Old Testament Scholar: God Did Not Create Heaven and Earth

[BeamStalk]

Sure, why not?

So the text should read:

Genesis 1:1

1 In the beginning, God spatially separated the heavens and the earth.

And while we're at it, Genesis 1:26

27 So God spatially separated man in his own image,

in the image of God he spatially separated him;

male and female he spatially separated them.

Or, Genesis 2:3-4

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in spatially separating. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were spatially separated, in the day that the Lord God made {?} the earth and the heavens.

We can apply this to the prayers as well, like Psalm 51:10

Spatially separate in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Makes perfect sense!

For a response to this, see A Response to Ellen Van Wolde on Genesis 1.

Hey _Chris try reading the article before saying something. I believe the saying is 'it is better to stay silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and confirm it.'

From the article:

She said: "It meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself."

She writes in her thesis that the new translation fits in with ancient texts.

According to them there used to be an enormous body of water in which monsters were living, covered in darkness, she said.

She said technically "bara" does mean "create" but added: "Something was wrong with the verb.

"God was the subject (God created), followed by two or more objects. Why did God not create just one thing or animal, but always more?"

She concluded that God did not create, he separated: the Earth from the Heaven, the land from the sea, the sea monsters from the birds and the swarming at the ground.

[_Chris]

Hey BeamStalk -

While I appreciate the quote, I'm not sure what the snippet of the article changes... I read it last week and had the same thoughts then that I've put forth here.

I just read Chris Heard's post Separating sense from nonsense, that was linked to from John Hobbin's post that I linked above. He is better equipped to handle the arguments than I.

[Whateverman]

Stew's topic Board index » SMRT Discussions » The SMRT Religion Project » God didn't create stuff out of nothing has been merged with iNinja's topic here.

[StewartP]

The evergreen Daily Mash has an excellent take on the story

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/scie ... 910132134/

A NEW interpretation of the Bible suggests that God did not create the Earth, but stumbled upon it while looking for a magazine.
Dr Nathan Muir, a leading Hebrewologist, said the misunderstanding arose from the traditional translation of the word 'bara' which, he claims, does not mean 'to create' but to 'move the chest of drawers out a bit because it could easily have fallen down the back'.
He said: "Genesis clearly tells the story of God searching for an old copy of Omnipotent Digest that contained a picture of an otter giving a 'thumbs up' gesture.
"He had told one of His friends that it was very amusing and had promised to see if He couldn't dig it out.
"The passage goes on to describe how, while searching for the magazine, God found His spare set of van keys that He thought He'd lost ages ago, and then a blue-green ball thing that He considered taking outside for a kickabout before realising it was covered in tiny creatures."
Dr Muir admitted that it was still unclear how the Earth ended up in God's vast living room.
"It seems God lived in an infinitely massive shared house with three other supreme beings, and one of them may have left it lying around. The text reads, 'And God said lo, is this anyone's, because if it's not then I might have it, if that's alright."
But creationists have dismissed Dr Muir's interpretation, insisting any theory other than God constructing absolutely everything in six days, five and a half thousand years ago was 'dangerously unhinged'.
Rev Martin Bishop, of the First Church of the Immaculate Contraption, said: "The passage actually reads, 'And God did ask the beasts of the field, 'has anyone seen the magazine with the picture of that universe I created?'"