Perspectives: Foreboding Confirmations

Two lectures into the discipleship training course here at YWAM has already been insightful, for they have constructed a wonderfully logical way of approaching the faith. I am hearing profundities I have vaguely deduced articulated with refreshing clarity and precision. 

The first series of lectures is by YWAM veteran Paul Hawkins, concerning the character and nature of God. It is a vivifying distillation of theology derived from biblical and practical experience. Which, after reading Sophie's world, I would call a twin approach of knowledge by perception and language, for written records fall under the avenue of linguistics for me. 

He has thus far spoken on how God is a person, or as a trinitarian perspective might suggest, three persons relating in perfect unity. Paul suggests that a person must have intelligence, emotion and volition, three delightfully latinate words. Intelligence is further delineated as the qualities of self-consciousness, reasonability, imagination and memory. He went on to prove that since God has all these qualities, evidenced by the biblical record, we can be confident of His full personhood.

These are several of the points which I found as confirmation of what answers I arrived at as I had meditated on the nature of God and creation. After going to the series of lectures on the nature of the Trinity in 2013, I learnt about the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and the perfect communion that unites them. I felt that while I was never explicitly stated, the reason why God created us to was to extend that perfect source of love and joy to other persons. I had heard previously that we were created in order to worship God. To some extent this is true, but more importantly, we were created to have intimate, personal relationships with Him. To be sure, worship is an essential and beautiful aspect of our relationship with God, but I almost feel that the full realisation of our relationship with God will be more than the word 'worship' can do justice to. I daresay we are called to be more than worshippers, we are called to be children of God, fellow partakers in that inheritance which Christ has already received.

Second, he spoke about the intensity of God's emotions, which I am very glad to have assurance on now. I had sensed that as one comes to know God and to understand Christ, one does not approach a sort of tranquil enlightenment, at utter acceptance of the world. Conversely, we move into greater and stronger emotional and motivational states, for God is a God of crazy love, of impartial compassion and righteous anger. As we know Him more, our hearts likewise imitate His perspectives and emotions. Just as the opposite of love is not hatred, but apathy, the opposite of God's emotional intensity could be viewed as an emotional insensitivity, which is wont to develop if one is detached from God for an extended period of time, living a purposeless life, where emotions are not a boon but a bane. The tranquility of monastery life and buddhist apotheosis seems appealing, but it resolves the suffering of the world in a philosophical sense, not in the practical sense which will compel positive action which God desires. It is an answer that appeals to the world, that we must come to accept the suffering and distress as part of a grander whole, that there is no good and evil, but only oneness where duality is a refracted dispersal of unity. There is a mysticism to it, but it is not what a believer in the Christian God is drawn to. The Christian God calls us to fix what is unjust, to work against exploitation and disease and poverty, to do what we can to heal the brokenness of this world, instead of denying our sense of morality in a series of noble, but misguided, mental gymnastic manoeuvres.

Third, his central point was 'What you believe about God will affect what you believe about everything else.' This reminds me very much of a much loved quote from C. S. Lewis 'I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.' It ties in with a principle that I have experienced in my own life, that once I learned about the nature of God, through bible studies and prayer, personal experience and the testimonies of others, I become increasingly able to make sense of an otherwise inconsistent and irrational world. When one learns about one aspect of God, it augments one's faith in all the other characteristics one has already observed. And the more one learns about Him, the more one can say 'There is none like You.' without a sliver of doubt.

A Biennial Review

I began conceiving the world of Eldwan as a vast work of synthesis, a creative platform for me to wrestle with the twin giants of Biblical record and modern scientific knowledge. These past two years have afforded me the time to reflect, acquire information, and weave ever more of what I have learnt into the fabric of my sub-creation. I am glad for them, for I doubt that I will have such leisurely temporal abundance when my education resumes in eight short months.

It has come a long way, though I suppose in retrospect, many of my earlier posts seem juvenile and poorly informed. In particular, the ones on language, for which I was certainly inadequately versed in the vernacular of grammar and linguistics. As such, the development of Tas Eldwaraj is suspended until I have studied a few more languages; a checklist of which now includes Hebrew, French, Chinese and Greek, and perhaps German and Japanese. Just as how one must play and familarise oneself with pre-existing music before innovating with compositions of one's own, it seems sensible to me to immerse my mental faculties in ablutions of existing languages before returning to construct my own.

The history of Eldwan has been greatly enriched through my readings of non-fiction history, a newfound love of which is making me question my former myopic academic affinity with the natural sciences. I never imagined what it would spiral into when I first began to carry those central characters in my idle thoughts.

My writing encountered quite an obstacle with the influx of new information received from the faith bible institute creationism class. In particular, the relationship between continental drift, extinction and the deluge. I had constructed the movement of Eldwan's elves around the idea that continental drift occurred at the time of the fall of humankind, while the flood was a local event occurring between the ages of light and water. This is not in alignment with the suggested interpretation of the Noahic flood from the creationism class, and so I was caught in a dilemma between abandoning what I had developed for Eldwan, or accurately representing what could approximate the Biblical account in an alternate universe. I have resolved, as of the writing of this post, to remain with my original ideas. This does risk misrepresentation and confusion with regard to the literal creationism and flood account, which I feel sorely, for I would hate to add another poorly supported idea to the general confusion surrounding this topic. However, I also feel the need to write something distinct, something apart from what has happened in this universe. I find myself prone to mixing what I would like to be true with what actually is, and in writing something so similar to the development of this world has admittedly, been confusing for me. 

Eldwan is not the universe we live in, it takes elements of reality, but not all of it, and that is one of the quintessential charms of fantasy. I hope you'll have patience with me, dear reader, as the metamorphosis of Eldwan from inconsistent ideas and pre-fabricated characters to a coherent mythos continues this solar revolution.

Vignette: Mere Meaning 1

There was a crone who used to visit the town library, the building I was privileged to live just across from. So I noticed her, a hunched wrinkled devotee of the written word, always in a pastel blouse with a black skirt and shoes, entering and exiting between the Ionic columns of that noble edifice. She brought a trolley with her, which changed its contents like the clouds gracing the sky, that is, frequently and never the with repetition. If she was really reading at such an astonishing pace, I thought that she must have broken a Guiness record for speedreading. Then one day she simply didn't show, nor the next. I looked out for her in the obituaries, but her face never showed between all the comforting verses and condolences. She came over to exchange words with me sometimes, that's how I knew her appearance. I supposed that she must have exhausted all the books in our library and moved on to graze on greener intellectual pastures.

A year passed. About the next September, and I decided to take a longer route for my evening jog, so ended up running through a neighbourhood I didn't know all too well. There, I saw her again, sitting on a bench out on a veranda. My curiousity broke my run, a conversation like a beckoning golden apple to Diana, and I walked up to her fence and rang the doorbell. There was no response from her. I thought she might have suffered a stroke; that would explain her sudden literary cessation. Panting, I watched her for awhile, earphones still tuned to Dvorak's New World. A crescendo reminded me that I might want to put aside the music to catch any faint utterances from her lips, so I did. Yet she was motionless, as still as a terracotta footsoldier, and as silent as one too. Poor dear, trapped in that body. What good was acquiring all the knowledge of the world if it could not be articulated?

The door to her house opened, and a middle-aged man emerged. He wore slacks and an oversized T-shirt; a thin, anaemic man, who looked like he might evaporate at any moment. He walked over to her with a tray of food, then lifted his head and saw me by their gate. Be amiable, I thought, so I waved to him. He traversed the short path to the gate and greeted me.

'We don't get many visitors,' he said, 'My name is Alef, but most people call me Al, I'm her eldest son.'

He told me she had a stroke some time ago, I suppose that must have been when her mobility was compromised. I asked about her trips to the library, telling him I used to see her cart volume after volume out of those holy halls. He told me she was a linguist by training, that she enjoyed cataloguing the way that written languages developed and how they were used. She had been working on a massive project during the sunset of her life, he said, and the stress must have got to to her during those final frenetic weeks. One morning she had become as mute as Zechariah, and things had deteriorated from there.

'She hardly communicates now. I just feed and clothe her, my siblings help me to support her financially, but they're all preoccupied with their own affairs.'

'Well,' I said, 'at least she has you. I was puzzled by the disappearance of a fellow ardent of our town library. I'm sorry to hear she's like this now.'

'She was a kind mother, sharp-tongued but well-intentioned. She'd always complain about how none of us could understand her because we children only conversed and comprehended in one language, and not to mention in a language like English that obscures meaning so.'

'It must have been interesting to be raised by a linguist. '

'I don't think so, at least, not by her. She kept most of her work separate from our domestic life. What she did try to do was teach us nouns and verbs in multiple languages as we were growing up, we three children took to that with varying degrees of affinity.'

'My family only utilises English.'

'My mother would not approve, that I can say for certain. You mentioned the library, do you enjoy reading?'

'Indubitably. Anything from Homer, Cicero and Dante to Melville, Asimov and Dickens or Sun Tzu, Murakami and Narayan to Tufail, Khayyam and Oz.'

We heard a clatter as I uttered my statement. Turning in its direction of origin, I saw Al's mother, teeth grit, trying to bend down for her culinary utensils. Al responded with fluid attentiveness and went into the house to obtain a replacement set. I moved beside her and lowered myself to pick them up.

Standing where I was, I became aware of two letters which she had fashioned by arranging her rice on the plate. 'L' and 'A'. She waved for the chopsticks, but Al soon emerged and passed her a clean pair. She got to work, forming 'T' and 'I', and as she was working on the last letter, Al said to me, 'She wants you to go and learn Latin.'

'Learning languages has never been a high priority for me.'

She frowned, and turned her face away like a schoolgirl offended by the ignorance her class' resident unscholarly clown. Al chuckled, 'She doesn't wish to see you again unless you do so.'

'I'll get to it someday then. I'd best be off, sorry to have taken up quite a bit of time!'

'Not at all, I'm enjoying this disruption of monotony. Goodbye!'

'Goodbye!'

As I ran back to the pavement, Al called out, 'You might want to check the origin of that word 'Goodbye''. I snorted, vaguely amused. Waving to them both, I resumed my jog and reflected on the oddity of this encounter.

Clandestine Echoes

As I was drafting the previous post, I happened to read through liber primus of Ovid's Metamorphoses. I wish I could understand the latin original more smoothly, but I haven't been practicing Lingua Mater very regularly over the last few weeks and poetic syntax is such a barrier to my rudimentary comprehension abilities. So for both our sakes, here is the link to an English translation.

The most interesting correlation was between the four created Wevel and the four elements of Ovid, which I never intended, but have somehow been forced into establishing. The Wevel were initially conceived as spiritual governors of the four fundamental forces, Alero - Electromagnetism, Ilvesu - Gravity, Oleri - Weak Nuclear, Uleva - Strong Nuclear. Of course, over time, they accrued a whole lot of other associations, which ranged from the emotional and temperamental to the racial and locative. Now, in writing the creation of Eldwan anew, I find myself writing in such a way that the Wevel align fairly well with the elements of Ovid's creation. This leads to an odd mish-mash of pagan ideas with biblical ideas. My more conservative side rebels against the blend of oil and water, but I have to add that Tolkien did something similar with Arda and that went brilliantly. I suppose the key is to emphasise the ultimate authority of the initial creator.

Reading Ovid's epic, the passage that leaped out to my imagination was this :

Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n, 

And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n. 

Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;

The next of kin, contiguously embrace; 

And foes are sunder'd, by a larger space. 

The force of fire ascended first on high, 

And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky: 

Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire; 

Whose atoms from unactive earth retire. 

Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng 

Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along. 

About her coasts, unruly waters roar; 

And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore.

I had wanted to associate each of the Wevel with a particular realm before, and perhaps one of the Aristotelian senses, but this passage cemented the elemental parallels in my imagination. I'll give the main alignments of each of the Wevel systematically.

Alero

Fundamental: Electromagnetism
Drive: Curiosity, Exploration

Regional: The High Heavens, space beyond the atmosphere

Classical Element: Fire
Sensory: Eyes, Sight

Ilvesu
Fundamental: Gravitation
Drive: Prudence, Reflection
Regional: The Deep, the seas and subterranean reaches of the earth
Classical Element: Water
Sensory: Ears, Auditory and Vestibular

Oleri
Fundamental: Weak Nuclear
Drive: Isolation, Originality
Regional: The Skies, the earth's atmosphere
Classical Element: Air
Sensory: Nose, Smell

Uleva
Fundamental: Strong Nuclear
Drive: Interaction, Cooperation
Regional: The Land, the land surfaces of the earth
Classical Element: Earth
Sensory: Tongue, Taste

It might be worth reinterpreting Metamorphoses, or its counterpart in the incorporated fabric of Eldwan, as a corrupted retelling of the associations of the Wevel and their domains, rather than as the Wevel being strictly tethered to whatever pseudoscientific associations that Empedocles' quartet has accrued. The Eldwanian Greeks are supposed to be descended from the Alarians after the Deluge, so that would also make sense. Thus the Eldwanian creation myth I published in the last post would be an odd meld such that the biblical creation and hellenistic creation myths would both be its derivatives, either embellishing as in the case of Ovid, or withholding information, as in the case of Genesis.

An Overview of Eldwanian History - The Creation

New information calls for new incorporations, or at least a decision over what to borrow and what to leave aside for Eldwan. Those of you who have read the series of Resolving Genesis posts probably know what is coming. This is a revised account of the creation of Eldwan, with more detail and commentary on the symbolism involved.

CISEL

Eleyon is and time began. In the stillness of the ether, contemplating the form of his existence, Eleyon formed within himself three persons, and in such a mutual comprehension he has remained since. Encountering nothing else in the etheric void, Eleyon creates Alero and Ilvesu in paired harmony, shortly followed by Uleva and Oleri. Eleyon named the four created spirits and himself the Yevel, the wills of ether, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon wove strands of energy, fluid and fine, from the ether and set them into a grand tapestry. Threads interweaving and braiding into plexi, a plane of energy was formed on the vast cosmic loom. Eleyon now breathed life into the fabric, commanding it to teem with consciousness. So it was that the souls were formed, and Eleyon named them the Wevel, the wills of energy, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon began to knot threads of energy into the dust of the world, aided by the other Yevel and Wevel, and the cosmos grew heavy with matter. Ilvesu gathered the substance into one place, and the Yevel and Wevel did hover above the surface of the mass. The dense sphere Eleyon named the earth and gave dominion of the deep to Ilvesu, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon told Alero to bring light into the world, and so Alero did. Eleyon separated the light from the darkness. The light Eleyon named the day and darkness he named the night. Eleyon gave the rule of the heavens to Alero. Now there was evening and morning; the first day, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon told Oleri to shape the firmament, separating substance from substance, and so Oleri did. Eleyon named the firmament the sky and gave dominion of the airs to Oleri. Now there was evening and morning; the second day, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon told Uleva to gather the substance below the sky, and to let dry land appear, and so Uleva did. Eleyon named the dry land the ground, the gathered substance he named the seas and gave dominion of the ground to Uleva. Then Eleyon spoke to some of the Wevel and worked with them to make the ground and the sea bring forth grass, herbs and trees, each bearing seeds according to their own kinds. Now there was evening and morning; the third day, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon told Alero, Ilvesu, Oleri and Unavo to fasten lights in the expanse of the heavens, to mark the passing of the days, months and years, and to give light to the earth below, and so the Yevel did. The Yevel crafted two great lights, the greater to mark the day and the lesser to mark the night. Stars they also made. Now there was evening and morning; the fourth day, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon told more of the Wevel to let the seas be filled with living creatures, and the sky be filled with winged birds, and so these Wevel did. They brought forth fishes and beasts of waters in thousands of forms and sizes, and winged birds in the air, each producing young according to their own kinds. Now there was evening and morning; the fifth day, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon told the last of the Wevel to let the land be filled with living creatures, walking or creeping over the ground, and so these Wevel did. They brought forth beasts of the wild and beasts of the field, and things that creeped over the ground, each producing young according to their own kinds. Finally Eleyon himself made man and woman, and when they were made, Eleyon granted dominion of the plants, the creatures of the sea, air and land to them. He blessed them and told them that all the green plants were given as sustenance, to subdue the earth with kindness and wisdom, and to be fruitful and multiply. Now there was evening and morning; the sixth day, and all was in accord.

Then Eleyon looked at all he had brought into being, and he was glad that all was in accord. Thus were the heavens and the earth completed in all their fullness. On the seventh day, Eleyon rested from what he had done, blessing it and sanctifying it, for it was a day when all the Yevel and Wevel rested.

Perspectives : Resolving Genesis - Partus Septem

This was the final session in a very illuminating series on creationism and evolution. The speaker wrapped up his section on the dinosaurs and quickly breezed through several other topics which he included in the appendices.

I. Dinosaurs and Deluge

II. Docile Dinosaurs

III. Defunct Dinosaurs

IIII. Dragons Defined

V. More on the Ice Age

VI. Racial Characteristics and Racism in Evolution

I felt some of the final topics he shared, some of which I have not included in the list above, were more speculative in their nature than most of the topics dealt with earlier in the course material. Among which, the canopy theory was mentioned; this was an idea that I examined in an earlier post and am not eager to discuss again.

I. Dinosaurs and Deluge

If fossils are simply a reflection of the action of the flood, then the position of dinosaurs in a creationist timeline is quite simple. They lived just like any other reptiles in antediluvian times, and would also have been present in Noah's great vessel. The speaker also points out that the dimensions of the ark would be sufficient for all kinds of land dinosaurs to board, based on a few key points. First, it would make logical sense to bring the young of dinosaurs onto the ark, as they would be logical candidates for the subsequent repopulation. This also implies that the gargantuan kinds of sauropods and other similarly proportioned lizards could be represented by far more manageable and miniature adolescent specimens. Second, the speaker estimates that there are only about fifty or so kinds of dinosaurs, which does challenge the number of species of dinosaurs that are supposed to have existed. It is worth noting however, that a genesis kind may not accurately reflect a single species by a modern definition, and variety within a species may be so great that their skeletal remains may induce too fine a subdivision upon examination. Third, the speaker points out that the nutritional demands of reptiles, even large reptiles, are much lower that that of comparably sized endotherms. If food supply was an issue, Noah would have had a harder time stockpiling for mammals than for dinosaurs.

The speaker points out that there is really an assumption that man and dinosaurs could not have lived contemporaneously. I remember my young self looking down with disdain on comics which featured dinosaurs masticating hominids or on friends who had the apparently mistaken impression that the terrible lizards and the wise men could have looked each other in the eye. Yet, I have no good reason for such a belief apart from evolutionary indoctrination. If one would consider the dinosaurs simply to be another sort of reptile, which has unfortunately gone extinct, there would really be far less of an unease accepting this point. There are plenty of other species which have gone extinct, so is it so hard to suppose it could have happened to these beasts? I'll save more of this for part III.

II. Docile Dinosaurs

The speaker points out that the majority of dinosaurs were not fearsome, towering behemoths, but rather, small and herbivorous. He also notes that many of the carnivorous dinosaurs were probably scavengers rather than active hunters, and this category includes the tyrannical-lizard king. Another point submitted was that not all animals with sharp teeth are carnivorous. As examples, he provides the giant panda and the fruit bat, both of which have pointed teeth, and yet one munches contentedly on bamboo while the other flits about from fruit to fruit.

All this contributes to the speakers point that dinosaurs could have existed at the same time as our rather naturally unarmed ancestors. There is no reason to suppose that man could not have subjugated and driven out dinosaurs just as we have practically done away modern predators. There is an attention bias towards the plausibly magnificent and terrifying members of this extinct class of reptiles simply because they make for better publicity.

III. Defunct Dinosaurs

Now, to address the obvious query, if the dinosaurs were ensconced in the ark, where are they now? The speaker draws in more flood geology at this point. Most flood geologists agree that after the flood, conditions would have been vastly different to the climate before the earth shaking cataclysm. Chief among these changes is the precipitation of an ice age. Altered wind and ocean currents, the high humidity and volcanic ash would have contributed to a runaway temperature drop, and the resulting ice age could have lasted several centuries.

Proceeding logically, with a frigid conditions descending worldwide, ectotherms would be more adversely affected than their thermally homeostatic counterparts. In addition to the climate, the survivors of the flood would face food scarcity as there would be a lack of mature vegetation to support their appetites. So it would seem that many of the kinds of dinosaurs, particularly the larger ones, or k-strategists, would have perished in the hostile new world they found themselves in.

IIII. Dragons Defined

The speaker now moves on to discuss whether there are any records of dinosaurs by the ancients, ore recent evidence of dinosaurs in general. He quotes several unusual finds of preserved soft dinosaur tissue, which would have long deteriorated by evolutionist eons. Unfortunately, he once again does not provide much needed citations for these discoveries.

There are apparently many examples of dinosaurs found in the art of antiquity. Cave paintings of creatures that look remarkably like modern visualisations of dinosaurs have been found in Native American and Rhodesian sites. From what we know about early prehistoric art, people were not inclined to imaginative depictions of fantastical monsters, but painted what they saw. There are also ancient Chinese sculptures, Roman mosaics and Mesopotamian artefacts which could easily be representations of dinosaurs.

Of course, as you would have noticed from this section's header, the ubiquity of draconic legends could easily be attributed to a hazy memory of what we now dub dinosaurs. The speaker notes many similarities between dinosaurs and dinosaurs :

1. They are reptilian in nature.
2. They reproduce with eggs
3. There are varieties of both, in the air, in the oceans and on land
4. They are scaled, armoured or smooth skinned beings.
5. Many have horns or spines

There are many mentions of dragons or reptilian beasts in world legends, from Gilgamesh from St. George. Finally, the bible itself mentions dragons many times, though this is sometimes obscured by translation. Most notably, descriptions of the Leviathan and the Behemoth in Job, which some scholars suggest may have been written in antediluvian times. Other references include Deut 32:33, Psalm 74:13, Isaiah 27:1, Jeremiah 51:37, Ezekiel 29:3 and Micah 1:8. The speaker also notes that in Genesis 1:21, the hebrew word 'tannim', usually translated as 'sea monsters', could easily encompass aquatic dinosaurs.

V. More on the Ice Age

The speaker quotes 'Willmington's Guide to the Bible' and explains that extremely high humidity would have been the primary driving force behind the ice age. If the flood was global, then all the areas which would have become our modern day deserts would have been utterly waterlogged. For a long while, these waterlogged areas, which would otherwise be dry, would have served as vast reserves of water that would be evaporated. Evaporation itself has a cooling effect, and increased cloud cover would have affected albedo. The great clouds would have been carried north and south, and precipitated as rain or snow for extended periods of time. The buildup of ice led to the formation of great glaciers, which shaped the geography of the continents in the ways that are still evident today.

VI. Racial Characteristics and Racism in Evolution's Past

In one of the final points that the speaker makes, he recalls evolutions darker associations with eugenics, racism and genocide. During an age of empires and colonial subjugation, it was easy for evolutionists to suppose that aboriginal peoples of various lands represented missing links in the chain between apes and the white man. Evolutionary beliefs carried to an unsavoury extreme were what justified wholesale murder and experimentation on subjugated peoples, in the belief that such processes would benefit humankind by accelerating our evolutionary processes, enforcing the natural law of 'conflict' and victory.

Racial characteristics could easily have arisen in the reproductively isolated populations of humans after the tower of Babel incident. But it is worth noting that evolution in the full sense of the word has not happened,all humans, everywhere, are still human beings.