I’m not big on religion, and particularly holy creation, so let me see if I understand this.
- First, God creates the heavens and the earth as part of his holy creation.
- God said (I’m paraphrasing here), “Gee that was silly. I can’t see what the heck I’m doing. Let there be light.” And there was light.
- At first, God’s holy creation didn’t separate the light from the dark. Whatever the heck that means. Partly opaque clouds? Whatever. Although, I guess He thought no one would be able to get any sleep if light and dark co-mingled constantly because, right on the very first day, He separated the light from the dark.
- But the not separating light and dark right from the get-go thing wasn’t His only screw-up. The waters above and the waters below were all mixed together, as were the land and the sea. This wouldn’t do. Blending the land and sea was a particular problem. Everything must have been mud. So, on the second day, He separated the waters above and below. And, on the third day, he separated the land from the sea. Wise move, in my opinion. Who wants to wallow in mud? (If you do, please keep that information to yourself.)
Life in the Holy Creation
- Having created birds and sea animals on the fifth day, God created man (and woman), along with the other land animals, on the sixth day. (Did He create amphibious animals on the fifth day? Or did He create them on the sixth day? I’m unclear on that.)
Excuse the parenthetical “and woman” above. Most western religions (I’m less familiar with eastern religions, so I can’t comment on them) don’t exactly give top billing to women. Instead, especially among the more traditional and/or orthodox adherents, women are frequently assigned roles somewhat closer to cameo appearances. Then again, as a man and, therefore, a beneficiary of this attitude, it’s not in my best interests complain too loudly about it. - Man (and woman) beget boys (and girls) who grow up to add to the number of men (and women), who beget more boys (and girls) and so on. (Let’s not delve too deeply into the whole original incest question here.)
- God reveals Himself to men (and women). How revealing Himself isn’t considered to be harassment I’ll never know.
Trouble in Creation
- At one point, God got upset with his holy creation. He loaded up two of each of His living creations onto a boat and drowned all the other members of all species in a massive flood. (Humans got an exemption to the “two only” rule enforced on other species. Noah brought his wife, his sons, and his sons’ wives because, nepotism.) Why didn’t God create a clean slate? He could have drowned them all and started again. Was He too lazy?
- At various times in history, even before Noah, one group of men (usually just men) started beating the crap out of and, in some cases, killing other groups of men (and women and boys and girls) and raping women (no parenthesis required) because the first group believes that its understanding of God is better than the other group’s understanding of God. And they believe their God commanded them to beat the crap out of, kill, and rape the other people. Started millennia ago, these activities continue off and on today.
Despite their violence, many of the perpetrators described in 9, above, practice religions that preach that their God wants peace on Earth and goodwill toward men (and women—as long as they remain barefoot, pregnant, and accepting of their place in society; boys and girls are on their own in this regard).
Oh, and some of His followers believe in the “right to life” for collections of cells inside women’s bodies. However, for some of them, capital punishment for people already born is just God’s “eye-for-an-eye” entreaty put in practice. And, if there’s a pandemic that makes congregating potentially deadly for a number of people, well, it is what it is in the minds of some of these “right-to-lifers.” They insist it’s their God-given right to get together in-person for super-spreader services. Go figure.
Is it any wonder I’m an atheist?
