my interpretation of genesis

i'm writing this here b/c my spirituality and psychedelic use go hand in hand. i believe the bible is a literary work similar to any other. it's not literal though - it's full of metaphors.

so here's the result of googling "read the bible." i got the basic english version:
http://www.o-bible.com/cgibin/ob.cgi?version=bbe&book=gen&chapter=1
and line by line, i wrote "my" translation.

-first, god made the universe. he made everything.
-and the earth was a hot ball of rock still vibing from the energy of creation.
-god had made the sun, so there was light.
-he had derived the complex physical laws that govern our solar system and universe. this includes the rotation of the earth as it revolves around the sun - so there was dark, in contrast to the light.
-people later made names for these - day, night, evening, morning...
-god made a division or barrier between the earth and space,
-he separated water and land
-(which humans would name Earth and Sea),
-he made every seed and fruit bearing plant - it was good
-(stuff about revolution and rotation as before)
-he made the moon and stars

ok i've kinda stopped goin line by line, but now i want you to read this part of the actual bible. i think it goes right along with evolution. see my comments in red.

1:20 And God said, Let the waters be full of living things, and let birds be in flight over the earth under the arch of heaven. 1:21 And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.
he made sea creatures first (bacteria?) which became all sorts of creatures, then birds (which are evolutionarily close to reptiles - the first things to "crawl" (evolutionarily speaking) out of the sea.
1:22 And God gave them his blessing, saying, Be fertile and have increase, making all the waters of the seas full, and let the birds be increased in the earth.
they reproduced and continued to evolve

1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day (or next chunk of millions of years)
1:24 And God said, Let the earth give birth to all sorts of living things, cattle (the first mammals - i'm not saying cattle were the first mammal, i'm saying that now evolution created mammals) evolution being created by god,or god is everything so god is evolution and all things moving on the earth, and beasts of the earth after their sort: and it was so.
1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after its sort, and the cattle after their sort, and everything moving on the face of the earth after its sort: and God saw that it was good.

1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us:
God (or evolution) created humans - with an inflated ego.

-and the capacity to think and wonder, but not the capacity to fully know anything. maybe we weren't the first conscious beings. maybe we weren't the first to be created in god's image. maybe we weren't created in his image at all. other creations of god may have the same type of conscious thought as we do (animals and plants could wonder and their creator too) maybe god looks like an alien. or a deer. or a ball of white light. i think a star or a galaxy or a supernova, or a black hole is more deserving of looking like god than we are. or maybe god has no form. or maybe every form.

-this imperfection of humans also led them to create language, writing, the bible, which in turn are all imperfect. the language when this was written was imperfect. and not-so-intelligent people by today's standards made some metaphors to try to explain their lives. and they were translated over and over and butchered to pieces and interpreted in a million different ways (including my interpretation here)...

and it's really about time we get a new book!

and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth.?
(is this permission to rape the earth as we have today? or maybe was it meant to mean, eat plants and animals to sustain yourself, but do it in harmony with god's other creations? some christians might tell you it's the former. i would argue the latter.)
1:27 And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.
(ignorant IMO)
1:28 And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth. (again, rape the earth and grow to a population of 6 billion? 12 billion? or have a couple of kids and a family)
1:29 And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed sifone, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food (EAT FRUIT, IT'S GOOD FOR YOU):

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and every living thing moving on the face of the earth I have given every green plant for food: and it was so.
("and the plants and the animals, they are linked. and the plants and the animals eat each other")


i guess my point is simply, the bible can be interpreted in several ways, and that's all the bible is. preachers just interpret it. it's been translated so many times, and was written in ancient languages that we hardly understand anyway

so interpret it yourself.
use your knowledge of the real world and see how it can fit with your spirituality.

creationism and evolution don't have to exclude each other.
they're both wrong! humans are stupid

 

Great post, its so true. I think any organized religion is completely dumb, especially christianity, you might as well believe in santa (no offense to anyone).

However, if evolution is wrong, well what created all of this then, when you look at science its so complicating and everything works together so well, there has to be some explanation.

But even if evolution is right, what created existence in the first place, what first created that single celled organism? This will always probably be a mystery

 

bump (got bored, so i check out threads created by porkstock41 - there are some doozies)

 

funny thing is, some stoner on a drug forum just debunked christianity.

 

Hey Pork, I really liked your post and wanted to recognize the effort you put into writing that. I also wanted to throw in my 2 cents fwiw.

I totally agree with you on many points. I think often some of those points are over looked when talking about the validity of the books of the bible,
especially with someone that believes highly in them in the traditional sense.

The original writings took place over many years, written by several authors. A long time ago and in a very different context than today. Context is very important when communicating as is the language. Another huge obstacle is the language used then. It doesn't translate into modern english nearly well enough to derive the original intent from the modern english bible. I am far from a biblical scholar, but one example I could throw out would be the commonly repeated story of God creating the heavens and the earth in 7 days. If I remember correctly the word that was used was "yow", a hebrew word normally translated as 'day' but can mean a period of time, including very long periods such as a millennium, era or epoch. Very similar to the word aloha, which can be a greeting or a farewell, depending on context. In that usage, it's perfectly possible to conceive as creation happening over the period of 7 "yow".
I use this example only to illustrate the difficulty of understanding the intention of the original books of the bible. You mentioned the use of metaphors and the numerous translations over time. These aren't to be discounted. Consider trying to understand some of the concepts presented with no scientific knowledge whatsoever. The greeks imagined Atlas, holding up the earth because they couldn't conceive of weightlessness and Newtonian physics.
And then came along the many people that had ulterior motives. The bible became highly regarded and well known, and a 'translation' would be a conveinant way to manipulate people and society. Consider that until the 1400's, books were created by hand, handwritten and bound. If one was lucky enough to own a book, the first on the list would be a bible. Not that many people could read. So imagine the effect of your King or Queen, (who was educated and literate) telling their kingdom... "it says right here in this bible, to give me 10% of your labors". Royality was often seen as divinely chosen, to disagree or resist often resulted in death to you and your family.

One of the greatest inventions ever was the invention of the printing press. For the first time ever wide spread distribution of thoughts and ideas became possible by other means than verbal. People began to become literate, and in the following centuries began to question authority and we had revolution and change like never before. The protestant movement of Martin Luther. The french revolution. The amazing creation of a democratic and representative government that became the US. (with all its faults) All because of a wide spread dissemination of thought and ideas.

Magical Mystery posted short but quite heavy questions. Back in my early years, after a psychedlic night, I sat outside in a semi rural area watching nature and thinking... I watched a hummingbird, looked at the plant life and was deep in thought about the nature of life. I had the exact same thought. How is it possible that all this is just accidental chemistry? There is such diversity... hummingbirds, caterpillars that become butterflys. (imagine how amazing that is) Evolution is a simple idea that conveniently predicts and explains much of life on earth. But still.... it boggles the mind. At least mine.
He then goes on to ask what created existence. If science ever creates a bridge theory between Einsteins special theory of relativity and string theory, we may have a glimpse. Until then, it is a huge mystery.
For me, the religions of the world have too many similarities, too many concepts and stories in common, to just be random fairy tales. But in a religious context I have been an agnostic for years now. It's just too deep for me to truly "know"... and therefore it seems reasonable to neither agree or disagree.

There is a growing thought that some religious belief and evolution aren't in disagreement, that in fact a different perspective can reveal that there are many things that they have in common. I think the danger lies in not being open to new ideas. To me neither one is absolutely wrong, merely incomplete.
Supposedly Einstein said "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."

 

thanks for contributing. i don't think science and religion have to be mutually exclusive either.

some of what you said sounds like the movie The Book of Eli

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtzgBJ13vro"]YouTube - Genesis - the Carpet Crawlers live

 

I was disappointed by that movie. But ya, huh. I didn't realize that. Maybe that's why I didn't care for it, I expected alot more because of the premise.

 

How would your interpretation look if when god said let there be light, it was meant, let there be awareness.

As in the eye is the lamp of the body and if the eye be sound the whole body is full of light.

God created the world by speaking it into existence and it is in this way that man takes on the image and likeness of the creator. Our talent is to name the animals.

 

Op made a great point, creationism is totally legit, if you just change it's meaning and take it to mean exactly what it's opponents are saying.

 

You can argue, chapter and verse, for this or that and come to all sorts of conclusions, but many of us, when the deal goes down, will reach for a Bible or something like it. Even with the cosmic consciouness that some have realized, when the day comes, and it always does, the old prayers may answer the call.

“Give me your whole heart,
Love and adore me,
Worship me always,
Bow to me only,
And you shall find me:
This is my promise
Who love you dearly.”
(Bhagavad-Gita)

“Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightening in a summer cloud;
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.”
(The Diamond Sutra (of the Buddha), p. 74)

“May He give reign to His Kingship in your lifetimes and in your days, and in the lifetimes of the entire family of Israel, swiftly and soon. Now respond Amen.”
(From the Mourner’s Kaddish.)


“In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”
(John 14:2)

"Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream."
(Traditional)

 

I feel the bible is a relic, I don't necessarily think its 'wrong' in any significant way as both porkstock and voyage have made excellent points that the books can be interpreted as metaphors and passages can be misconstrued from their original intent but at the same time I don't see it offering anything applicable to me in the 21st century really. I feel morality is intuitive to an extent, certainly learned behavior but furthermore I can read a book like Fight Club by Chuck Palahinuk and draw upon just as many metaphors and ideas that pertain to modern day life as I did when I attempted to read Genesis. As porkstock mentioned, the bible is a literary work and it falls pretty far down on my list of books that have significantly influenced my views of the world.

 

i will not be reaching for any book with my last breath

 

If you are like the rest of us, you may have unexamined Judeo-Christian attitudes, prejudices, or feelings that are engendered by those beliefs. Many assumptions abound that do not represent the way things are but correspond to models of what "should be". There are many western attitudes that are fundamentally shaped by these Judeo-Christian beliefs, even though you may not overtly practice or associate such, with any religious belief.

There may be an effort to separate church from state but the insidious problem is you can't separate the church from culture.
To illustrate I point to the one child policy in China. The one child policy would not be embraced by a modern western society because of beliefs about the sanctity of certain relationships. However in China it is possible to
have such a policy because of beliefs about the function of the state.

Cultural practice is occult practice, being of the cult or culture.

 

I agree that our culture is in someways shaped by Judeo-Christian views of the world and some of those views certainly can effect our beliefs on a more personal level as well. Many of those views/beliefs in Christianity predate the religion though, and we seem to be talking about Genesis in regards to Christianity here, which besides me is the religion my family practices, so that is the part I'm responding to.

 

I appreciate your response.

You may be right about some attitudes predating religion. Religion may have a cultural basis and not the other way around. Although from the examination of other cultures, I can't identify those attitudes that may have predated any type of devotion. It seems they all have should be conventions, but not all the should be' s are the same. That is I can detect no universal morality.

I personally have learned much about our own nature from the study of the religious materials different cultures produce.

I think genesis speaks volumes about creative nature of nature if that makes any sense. Particularly our talent of speaking into existence corridors of refraction that define our views of the world. We believe in order to see and see in order to believe.

I also think it speaks volumes about what could be if we apply ourselves in a certain manner. The story of Cain and Abel for example, I see as a description of the human sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
We have a sensational body that serves us well but we must learn to master it, to decode what the sensations mean, what they tell about ourselves and the world. That if we master our own urgings we can greater enjoy the fecund nature of life.

We can see the development of cultural/religious attitudes such as the theoretical basis for patriarchal authority as a lesser type of man is created from the substance of man and that is called wo-man.

I do not find the bible to be as vacuous or primitive a document as many do but I certainly don't regard it as the unadulterated word of god.

 

Not if you die suddenly. But if you die over some period of time, like with cancer, you may find yourself reaching for a book or two during your last months (and not PiHKAL).

At times like that, many people find comfort in passages like,
"My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." (Speaking to the issue of feeling alone in a lonely lonely time) or
"Let not your hearts be troubled ..." (Acknowledging troubled hearts and a place to turn)

Psalms also resonate with many, like "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ..." (22, and repeated on the cross - going back to feelings of abandonment and utter aloneness) or
"The Lord is my Shephard ..." (I don't have to go alone).

______
I spent some time today with a 40+ year old woman with a history of being sexually abused as a child, being abused again now, cutting on herself for the first time since she was 16. "My life is hell." Being treated for depression, but I think PTSD (with depression) is more likely. Lot of serious business out there. Religion may not seem important to some people now, but I wouldn't write it off (in your life) forever; nor in other people's lives.

 

^^^good for them, but i don't take comfort in that. i've read most of the bible once and that is enough for me.

it may sound naive, but i don't think i will change enough over time to eventually reach to the bible and/or the christian view of god for comfort on my death bed.

my thoughts on the afterlife, etc are somewhat undecided, but i lean toward there not being one.

i'm not trying to say i have no problems with death, and that i won't be scared to die when my time comes...just that i'm not gonna be jumping on the bible or god bandwagon at that time.

 

^^^ can you dig the Buddhist or Hindu scripture above? I shouldn't personalize things with too many yous as in post above. I'm just saying most people will turn to the old prayers of one sort or another - Christian, Buddhist, whatever. Those things aren't the end thing in dying, but they're worth a look, what with different mind and all.

 

nah, i don't personally dig it, but i get your point