"What if humans are here by pure random chance? What if there is no guiding hand, no external regulation, no one watching? It is clearly possible that this may be true. In fact, this is what our scientific evidence is pointing towards. But what if it were true - what would that mean?" ~ Julia Sweeney (American actress, comedian, author)
I'm going to start of by saying something that wouldn't be considered very "PC" amongst most Christian folks out there - at least those of which do not possess a sense of humour - according to Genesis, God was a very busy guy in those first days of life and the creation of everything in existence. And this Genesis business - it continues on for pages and pages, totaling 50 chapters in all and resulting in the creation of the earth and all its inhabitants.
According to the bible, I too was created in this manner, in God's likeness, I suppose. I don't feel as if I was created in the likeness of anyone but my mother and father and, even some of these "likenesses" I would get rid of if I had the opportunity. So, how did this whole God/Catholic thing enter into my life? I imagine it's the same way for most of us: we are conceived and born, leaving our parents to decided what religion we will be affiliated with. This occurs without our input, obviously, and in my experience this continued on for many years with very little of my input. As many children that I grew up with, I was baptised in the Catholic church and then proceeded to go on to my first communion and my eventual confirmation. I attended weekly catechism (Sunday school) in preparation for these events for 10 years -10 YEARS!! That, in my estimation, is a gigantic number of Sunday's. Even when compared to the education system, which lasts 12 years in duration, this seems like an impossible number of Sunday's.
What I remember most about attending church as a child is coloring. Coloring and knelling on the floor to use the pew in front of me as a table in order to color. So, all in all, my early memories of attending church are rather benign. What I remember most about attending catechism is that my mother taught it for awhile, and that it also involved a lot of coloring. Why did we color so much? I distinctly remember the coloring pages being biblical pictures of some sort, generally involving lambs and a bearded guy in a dress holding a stick that was rounded on top. I remember being told the guy was Jesus and that he was watching over his flock. I wonder, did the Sunday school organizers think that we children would learn to like or get to know Jesus through coloring him on pages, as we did with superheros and Sunday morning cartoon characters (who we did, indeed, love)? May be it did work....come to think of it, I don't recall having any feelings of ill-will towards Jesus as a child, quite the opposite in fact. In knowing myself now, I suspect that I likely thought that Jesus was an eccentric man with a kind, but sad face, who was an animal lover.
But, how did The Beginning or the story of Creation link to my beginning? And, did it link to my beginning as a Catholic or as a human being? These questions did not evolve in my mind until I was a teenager, preparing for my confirmation, which in the Catholic religion is a very important event in the life of a young person. These were troubling Sunday's for me as I was being taught something that didn't make sense to my 14-year-old brain. These were also troubling Sunday's for my catechism teacher, who would literally let out a sigh of frustration when my questions would begin. What can I say, I'm a naturally curious individual...to the point of my own detriment at times.
www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-Chapter-1/
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