Here is a passage from Carl Sagan on other apes being taught the use of a human compatible language (sign language,) partly because, well, it's Carl Sagan, and partly because it will come into play later, also, partly, irony:
"Perhaps the most striking aspect of this entire subject
is that there are nonhuman primates so close to the
edge of language, so willing to learn, so entirely compe-
tent in its use and inventive in its application once
the language is taught. But this raises a curious ques-
tion: Why are the all on the edge? What are there
no nonhuman primates with an existing complex
gestural language? One possible answer, it seems to
me, is that humans have systematically exterminated
those other primates who displayed signs of intelli-
gence. (This may have been particularly true of the
nonhuman primates who lived in the savannahs"
-Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden (131)
In this post we'll focus on Genesis 1, verses 6-10 in our attempt to work through the Bible and actually read the thing.
Genesis 1:6-10
6. And God said, Let there be firmament in the midst
of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the wa-
ters.
7. And God made the firmament, and divided the wa-
ters which were under the firmament from the waters
which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the
evening and the morning were the second day.
9. And God said, Let the waters under the Heaven be
gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land
appear: and it was so.
10. And God called the dry land Earth: and the gather-
ing together of the waters called he Seas, and God saw
that it was good.
- The first thing that stands out to me is that when reading this linearly, 6-8 clearly state that Heaven is a place on Earth. In fact, Heaven is made from "firmaments" which seem to have been sandwiched between layers of water. There are even many fundamentalist Christians, the types with the big beards (what the hell is it with Abrahamic religions and beards?) who believe in an afterlife much akin to the Sheol afterlife, where you are just kinda non-existent underground. Until Resurrection-Super-Bash-Armageddon 34 1,000 1,022 2,000 2012 2016! At which time the chosen (or is it "saved"?) get to walk around this very Earth (which we've already buggered quite a bit) for all the rest of eternity. Between singing to God, that is.
- 9 seems to suggest that this Heaven dive has an elevated place, both literally and figuratively, when compared to the other "dry land," which, I guess, is everything but New Orleans. This makes me wonder if this is why the early books of the Bible have so much hubbub happening in the mountains.
-The same verse also seems to suggest that Heaven is not dry land. I wonder if this is where the imagery of Heaven as a cloudy place comes from.
-Really, though, what these verses make scientifically certain is that the moon is Heaven. It spun off from the face of the Earth when the surface was still bubbling and boiling. In Mormonism, this might be where good natured atheists end up. Which, if I become good natured, would be kinda cool. Having smoked a few menthols in my life, my chance at extraterrestrial dabblings are shot for this life.
-Also, this is 18 lines into the standard-format King James Version unalterable holy text, so....just where was God hanging out before this? Was he actually in existence? He must have been as he never cited having created himself (and he seems pretty hardcore on getting full-credit for the "good" stuff.) This adds credence to the thought that, at this stage of religious development (the stage contemporary to the text) Heaven was a tangible place. Tangible to both mortals and immortals alike.
-Who the hell is God talking to? One can't refrain from the strange feeling that this God character is actually casting spells. These were, after all, people who believed in magic. And if anyone is going to be a magician, and a really damned powerful one, shouldn't it be god? This way, other magicians can't prove themselves more powerful than your god, because your god already hocus-pocused the whole of everything into something. There is no talk of how these creations are being gone about. So far as I can tell, until God slips Adam a roofie and ape's a rib out of the poor schlup's chest, everything is just poofed into being. So it is, to this point, the words themselves which hold power. Perhaps this is the seminal strain of innuendo in the Bible, because we all know that they are words/ideas which hold the power to infect reality even after swords have rusted and nukes have half-life'd out. Also, words and ideas are what separate us from our lowly origins, right?
-"And God saw that it was good." Oh, what a show-boat, this God guy. In baseball, that gets you a fastball between the shoulder blades. #unwrittenrules #stayhumblestayhungry
What stands out to you? What doesn't make sense? What makes you question current/former beliefs?
ADRIAN FORT is a writer, blogger, and essayist from Kansas City, Missouri. Follow him on twitter @adriananyway. His work has appeared in Existere, decomP magazinE, The Bluest Aye, Bareback Magazine, Gadfly Online, Chrome Baby, The Eunoia Review, Linguistic Erosion, and Smashed Cat Magazine. His Master's Degree is from Lindenwood University.
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