God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

  Image by author using ChatGPT Four chapters define who we are, why we are here, and why we suffer. This post is a follow-up to my previous post “What if Adam and Eve Didn’t Fall?” I grant that if you follow my essays, this first section is repetitive, but I will keep hammering on this point because I wish someone had told me when I was a new Christian 60+ years ago. 1]  In the Hebrew, it’s clear. Genesis 1–4 contains at least 3 different ancient documents or narratives, written by 3 different authors at different times. Later editors, or “redactors,” valued them equally and wove them together as one story, using Gen. 2:4 as a bridge between them. The style changes, the narrative's purpose differs, and each document gives God a new name. That does not imply 3 different Gods. Yahweh had several appellations throughout the Hebrew Bible. Nor does it suggest that the narrative is just a human story that we can ignore. I believe it is inspired, sacred, and authoritative. Jesus qu...

The connection between Genesis 1―4 and Skinwalker Ranch   Image by author using ChatGPT This is a connect-the-dots article. If you had asked me 20 years ago why there was suffering in the world, I’d have answered that it’s because we live in a fallen world. Meaning, Adam and Eve “fell,” or sinned, so death reigned from Adam to Moses, not just in human souls, but in all of nature; but God gave us a means of atonement through the Law. Meanwhile, we are all born with the stain of original sin, and we need the waters of baptism or the forgiveness of Jesus to cleanse sin away. Catholics and Protestants alike dub this Original Sin. All humanity is born with it. Dot number one, the Genesis serpent “Every source has a purpose,’ writes Lauren McCormick for Bible History Daily . “A document created by a government, ruler, or institution is not simply a neutral record of everything that happened. It reflects the concerns and priorities of the people who produced it. So the impor...