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And on the eighth day... hang on!

16 Sep 09 | Re: Theological conundrum

Everyone knows the story of creation in Genesis: God spent six days creating various bits of the world and universe, and then rested on the seventh day when He had finished. Conversely, nobody seems to know what God did on the eighth day, that He wasn’t doing on the seventh while He was resting.

What does it mean for God to rest? Could God ever rest again? What would happen? What is He doing right now, if He is not resting?

Some people believe that the universe as we know it is only sustained from one moment to the next by God’s power in a kind of constant re-creation; presumably those people don’t take a literal view of the Genesis account. Some people believe that God and the Devil are locked in an eternal struggle, any imbalance in which would cause the universe to slip out of kilter; presumably those people don’t take Genesis 1 literally either. I think this idea of resting might actually be the most problematic thing about the whole story, theologically.

Some links:

• Jack Kelly thinks it might still be the seventh day - there is no eighth day!
• Christian Beyer agrees with him.
• Someone called Rob thinks God might have created Adam and Eve, having already created some other humans on the sixth day.
• Newwoman54 agrees with Rob.

A lot of people high up the Google rankings also think that God created rock and roll, funk, cars, Google Earth, aliens, “hot pockets”, and a whole boatload of other junk on the eighth day. Fascinating subject.

Posted by DANBERT NOBACON at 18:06

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