Muse 1 (day late)- Creation

This word is so incredibly loaded with crazy facets, opening to endless tangents, all which seem to be pumping from veins of intention in my will as of late. 

A few things about Creation…

First and usually most importantly…What does it mean?

A few dictionary definitions:

-To cause to exist; bring into being.

-to bring into existence

-to make or bring into existence something new

-to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior <her arrival created a terrible fuss> <create new jobs>

I once wrote a paper for a Philosophy 101 course called “Little Creators” positively asserting the existence of Free Will while trying to deal with the mind body problem, therefore denying Hard Determinism and rejecting compatibilism.  Maybe I will get a copy up online sometime…

I ended that paper with a thought.  If we are created in the image of God, we are like God in this sense, we can bring something entirely new into reality. If we are free agents, we are the only things we know of in physical reality outside of the causal chain of events.  Therefore we introduce into that causal chain new “material”.  This brings amazing significance to our everyday choices that come out of actual intention of will.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not going down the line that we create reality, rather with every free choice we make we bring something new into reality.  This “something new” forever changes and stands within the causal chain of events.  This is why what we believe and do out of those beliefs has such high or “heavy”(Mcfly!) moral significance.  The question for me is how am I being a creative force in the Universe. It is not whether or not it matters, it all matters, but how it matters.  We are prone to the mundane routine of life, but this is only part of the trick, so the assumption takes over that all is nothing and I am just apart of that nothing.  We enjoy this comfortable place only because it keeps us from feeling and realizing our bad choices.  At the same time it drives us nutz because we feel we have no effect and what we do never seems to matter.  No, no, we are something, a very real and active something, effectual to every person, place, and thing we interact with.  We are creative forces in the universe…so what will we create…well, I am going to go create a cup of coffee, which will possibly create a more interactive Nathan in my next class…

As these are muses building toward Christmas, I will end with a few probing questions.  I guess the questions for day 1 would be what is it we are looking for in the creation of Christmas?  What was it that God created in the birth of Jesus?  The significance of Incarnation, of God becoming man, is far beyond a simple Nativity scene and play.  Just like our actions, this brought something entirely new in existence, so when God acts in such a big way with intention, there must be many answers to what happened at the Incarnation?  What was “new something” being introduced to reality?

 

P.S.  Owe you another muse for day 2…maybe later tonight.