shaping of the origins and structure of the universe.
It is a remarkable statement second because it reminds us that God acts in creative ways. God it would appear is never quite satisfied with the status quo. The intentionality of the act of creation says that there is something about God that is always looking to new possibilities. We might assume that God could have been satisfied to simply be God in the vastness of nothingness (Sorry but I don't have the grammar to describe an "environment" in which there is no time, space or matter), yet for whatever reason, about 13 billion years ago God set out to be creative. God decided to create the universe in which we live. Now we need to be clear that unlike the Genesis account in which everything was neatly created exactly as humanity currently encounters it (in a mere seven days to boot), God's creative energies were not exhausted in one moment. They have been at work ever since the first energy was released by the Big Bang billions of years ago and are continuing even today as the universe continues to change.
It is a remarkable statement third because it implies God's playfulness. I realize that playfulness if not often a notion that comes to mind when we think of God. Our traditions (that of Calvin who argued that God had planned what would happen in every moment in time before time began…and that of Newton for whom every action there had an equal and opposite reaction…meaning little or no randomness) have given little room for God to be playful. Yet how else can we describe a God who was willing to allow species to come and go (experts estimate that 99% of all species that have lived on earth are now extinct yet there may still be 30 million species left on earth), species to transform (there are nearly 300,000 kinds of beetles) and species to become self-aware enough for relationship with God (you and me)? These facts, among many others, seem to imply that God's creativity is open to the playful and the novel.
So what is the bottom line for us? First I hope the bottom line is that this view of God as creator allows us to see God as one who is continuing to create ever new possibilities for the universe and for us even as we read this. Second I hope it gives us permission to be creative and playful in what we do for God since we are those created in God's own image.
Next week: God as interactive
I have never thought about the idea that it was a process--of a species becoming aware of itself and aware of God and thus being able to form relationship with God.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the evolutionary implications are for a species that would come to understand itself as being in relationship with a creator...of course not everyone thinks of their existence in this way...
My husband, who fancies himself a low-brow astronomer, told me that there are astronomers who believe that the universe is 95% dark matter, but that we have no way of observing it presently...remembering God as creator of such a large expanse continues to nearly exhaust my comprehension of my place in the world.