Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Holy Rover

Home
New Visions
In the Beginning, Was…What?

In the Beginning, Was…What?

Last updated on: April 19, 2016 at 12:19 pm by Lori Erickson

In the Beginning, Was…What? 2016-04-19T12:19:18-06:00 Lori Erickson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today’s post is the third in a series on The Story of God With Morgan Freeman. I wrote this after previewing this Sunday’s episode, “Creation.” You can watch it on the National Geographic Channel, or on the National Geographic app beginning the day after it airs on TV.

Hindu Woman

Morgan Freeman talks with religious leaders around the world in The Story of God.

To me the most interesting statement in the “Creation” episode comes at the very beginning, when Morgan Freeman visits his hometown in Mississippi and says, “You can’t understand me until you understand where I was created.”

That statement gets to the heart of why creation stories are important, whether they’re on a cosmological scale or a human one. How we tell our story of origin shapes us, and shapes how others see us.

I can tell you this about myself: I’m a farmer’s daughter from Iowa. And even though I’ve left that life behind in many ways, it still defines a good portion of my identity.

God creating the cosmos (Bible Moralisee, French, 13th century; Wikimedia Commons image)

This brings to mind a trip I took to Galilee several years ago. At a certain point on the journey I realized there were parts of the story of Jesus that I simply hadn’t gotten before—why he used all those metaphors about sheep and vineyards, for example, and why the Sea of Galilee plays such a large role in the Gospels.

It was like being in college and going to the home of a roommate for the first time and realizing, “Oh, that’s why she’s the way she is.”

Cosmological questions, even more than individual stories of origin, always raise profound questions of identity and meaning. In the “Creation” episode, I loved the urbane Vatican astronomer who brushed aside any conflicts between the Genesis story and scientific theories of creation. It’s simply a non-issue, he says. Of course Christianity is compatible with science. Case closed.

But the Genesis account of creation (which includes strains from at least two different traditions) says several things that became foundational for Western culture: The universe makes sense. It unfolds in an orderly fashion, one that can be comprehended by humans. And it is good, for God shaped and formed every part of it. With that as a foundation, you can pile on biology and physics and astronomy and all sorts of other scientific disciplines without fundamental conflict.

That said, I must admit to not thinking very much about how the world was created. The writers of Genesis might be right, or the Hindus might be correct in saying that the universe was created and destroyed many times. However it happened, it probably involved a Big Bang of one sort or another.

Carina Nebula Detail (NASA-image-Creative-Commons-License)

But in recounting these stories, whether they’re told from a pulpit or in a scientific textbook, we claim something as humans: we assert our right to try to understand our world. And I think God sees this and smiles, for he wants us to struggle with these questions.

All of this makes me think of one of my favorite Bible stories, that of the long-suffering Job. Contrary to the popular saying that refers to “the patience of Job,” he was anything but patient—in fact, if ever there was a questioner, doubter, and complainer, it was Job. After overwhelming tragedies have befallen him, he rejects the facile philosophies of his friends and demands an answer from God himself.

And how does God respond? He answers Job with a creation story. He talks about creating the storehouses of snow and hail, of setting the stars in the sky and releasing the eagles to soar and the horses to race.

In one sense he doesn’t answer Job’s questions at all. But he also doesn’t say that Job shouldn’t be asking them.

For it is the nature of humans to question, and it is the nature of God to create. And sometimes the best answer to “Why?” is a show-and-tell: a starry night high in the mountains. The beauties of a coral reef under the sea. Flowers blooming in the desert after a rain.

For all of these are good, whenever and however they were created.

Stay in touch! Like Holy Rover on Facebook:

Holy Rover

Story of God With Morgan Freeman

Previous Post

April 12, 2016

Searching for God

Next Post

April 25, 2016 Thinking About Good & Evil (With the Mob in Las Vegas)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aging & Spirituality Amish Anabaptists Animals Apocalypse Archeological sites Art and Spirituality Awards Belgian Holy Sites birds Blessings Books Buddhism Business & Spirituality Callings Cats Celtic Cemeteries Children Christianity church Colorado Creation Death Desert Spirituality Easter Economics Education & Spirituality Egypt Episcopal Church Faith Fear Films First Nations Food Forgiveness Germany God Good & Evil Good Friday Grace Gratitude Happiness Healing Hildegard of Bingen Hinduism History Holy Rover blog Holy Sites Holy Week Horses Iceland Illness Images of God Indigenous Spiritualilty Interfaith Interfaith Dialogue Iowa Islam Israel Japan Judaism LDS Church Lent Machu Picchu Martin Luther Media Meditation Monasteries Museums Music Music and Spirituality Musings Mysticism Native American Nature New Age New Zealand Norse History/Culture/Spirituality Orthodox Paradox Paranormal Peru Philosophy Pilgrimage Poetry Politics Pop Culture Pilgrimage Sites Prayers sermons Silence Social Media Spiritual writers Spirituality and Food Spirituality and Social Media Stone Circles Thomas Merton Turkey Uncategorized Unconventional Holy Sites Utopian communities Videos Virgin Mary Wicca Work World War I Writing Zen

Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In which garden did Jesus pray before His arrest?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Golgotha Gethsemane Eden Paradise