Memoirs of divinity: Chapter one
Date Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 07:15 PM PST
Topic Religion


Forward:

This heralds my return, to a certain extent. This is the book I am writing. It is very nearly finished, meaning I have as many chunks of it as shade has posted toy dolls. I warn you that if you are overly religious and/or christian, this will possibly offend you.

Memoirs of Divinity
Chapter One


“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”

They make it sound so simple. Like we just said, “I want a planet right there!” Isn't that always the way it is? Man always seems to gloss over the important bits – and just because he doesn't completely understand what it is he's looking at.

Let me set it straight. In the beginning, there was NOTHING. Nothing but us, the divine. We have always been. With an eternity stretching behind us, an eternity of nothing but us stretching out into the distance, we decided to do something with ourselves: we chose to create. In a single moment of consensual thought, it was done.

The universe existed in that one moment. Expanding away from us in a way that I don't think anyone really anticipated. But such is the nature of divinity – or perhaps, such is the nature of the universe, stemming (as it does) from us. But that is a topic for another time. This is my story, not a philosophical debate. The beginning was explosive and terrible. It was also just right. It was the heavens and the heavens, and we split them in twain with a holy light – the light of creation.

On the first day. So many people argue that it was literally a day, but how can that be? We didn't even have stars made yet, and we're supposed to be clocking in and out? And can someone tell me something? What, exactly, is a day, anyway? According to all definitions, ancient and modern, a day is the time it takes for the planet to experience one interval of light and one interval of darkness, as told by the motion of the sun. The sun, as you well know, is a star. We didn't have them installed yet, so we could not possibly have had days.

Now, don't get me wrong. I do not fault the writers for their use of the word. Honestly, it was the best choice of words to express their understanding of events on a cosmic scale. I do, however, fault teachers and believers of our modern day for such a literal interpretation. I mean, how can you place such a blindingly literal faith in a book that was written in two totally different languages? Not to mention being translated into another and another, and finally into many different versions in the SAME language? I mean, were you to converse with a native speaker of your own language from 200+ years in the past, you wouldn't understand them. How can you expect the book to remain the same?

Each of these days was its own eon. An indefinitely long time. As defined in astronomy, an eon is one billion years. This billion years, I assure you, is closer to the truth than a day. So, here we are. We've made the universe - big, vast area of faintly glowing, thinly and evenly spread gas. As with any child who makes a piece of art, we wanted to look at it. Make no mistake, we approached creation with a childlike wonder and glee. If you don't believe this, I have a couple animals I would like you to take a good, long, look at: the duck billed platypus, the penguin and (my personal favorite) the emu. What kind of stodgy divinity would let those slide?

I have heard people argue that we have everything planned out, on a specific map from beginning to end. I tell you, that is so far from the truth as to be ridiculous. Ever had a supervisor that liked to micromanage every aspect of his part of the business? Well imagine that on a cosmic scale, dealing with individual atoms. I don't know about you, but I don't have the patience for that kind of thing. I mean, I can barely balance a check book.

As we moved about, our presence caused ripples in the cosmic stuff-of-being. Those ripples caused fascinating reactions within the matter, and we observed. Eventually we saw the heating caused by the impact and friction and played with it. Gathering the misty cosmos in our hands, we made the gas coalesce. We spent some time tossing these balls of gas about, almost like a cosmic game of cricket. Two of them eventually collided and the first star was born. A flash of light in the uniform, soupy warmth of the primordial galaxy. And it was good.

We created the heaven and the earth. I guess this is accurate. It leaves a lot out, but it is inherently true. We played with stars of all sizes, densities, heat, color, placement. It was during this time we discovered the duality of our own nature. For us to exist, our antithesis must also exist. For the divine, light, and creation to exist, so must the profane and the darkness. So, too, must death. As we learned about the creation of light and life, they were there, watching. As we understood the nature of creation, they understood the nature of destruction and corruption.

We were surprised when the first star winked out. We were shocked when the next exploded. And we were horrified when the first one collapsed out of existence, punching a hole in the universe. We create, and They destroy. On a philosophical level, this is interesting, because our creation gives them something to destroy, and their destruction gives us more to create.

The solar furnace creates heavier and heavier elements until they get too heavy to be used in fusion. The profane destroyed the stars, spreading the heavier elements to the corners of creation. As we had with the gasses that make the stars, we gathered these heavier elements together to form planets. We sensed, in the darkness, the profane railing at the reversal of their intent.

Not only is their existence a necessary extension of our presence, but it is a welcome portion of it. We exist to create. If there was no destructive force, our own creative impulse would be our own undoing. Simply put, where would we put all our stuff? We and they dance a ballet through the cosmos. Creation begets destruction which returns to creation. Is it too cliched to say “Ashes to ashes,” here? Further, does it matter if someone that was present at the formation of the universe is cliched? Anyway, it is a sad state of affairs that they cannot appreciate the beautiful balance between us.

So we made the planets. The chemistry here allowed for the formation of different compounds, carbon dioxide, dihydrogen monoxide – things like that. Once the planet was formed, we “separated the darkness from the light” by giving it spin. That was the end of the “first day.” We saw it and were pleased.

The spin and the gravity of the moon caused the planet to heat up, deep inside. They saw this as an opportunity for destruction once again. The other steps of the “first day” were all simply a function of gravity, of the way the planet actually worked. Separation of the water above and below was simply the atmosphere and water. Again, I cannot fault the ancient peoples. When one looks out to sea at the horizon, it does look like the water and sky meet. Anyway, this was the end of the “second day.” We looked upon the land, the sky and the sea, bathed in the light from the sun, and the light from the stars and the moon. We were pleased.

As we watched and worked, they made the molten rock well up from inside the planet. We used the new rock to make the land. The land rose from the water. During the “third day,” the machinations of the profane were manifold, and simply added to the beauty of the chemistry and landscape. Anyone who says differently has never seen Hawaii. The volcanoes poured carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and hydrofluoric acid as they attempted to poison the newly formed planet. The dance continued, and those compounds broke down rock, and combined and recombined to form the basics of life. We found a particularly squirrelly and wonderful compound that scientists are unraveling today. Part of me hopes that mankind comes to truly understand the DNA strand. It would be so exciting to see you all taking an active part in the dance of creation and life. Yet, perhaps, those of you who make laws against it for fear of what may come about, may be right. I mean, they're the ones responsible for the state of affairs as they stand now. I guess they would know best what you are all capable of.

Now, the writers of the book say that the third day, we just said “let there be plants and fruits and veggies.” It wasn't that easy. Do some research and you will find that for a plant to survive in soil there has to be an entire ecosystem in place. A system of microbes, single cell organisms and such. And besides, we had just discovered this wonderful chemical - deoxyribonucleic acid. As with the stars, we went crazy, creating as many different forms as we could with this little chain of amino acids. First there were a trillion combinations of one celled creatures. Then we started to combine these simpler organisms, forming clusters that helped each other. It went from there really. We tried them everywhere and they flourished. They flourished in water, air and in the soil.

Somewhere along the line, we discovered the chemical reaction of photosynthesis. This was really fascinating. We had made the stars, pouring out immense amounts of energy. Now, we had a way to use that energy! We made plants. All kinds of them. Trees, bushes, lichens, flowers. Alright, I know lichens aren't plants. I know they are symbiotic associations of fungus with a photosynthetic partner that can produce food for the lichen from sunlight, but that's not the point. We put these new life forms everywhere we could find that they would flourish. The planet was carpeted in greenery and beauty. We saw the plants and planet we had made, and it was good.

The fourth and fifth days are, honestly, a continuation of the third. We continued playing with more and more complex forms. We started in the water. Honestly, since such a plethora of single celled organisms flourished in the water, it made the task so much simpler. We used these small life forms to make bigger and bigger life forms. Fish. Hundreds of millions of forms of fish. I personally love fish. So many forms and colors. From there, it was a simple task to take the same principles and make the fish walk on dry land. The birds and the beasts were created using the templates we had worked so hard to design in the water. We saw all that had been created and it was good.


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