{"id":8959,"date":"2009-11-07T23:36:37","date_gmt":"2009-11-07T23:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2009\/11\/god-creator\/"},"modified":"2009-11-07T23:36:37","modified_gmt":"2009-11-07T23:36:37","slug":"god-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2009\/11\/god-creator\/","title":{"rendered":"God as the "Creator""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"God.jpg\"<\/a>An Old Testament scholar now seems to suggest that it is a wrong interpretation to believe that God created Earth when \u201cHe\u201d created the animals etc. on it. She, Prof Ellen van Wolde, believes that Earth was already there when the Animals and Humans were created. The Judeo-Christian belief suggests that Earth was created out of nothing by God.<\/p>\n

She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb \u201cbara\u201d, which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean \u201cto create\u201d but to \u201cspatially separate\u201d. The first sentence should now read \u201cin the beginning God separated the Heaven and the Earth\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She also suggests that the idea of creating \u201cSomething out of Nothing\u201d does not seem plausible.<\/p>\n

The usual idea of creating-out-of-nothing, creatio ex nihilo, is a big misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, this interpretation has gotten some strong resistance from the believers. The entire premise of the faith of at least three religions seems shaken! But what was especially interesting was a comment by a reader which I find more reasonable than the original explanation and the one that Wolde is professing:<\/p>\n

The first letter of the Torah is a Bet. A bet is a container which refers to our universe, a container, bounded by time and space, that G-d created for us to be able to exist within his infinity that has no time or space. The entire \u201cCreation story\u201d takes place AFTER our universe bounded by time and space is already created out of nothing by the trancendent (which the torah names with the tetragrammaton \u2013 Yud Hey Vav Hey.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But I find it intriguing that none of the people use the word \u201cmanifestation\u201d for the existence. In Hindu scriptures, Existence and Universe has been called \u201cSrishti\u201d, which means manifestation. And if the physics theories are any indication, then the finite existence is no more than a manifestation of the Infinite.<\/p>\n

Reference Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

God is not the Creator, claims academic<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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