Aspiration Toward Inspiration

What happened thousands of years ago in a garden doesn’t matter in my life today. The Eden story has morals and millions of interpretations. It is fascinating to go through the takes of Genesis; it is inspiring to hear the morals; it is a beautiful story. However, it’s a beautiful story whose historical value is nothing compared to its metaphorical value. The message of the Genesis story is not that God did create life or the specifics of how God did so. The messages worth drawing from the text are never that shallow. “Why?” is the question we should be continually asking. Why would God create Adam and Eve, knowing that they would fall? Why go through the trouble? I believe it was to give them choice. Humans are created not for the sake of God, but for the sake of humans. So that we will have the knowledge beyond fact and instinct: knowledge of conscious decision-making skills and a moral compass. So that humanity will have the ability to choose. God did it so we could have the choice to choose a way of living life and understand that choice.

I don’t think God created us for God or out of some kind of need. I don’t think that God needs anything… Because God is God. What could God possibly need from us? I think humanity exists for humanity’s sake. So that we can live and feel and love. Whatever pain or joy there may be in that, I find the most perfect beauty not based on how happy each of us are or the greater utility of the world, but because it is real… because everything has meaning to us and because that meaning is real. Without this world, there would be no love. God created love and we are a necessary part of that. God created meaning and we are a necessary part of that. For me, there is no more profound truth than the reality of meaning. That said, what the heck do I know, eh?

In any case, it is abundantly clear to me that the point of the creation story is not the specifics of how and when God created the world… that there were two people living someplace called “Eden” means squat. If the meaning you find in the creation story is that God is all-powerful and created the world out of nothing, you’re not reading Genesis with your “thinking cap” on.

Biblical literacy should not simply mean that the Bible has been read and that passages have been memorized; it should mean that available resources have been used to supplement the material so that it could be understood to the deepest extent possible. History, archaeology, biology, philosophy, sociology, linguistics, psychology, literature… all frameworks should be applied to best understand the Bible’s themes, context, and relevance. An interdisciplinary approach should be taken when studying the Bible instead of simply taking it at face value. It is stupidity to read the Bible at a literalist level since the Bible is, in fact, a translation that cannot fully translate over both language and history. Human advancement is in vain if we cannot use the brilliance of our species to understand that which we like to say has the most meaning.

If there is nothing anyone can take on faith, the most “sure” claim is that this world exists. And if there is a God and if God did create it or create us or create anything, then this is it. Beyond it? An afterlife… whatever, maybe. But this is here and I think I can know that much. If there is anything I should be working for, it should be this world, because I know it’s here and that if God created it, God must have liked the idea of it being around. If no one created it? Then everything I do matters because it is all that matters. I think I should be working for humanity and the betterment of it. I think I should be helping people where I can, whether that means being there for others when they are hurting or whether it means giving money to women trying to make lives for themselves in Africa. I believe that that means trying to respect this earth, to enjoy nature… whether that means not littering, driving a more gas-efficient car, or giving money to causes which try to save nature.

The most profound truth is the reality of meaning. If this creation/world/bang means anything, maybe we should act like it.