RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
Hi Judy: You made me chuckle! How right you are. But, then you know I have been trying to understand for a long time, have it make sense in relation to my life and I think, yes, little by little I understand more and more.....how nice to know I am making progress. love, beej
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a talk on science and religion and the speaker brought out how closely Christian Science resembles the study of mathematics, that in studying mathematics, a reality emerges that is completely devoid of matter and that the laws of mathematics, unlike those of other natural sciences, are unchangeable - in other words, they are fixed facts, not changeable hypotheses. He predicted that eventually it will be recognised that everything is thought and that reality is entirely mental, not physical.
Today I noticed this article which just about sums up this L-O-N-G thread on the chapter of Genesis as discussed in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy
What Science and Health says about evolution
Jeffrey Hildner
Reprinted from the January 2003 issue of The Christian Science Journal
http://tinyurl.com/cfyxe
"All Science is of God, not man."
The "Genesis" chapter has a lot to say about Charles Darwin and Louis Agassiz, the two leading naturalists of Mary Baker Eddy’s day. Agassiz (1807–1873) popularized the study of natural science in the United States. In opposition to Darwin (1809–1882), he "held that earth’s organisms tend to become more complex and better suited to their environment over time through a series of independent acts of creation by a Supreme Being."
Mrs. Eddy respected them both. "Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and genius of great men," she wrote. "Modern discoveries have brought to light important facts in regard to so-called embryonic life." But, unflinchingly, she delivers a one-two punch to both. ………
The import of Mary Baker Eddy’s "Genesis" chapter isn’t abstract or academic. It’s tangible. "It is this spiritual perception of Scripture," she wrote, "which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith."
All the limitations and downsides of life that go along with a view of life as material (heredity, inferior genes, bad environment, competition for survival and so forth) are out the window when the origin of species is seen from a spiritual point of view.
Love and peace,
Judy
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis
Hi again everyone!
I've decided to resurrect this thread, as page 1 (which took me weeks to write) contains (to me) the explanation of one of the most pervading deceptions that has every been imposed upon human thought - the Adam and Eve allegory and the 'fall' of man. This teaching has gone throughout Judaism, Christianity and also Islam. Adam is the first prophet of the Qu'ran. This teaching has influenced probably the majority of the people on our planet, without them realising it. (For example, women will say "I have the curse" without even knowing where that belief and imposition came from)
To recap briefly - Genesis 1 is a description of spiritual reality (not to be taken literally as a 6-day material creation) all about our one-ness and original perfection. The harmony, perfection and completeness of Genesis 1 is echoed in Isaiahs prophecy in Isa 11:1-9, Isa 65: 17-25 and also Revelation 21.
The Adam and Eve allegory is all about duality, limitation, evil, suffering and being excluded from all good.
What prompted me to come back here today was reading what Kim had posted in the Gospel of Judas thread:
One can find some names of gods in the bible, but in order to see what is actually written rather than what has been translated into English, one has to look at the Hebrew.* Starting with the first line of Genesis, one can immediately see that in Hebrew, "God" is another of those words that has also changed in meaning over the ages.* In English, the bible speaks only of one God, but in Hebrew, in over 2600 instances, the word is plural: "gods," or elohim starting with the first line of Genesis.* Since the beginning, the word has been "Gods."*
Some of the gods have been identified by name - such as Jehovah or Yahweh - who is believed to be the only god of the universe by approximately half of the people on earth at this time.* Jehovah is described as a "war god," with an impressive death count including men, women, children, babies and animals.* Although the name of Jehovah only makes it into the English translation four times, in Hebrew it occurs over 6000 times.* In English we usually see this word translated as "LORD."* (Caps theirs.)* Other gods are also named, but as stated, this is translated repeatedly into English as "God." *This in turn gives the impression that the entire bible was only referencing the words of one God - Jehovah - when this is apparently not the case.*In some instances, different gods gave conflicting instructions.* In Genesis, for example, there were conflicting instructions pertaining to what mankind may and may not eat. *In Genesis 1, mankind is told by the unnamed elohim that we may partake of all seed-bearing fruits and vegetation on the face of the earth.* There is no mention of anything forbidden, and there is also no mention of Jehovah.* The unnamed gods in Genesis 1 stated we were created in their image.*
Genesis 2 tells a different story.* The Jehovah elohim tell mankind that severe penalties will apply if certain forbidden vegetation is so much as touched.* (The list of forbidden fruits and vegetation continues to this day.)* Unlike the unnamed elohim in Genesis 1 who stated we are in their image, the Jehovah elohim state instead that we are dust - and will return to dust - an insult that until the Gospel of Judas has been unchallenged.*
http://www.rense.com/general71/defmo.htm
The Gospel Of Judas,
Barbelo & Long-Kept Secrets
By Mary Sparrowdancer
Im so thrilled that others are revealing this huge difference between the two accounts of creation the spiritual and the material.
Just to quickly mention the many Hebrew names for God. It is true that there are the names of the deities of idol-worship, like Baal and Ashtaroth named in the OT, but the prophets were not referring to several gods as Ms Sparrowdancer states, but to the nature of what they perceived was God and these cover all gradations from inspired revelation to human opinion!
Name in Hebrew also means nature. To me, the many name
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
dear principled, first off, you said that parts of the bible are the writers' opinions. not true! the bible is "GOD BREATHED" which means that GOD told all the writers what to say! he didnt tell them" how" to say the words but "what" to say. that way people who are in their different stages of spiritual growth could understand what they were reading! why do you think we have 4 different gospels? because people of different ages were going to read them! mark was a young man,and luke was a doctor ,so you see, there were different perspectives of the same story of JESUS! secondly, GOD didnt say that he "created male and female in his image " to mean that he was both male and female, remember, he created man first, then when he made woman, he made her for as a companion for the man!!! thirdly, satan caused sin to enter the world, thats why GOD wanted to distroy theevil people in the world! when GOD made man, at first it "was good"!, then when people started to sin, because of satan,he was sorry that he had made man!
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
Hi Principled
I would just like to confirm what Venetian said in an earlier post about Good and Evil and perhaps go a little further
There is NO Good or Evil
There is only GOD who is LOVE
Good and evil are in themselves judgements dependanton perspective
Perfection needs no perspective for it is all knowing and infinite and complete - it needs no judgement - It simply IS
God would therefore need neither good or evil which leads me to think Genesis should be read again with a deeper idea - who is writing Genesis ? God or Man ?
The later NT and Jesus is remarkably free of judgement isnt it - from what i hear anyway !