Tuesday, October 25, 2011

What's the matter?

“In Mesopotamian sources, as in Egypt, when the texts report on the components of the cosmos, the building blocks overwhelmingly involve functional aspects of these components rather than treating them primarily as material objects. Even when material objects are mentioned, it is their functions, not the structures or substance of these material objects that are the focus of attention. Causation, likewise, was not thought of as involving material natural processes; instead, causation is always the prerogative of deity.”Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology, page 42

<idle musing>
Simply put, matter doesn't matter :)
</idle musing>

2 comments:

John Walton said...

When we think about the moon we have a material picture in our minds: rock with craters, in orbit, rotating, reflecting light, long distance away, etc. In the ancient world they have none of that information. Most importantly, however, if we ask what their material picture was--I think the answer is that they didn't have one. It is a LIGHT. Material was not a category that they thought about very much.

jps said...

Thanks John. Glad to see you commenting.

James