XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, alt.atheism, alt.talk.creationism   
   XPost: rec.ponds   
   From: RemoveThisPrefixmatts2nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 22:56:40 -0400, in alt.atheism , Burden   
    in   wrote:   
      
   >“WHO can say whence it all came, and how creation happened?” You find   
   >that question in the poem “The Song of Creation.” Composed in Sanskrit   
   >over 3,000 years ago, it is part of the Rig-Veda, a Hindu holy book. The   
   >poet doubted that even the many Hindu gods could know “how creation   
   >happened” because “the gods themselves are later than creation.”—Italics   
   >ours.   
   >   
   >Writings from Babylon and Egypt offer similar myths about the birth of   
   >their gods in a universe that already existed. A key point, however, is   
   >that those myths could not say where the original universe came from.   
   >You will find, though, that one creation record is different. This   
   >particular record, the Bible, opens with the words: “In the beginning   
   >God created the heavens and the earth.”—Genesis 1:1.   
      
   The Fox translation, considered by many to be one of the best   
   currently available translations, has it:   
      
       At the beginning of God's creating   
       of the heavens and the earth,   
       when the earth was wild and waste,   
       darkness over the face of Ocean,   
       rushing-spirit of God hovering of the face of the waters -   
      
   So the Hebrew story is not about the origin of the Universe either.   
   The Universe was already there, God created the Earth in that   
   Universe.   
      
   >Moses wrote that simple, dramatic statement some 3,500 years ago.   
      
   No. At best Moses wrote (or wrote down) a Hebrew verse that you have a   
   (inaccurate) translation of.   
      
   >It   
   >focuses on a Creator, God, who transcends the material universe because   
   >he made it and hence existed before it was.   
      
   Again, it does not say that God created the Universe, he created the   
   Earth from pre-existing stuff.   
      
   > The same book teaches that   
   >“God is a Spirit,” which means he exists in a form that our eyes cannot   
   >see. (John 4:24) Such an existence is perhaps more conceivable today,   
   >since scientists have described powerful neutron stars and black holes   
   >in space—invisible objects that are detectable by the effects they produce.   
      
   What in the world does that mean? Are you saying God is somehow like a   
   black hole? Sheesh.   
      
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