Inspired by Buster Benson, among others. I expect to update this annually at or around the end of the year following which a theme, objectives and metrics to track for the following year will be identified. Given my antecedents, my starting point is Judeo-Christian, as modified by reading and learning over the years. This is by no means a finished article.
On Origins
Shaped primarily by The Bible Project, John Walton’s Lost World Series and Michael Heiser’s Unseen World:
- Our Universe has an origin, The Big Bang. This is not completely incompatible with the idea of a Creator/ Designer of sorts but precludes a young earth.
- The Genesis Account is best understood as a parable about functional ordering, not a scientific description of ex nihilo creation.
- Life on other planets (dimensions?) is not precluded by a functional ordering interpretation of the Genesis Account
- The similarity of Heiser’s Unseen Realms ideas with African and other mythologies , as well as myths of giants and human/non-human admixtures suggest there is at least a kernel of truth or cultural experience in them
- A consequence of the above is the notion of the earthly realm as being given to man to control, protect, subdue and tend. In a sense, God is not in Control a la Tim Gombis.