by Austin Wyman

At the end of the creation narrative, God essentially hands down his role as creator to his proudest creations: mankind. He grants humans the ability to create and assign, just like God used to create the world. Therefore, the only separation between these two entities is the level of experience, or knowledge. Legaspi argues that God has the ability to understand the objective morality of the world, evidenced by his careful references to his creation as “good” and the way he separates them from less good. Eating the fruit symbolically gives humans the same ability to understand objective morality, which transcends their original role in the world. This is why the serpent tempts Eve by telling her that if she eats the fruit, she will “be like God.” Yes, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, but did they do anything wrong? It is possible that God wanted the first humans to eat from the tree, despite his deliberate command not to. Why else was the tree placed in the middle of the Garden and made so enticing? He made the forbidden fruit seem so natural, a common choice within their diet. They would eat any other food, so why should this be different? Why else did God permit the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve, or even allow him in the Garden? Surely, God would’ve known that Satan would tempt his creation. He could’ve expelled the serpent just like he expelled Adam and Eve. Instead, he allowed him to remain. God banishing them from the Garden is a merciful punishment because God planned for them to sin in the first place. Original sin makes humans less god-like, but that was the point of the entrapment: to distance creation’s relationship to God so that degrees of distinction between the two entities could remain. God did not intend to coexist with his creation but to rule over, so he sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden in order to metaphorically preserve his kingdom.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

by Austin Wyman

The Bible frequently refers to God as “Lord” and to heaven as his “kingdom.” However, where is the justification for why God should be treated as such? This question is answered within the first verse of the Bible, which sets the tone for the rest of the book that its primary purpose is to return praise to the Lord. It is revealed that God created the heavens and the earth and everything on it, so we return praise as thanks for being created. By enumerating everything that was created by God, it gives greater significance to why He is worthy of being designated “Lord.” The purpose of the creation narrative is also etiological, meaning that it serves as an explanation for a tradition or way of life. The number appears frequently in the Bible and is Christian tradition as a whole. From the mention of seven churches in the Book of Revelation to the seven sacraments that are celebrated in the Catholic Church, the number seven is considered a symbol of perfection. This all goes back to the creation narrative, in which the seven days that God created the world set a precedent of completion for the universe to follow. It employs the logic that God, as the perfect being, decided that this stretch of time was appropriate, there must be some significance behind the number. The purpose of the creation narrative is to explain why seven is such a significant number, which justifies the many ways in which it reoccurs. The importance of the seventh day being designated for rest may not exactly be because God needed it. One theory is that it serves as a set of instructions for mankind. If the primary purpose of the creation narrative is to instruct on why God is Lord and should be respected, how He is to be respected is equally important.