RE God’s own words – He “wrote” 2 Bibles:
- the one which we know as OT & NT (which were God-inspired, not directly written by God; and
- His creation, directly written by Him…but it takes “exegesis” or science to come to some understanding of it. It’s not really possible for finite beings as ourselves to understand The Infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, & omnipresent. But we can get some glimpses.
I used to teach, mythology, which is NOT about falsehoods, but ultimate truth.
In ancient times there was not this distinction between religion, science, ethics, philosophy – all were one. So the Bible is also an ancient science book, as well as a religious book.
The ancients in all societies were trying to figure out the origins of the world, people, and society (with laws, culture, etc). They didn’t do a bad job, considering their state of knowledge, & based it on good observations creating theories to fit – like the sun rising in the east & setting in the west. What flies across the sky like that? Birds. The sun must be a fire bird, acc to the Chinese, who understood its importance to life – too much & they’re doomed, too little & they’re doomed. And there must be water above the vault of heaven, which leaks now & then, a good explanation of how it rains now & then.
The actual origins, according to today’s best science would have been incomprehensible to them.
I’m imagining the ancients who wrote (or passed on) the Judeo-Christian Genesis. God telling them, “I made this big bang from nothing, then a tiny bit smaller than a quark, which expanded to this huge & spreading universe…then later on a small, insignificant planet orbiting a minor star, I was in the process that made some DNA molecules replicate & create other molecules RNA…and then the primates started walking fully upright & after some time I was in the process that led to their larger brain & greater intelligence…”
And the ancients responding, " Say what, Lord??!!!" To the other ancient, I think He said,
And the other ancient, said, "I think you’re right. that’s how it must have been, but didn’t He also say about mankind, "Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
What can we glean about God from today’s science?
Well, He starts it all (before the big bang, creation& evolution of life, evolution of humans) in some tiny, insignificant & humble way. There is NO WAY we humans would have been able to come up with that – we could only do so by scientific exegesis of this 2nd “Bible.”
And the God comes to us (since we’re constantly messing up) as a zygote & tiny baby (ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny) born in a rude & humble way to a peasant mother, who is herself after God’s own nature – humble, tho she knows about the social injustices & expects them to be overturned, as evidence by her Magnificat.
A fascinating approach!