Is God a Bastard?

Genesis chapter one gives Christian and Jewish people a pretty good idea about the state of things, “in the beginning.” We read over and over again that, “God saw that it was good.” Every element: light and dark, sky, sea, fish, land, plants, animals, human beings, etc. “God saw that it was good.”

Unlike the other created things, this story explains that human beings were given more than the common declaration, “Good”. They were given blessing, trust and dominion, interaction with God. One take of this is that God loved what God had created so much so that God initiated a relationship with human beings. Another way of saying this is, from the beginning, God has been on our side. Or so the story suggests.

Now, I understand that this story is thought to be cultural myth. I understand that. But the myth is thought to be a reaction of some sort, to the other myths regarding the creation and purpose of the world. Yahweh believers are thought to have loved and valued their relationship with Yahweh to such a degree that they wanted the world, universe, etc to know what differentiated Yahweh from other gods.

Other creation stories, such as Enuma Elish, an ancient Babylonian myth speaks of Humanity being created for the service of the Gods (sixth tablet). And as we dip into these ancient myths, we begin looking at other cultures such as Greek culture and find similar mindsets. Some viewing God or the gods as one who is to be feared, others as one who is to be praised, others as one who is to be followed. But as far as I can tell (and this could be argued- although my personal belief is that evidence is strong) Yahweh is the first God to bless, trust and relinquish everything to those who have been ‘created’. The first God to give for the mere sake of giving. I want to suggest that humans cannot create a God like this.

Personally, I believe it is more impactful to look at the Genesis story as myth. The evidence of its being written at the same time as other creation myths is to strong to ignore. For me though, myth does not suggest the accounts as untrue. If anything (for me), they make the accounts even more impactful and personal. Just as Yahwey comes to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God has come to us, communicating in a way that we understand. God has come to love us. To inspire us. To bless us. To give to us. To trust us with all that is rightfully Gods.

"I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food."

This seems pretty simple. It is something that I understand. I have never known life where I looked at a tree in the woods and thought, “Oh, that is Dan’s tree. Dan sure has nice trees.” But instead, I see trees, I see fruit and I think, “That is a tree.” Or “That is carrot plant”. And when I think these things, I know that they are mine.

Of course it could be argued that, “The tree in Joe’s yard is not yours, Nathan.” And I would have to give you that one, but honestly, until Joe kills the tree, cutting it down, is it really Joes tree, or is it all of ours? As I drive by the tree, the fruit, etc. I take them in and they are mine. Deer for example, never think of a garden as Dan's or Joe's. Deer go and eat what has been given to them. Things have changed and we hate how the deer think. I can in fact plant a garden with a seed and eat all the fruit I want for free. But things have become, not ours, we as a race have decided that some people have dominion and others do not.

I say, it is our tree, until someone kills it. It is our fruit until someone puts a price on it. The story communicates to me in the way I understand. When I was little, I would eat an apple out of my grandfathers yard and thought, “everybody must like eating apples. Even deer like eating apples."

I now see that the story has changed. God has given the world to us all. But some have abused their dominion. The gift, the trust, the relationship has been manipulated.

The main difference I see in the Yahweh creation story and the others is that Yahweh is good, just as Yahweh’s creation is good. Yahweh loves. Yahweh is selfless and generous. In the other stories, the gods are not good. They are not generous. They manipulate and look out for themselves. Their creation is secondary to their own. Their creations welfare is secondary to their own. Humans create gods like these. These gods are bastards. These gods act like humans. Humans who have ignored that one God called them, "good". (i ignore this too, a lot!)

I’m not sure, but I wonder if we have, in all our economic strivings began to enforce this idea again that God is not good? I wonder if there are a lot of Christian churches who think that Yahweh is not good? We look around us, and something in us suggest that trees cannot be owned and manipulated, but they are. We eat a carrot, unlike a $ menu double cheese and know that something about that carrot is ours; the same feelings come from apples and oranges. But none of these things are ours any longer. And so many of us have begun to desire the $ double cheese. And so Yahweh seems like a bastard. We ask, “What kind of a God would allow children to suffer and innocents to be killed, people to starve, etc. etc. etc?”

I say the kind of God who believes that we can do better. The kind of God who always saw our goodness. The kind of God who blesses us and trusts us to do better. The kind of God who helps us to be better. The kind of God who suggests its not to late.

Yahweh seems like a bastard. I really don’t believe that Yahwey is. Humans, from the beginning have made stories suggesting that god is against us. But somewhere along the line a story was inspired that told us that God is for us and with us and that God blesses and gives and trusts and seeks us out.

In our world, where God seems like a bastard, let me suggest that we, myself included, have only began to revert, seeking the god’s we created in the beginning. No wonder there is chaos, we have created a peace collision.