The Creation of God

by Jacob Hartmann

Then again, grass might and does grow in a season, but trees do not. It takes quite a number of seasons for trees to bear fruit. The elements that enter into their composition differ. Some have more of one element, and grow on certain soil and flourish, while others do not. Moreover, there are only certain localities on earth where the growth of any can be accomplished.

The fourth day’s work is something prodigious:

Verse 14: “And God said, Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven” (in the eighth verse God calls the firmament heaven, but in the 14th calls it the firmament of the heaven) “to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.”

Verse 15: “And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon earth: and it was so.”

Verse 16: “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser to rule the night: he made the stars also.”

The inventor or the writer of these passages had not the slightest conception of what he was talking about. He spoke and wrote of the mere appearance of what he beheld daily and nightly, the sun and the moon. They could not know, in those remote ages, the important role the sun plays in the solar system, because whatever is known thereon is of very recent date. Talk of setting the sun in the firmament, 93,000,000 miles’ distance from the earth, considering its bulk, weight, and condition, is an outrage on common sense. It is a monstrous piece of stupidity to make children believe it, and it is an infamous fraud for any priest or preacher to teach it.

Writers in order to explain away the above difficulty quote, for example: “Maimonides (born 1131 A.D.) in his guide, Rashi (1030) and Aben Ezra (1119) in their commentaries, hold that the light of the first day was that of the sun itself, which revolving in its sphere from west to east and from east to west made a day of twenty-four hours. The scripture’s saying that it was created on the fourth day is incident to its thus demonstrating its effects upon plants, which appeared on the third day; rain, which proceeded from the exhalations and vapors raised from the earth by the action of the sun’s heat thereon, being necessary to their vegetation. Therefore, it is clear that there was no new creation on the fourth day; but the heat implies that on that day the sun developed the effects of his heat on plants.” This is one of many explanations of philosophical commentators who have tried to explain away the difficulty of creation, owing to the many doubts that arose in the minds of learned men about the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D.; and especially the Greek philosophers, Aristotle[1] and others. Volumes upon volumes have been written in order to explain away the difficulties theologians encounter. As science advances, explanations and reconciliations become more difficult. Maimonides, in his pious enthusiasm, after having consulted Aristotle and others, is not quite certain, but he claims (according to More, xi, 15): “I propose to show that the creation of the world, as our religion teaches, is not impossible, and all philosophical reasonings to the effect that it is not so, as I have said, they may overthrow, but cannot make any objection against us. As for me, I stand firm in my belief on the question, of whether the world had a beginning or not. I accept the solution of this problem from the prophets, as the prophets explain these things, which speculation cannot reach,” etc. (Kusari I, 65, 67). In other words, Maimonides, the authors of the Talmud, and all other writers, theological philosophers, Hebrew and Christian, prove the truth of the Bible by the Bible. One portion of scripture must prove another portion to be true. The Jews use their own biblical authorities to demonstrate one another’s statements. Isaiah gives evidence for Moses, and Moses is made to testify for Isaiah, and so the Jewish philosophers whip the devil round the ring. The Christians have a double hold. They have a New Testament. They prove the statements made by persons figuring in the Old Testament by statements made in the New Testament. That is, they make Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Moses, etc., give testimony for John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke; and then make Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John give evidence for Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Elisha, Elijah, etc.

The majority of theological writings and commentaries, yes, all of them, were composed and written during the Christian era, and nearly one-half of these after the twelfth century. All are employed with the same subject-matter. Although they lay claim that the Talmud and other works treat of mathematics, physics, medicine, etc., they knew little or nothing about these things, and the little they did know was mostly appropriated from the Greek and other nations.

It is not an unusual occurrence for modern thinkers to interpret the statements of ancient writers as they originally never intended. They spoke in enigmas, parables, simply philosophical phrases, without stating a single fact, implying nothing in particular and everything in general.

“And he made the stars also.” Make the stars! We have shown in a previous chapter that this our solar system is but a speck among the starry host of the universe.