Hello
A theory of creation. (Remember, this is just a theory.)
There is a doctrine that God created the universe out of nothing. It is a human doctrine. As far as I know, there is no Biblical support for this doctrine. I’ve got an alternative theory.
Jesus said that God is spirit (John 4:24). Could another word for ‘spirit’ be ‘energy’? Maybe God is energy. Scientists define energy as “the ability to do work”. I reckon another way of saying that might be “the ability to make things happen”. Scientists also tell us “Energy cannot be created or destroyed”. Sounds like our eternal Father to me.
Scientists also tell us that the physical universe is made up of trillions upon quadrillions of tiny balls of energy that we call atoms. So, maybe, our loving Father didn’t make the universe out of nothing. Maybe he made it out of his spirit, his energy, his very self, his very being.
Maybe, our loving Father started the process of creation by making many, many balls of energy; the first atoms. This event would be what we call “the Big Bang”. Then, through the processes of solar fusion and supernovas, he made other kinds of atoms. He then started putting these atoms together in increasingly complex structures, which we call molecules, and began using the molecules to make things. He made planets, rocks, water, plants, animals and, eventually, us.
Many scientists now believe that before the Big Bang there was a huge, possibly infinite, amount of energy. That’s all there was. And the Big Bang turned much of that energy into those first atoms. Maybe that huge amount of energy was intelligent and self-aware. That’s not too difficult to imagine. No more difficult than explaining how we humans are intelligent and self-aware, when we are composed solely of those atoms that are composed solely of energy. (We read in Genesis that we are made in God’s image.)
If spirit and energy are the same thing, and our loving Father made the universe out of himself, then he is the universe and the universe is him. He is not invisible. He is visible in everything we see. He is truly in us and we are in him.
Some time ago, I found myself wondering how much of our loving creator’s available energy would have been used up in creating the physical universe. How much would he have left over? The answer has to be – plenty. Since the 1990s, the existence of “dark energy” has been accepted by most scientists as the most likely explanation for the accelerating expansion of our universe. According to these scientists, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that makes up most of the universe. But maybe this dark energy is also part of the very substance of our loving creator. (If this is true, I think we need to stop calling it “dark”.)
It is just a theory. That’s why I keep saying “maybe”.
What do others think?
Incidentally, talking about the expanding universe, there are a surprising number of verses in the Old Testament that talk about God “stretching out” the heavens – check out this link.
May the loving divine presence, the creator, our heavenly Father, keep us safe and keep encouraging us to ask questions.
Peter O
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Danatus N. King says
Everything that ever was, is now, or ever will be is a piece of God.
EMMANUEL TUNEZERWE says
I agree with your theory. In fact, I have had this theory for many years now. God has unlimited energy which he can use to make up matter or re -arrange it in any way. Isaiah 40:26 explains it so well.
Paul Meleng says
Buddhist teacher suggests God is “everything”. Put it this way… to what should you submit? To what should you seek to integrate , to belong, to live in accord with , or to stop complaining about ? Answer? Everything as it is.. including you and me. So in that sense God is everything seen and unseen. Everything known and yet to be discovered. TRUTH. So what is our role ? To learn to know, to seek knowledge and truth , not in competition but in shared joy and love of the wonder of it all. The idea of some bloke in the sky pulling strings of favouritism or woe is at the heart of most dispute. Quite happy to sing all our songs with this “everything” picture in mind. I like the idea of God made the universe of “himself”. 🙂 So what about calling God Father … It is or was a common perception or protocol amongst many ancient and quite independent cultures to consider the earth as “mother” and the unseen spirit of life and enegy etc as “father”. So I am happy to sing that too. All good. Near enough to agree and live well.
Ken says
Yeah Peter. Nothing startling there. “I am who I am .” God as verb as well as noun. Not God which makes matter, as much as God being what matter is made of and God being the process by which it is made.
Not a God which subjects matter to an external force of creation so much as God which is infused within matter and intrinsically creative within itself.
And yes, in as much as the atoms within my body are the same atoms which form the farthest reaches of the expanding universe, God is in all things everywhere. And of course, creation is process, not event, and is not limited by time.
However I gather that the need to think of God as a person who needs to know “he’s” done good, in our terms, says more about us than God.