Creation | A Pastor, a Rabbi and an Imam | The Story of God
Okay, so stop me if you've heard of a rabbi, a pastor, and an imam walk into a bar. Okay, so plus bard was a diner to discuss my shows, The Story of God, about creation.
So the rabbi says, "There's this beautiful story in Judaism where Adam is going through his first day. He's only been with Eve and he's only seen the Sun. And then the Sun sets and the Sun rises again, and Adam realizes that this is the natural order of things, that the creation happens each and every day. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, we all share a lot of similarities in the creation story. But we also believe in an additional source of authority in Revelation, which is the Quran.
And one point of difference is that yes, God created the heavens and earth in six periods, but He did not rest on the seventh day. He's intimately involved in the continuing unfolding of all that is. Ours is a little different; it's that He was able to do so much in six days that resting was about it's done, it is finished. And so we kind of believe it's an unfolding of what has already been done in one moment.
This is so fabulous because I feel like the Jewish tradition embraces both of those aspects when it comes into the creation of beings. There are actually two different stories that emerge. One is the story that we know where Adam is drawn up from the earth and the rib is taken, and that's what makes Eve. And the other is that man and woman are created together. I relate to that story to imagine that all people are created equal.
How do you square that with scientific explanations of creation? Because science is one way in which God reveals Himself. And so if we discover the Big Bang is how things began, then that's what we would believe theologically as Muslims as well. We all come from that same source of creation, whether it was this big bang or it was these stories. The science and the metaphor really worked together to help us understand where we came from.
God is what exists beyond our ability to even imagine, and what we can know of God is really just through the evidence of His creation and through what we feel in our hearts. So God, I don't think that there's conflict at all. It's difficult for the human to embrace that which doesn't need to be created because God forever exists outside of time. Our human capacity can't even imagine space-time as one thing, right? But to be outside of that, even as something that we just have a limitation on as human beings.
What I'm hearing is that we all believe that God created the heavens and the earth, but it sounds like we differ in some of the specifics of this creation story and some of the symbolism. I would also say what we do with the stories is where we differ. Absolutely! It's just these literal things that we focus on, like an apple. But you know, and no one even says anything about that. So sometimes we get caught up in the details as opposed to maybe looking at the heart of that story.
How come none of us celebrate Adam and Eve being in the garden? Was it because they got kicked out? Yeah, that's a good question. Maybe we should. There's a stigma on, you know, Adam and Eve did this wrong, and if I would have done the same thing. So if we were to celebrate Adam, it might look something like reconnecting with the earth and being environmentally conscious. So maybe something like Earth Day?
Yeah, this is true. I think we ought to start it for you guys. Can anyone sum up the nation in five words?
Yeah, I can do it in six. I can do it in say, okay, God created us to know Him.
Oh, that's great! That's great! Or maybe God created us to know, which goes back to Adam and Eve, right? Reaching for that fruit. God created us to be known.
Oh, I stole half of yours! And some of you share, collaborate.