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these are the principles of creation

There are 10 principles of creation. The first nine are based on the first chapters of the book of Genesis. The tenth principle is based on modern science.

Over-arching principle: Through Word and by Spirit things came into being.

1. The principle of a beginning to time

Matter was created out of subatomic particles.  When electrons joined up with protons, hydrogen atoms were formed.  In this way the universe had a beginning. 

Matter in motion created the universe.  The universe composed of hydrogen atoms started to expand outwards and time began.

2. The principle of creation through word and logic

Creation came from the mind of God.  The embodiment of matter and life took place through logic.  Information is created.  The expression of embodied information occurs through logic.

Word

Word is message.  Life is underpinned by the code of life written in DNA bases.  Each gene is one discreet message coding for the production of one protein.

Matter was formed in the language of subatomic particles which interact according to fundamental forces in physics.  The logic of atoms allows them to form molecules, and organic molecules are the basis to life.

All that was made was made through logic. 

3. The principle of sequence and instantaneous act

Creation did not occur as a single event, and this is what the six days of creation signify.  Acts of creation occurred as a sequence of events separated by lapses of time.

Each act of creation, however, was of itself instantaneous.  Each act of creation occurred at nanoscale – that is to say at the microscopic atomic level.  The intervals of time before subsequent creative acts were necessary for growth, development and multiplication.

The timing of the sequence of acts of creation was determined by ecological conditions. 

By Spirit

Each act of creation occurred through the same power as a miracle of healing or other miraculous sign performed by Jesus.  God wills things to happen when the time is right, and they then happen instantaneously.

4. The principle of completeness and wholeness

The six days of creation depicted in Genesis were completed by the 7^th day, the day of Sabbath rest.  It means that when creation was finished, there was nothing lacking in it.  The work of creation was both complete and whole.

It means that there will not be a continuing creation; God’s work was done.  This means there was a beginning and origin to things; it is not an ongoing task.  If some forms of life go extinct, they will not be recreated and put back again on earth.

The forms of life created were fully functional, complete and perfect in their original condition.

5. The principle of place

The creation of each new form of life happened in the fullness of time.  It also happened in an appropriate location where it could thrive.

Forms of life were created in accordance with there being an environment in which they could live.  A succession of ecosystems allowed new forms of life to appear.  There is a right time and place for an event to occur.

The Garden of Eden symbolizes chosen place.  Things were created at the right time  in a welcoming place.  The earth as a planet was chosen as a good place for the creation of higher forms of life. 

6. The principle of male and female

Each new form of life came from the offspring of a single mating pair.  God did not fill the earth with plants and animals, but He blessed them to multiply and increase in numbers, filling the earth.

Individuality comes from male and female contributing the chromosomes that will form a new being as offspring.  Gametes are formed by the crossing over during meiosis of segments of chromosomes that carry different genes.  This means that for each individual offspring there is inheritance of characteristics from both mother and father.

This principle is the basis for the individuality of each child.  Without male and female individuals would be clones.

7. The principle of seeds and specificity

Genesis says that God created plants as seeds. 

As the tiny seed germinates and grows into the plant from a seed, all of life is encoded by DNA in the nucleus of its first fertilized cell.  This cell becomes two cells as it starts to divide.  DNA encodes the development of the physical body for each individual belonging to a species. 

An act of creation is specific.  It gives rise to seeds that carry the code for new proteins that bring about an innovative body plan, new organs or new physiological functions.  It is always of something that has never been seen before.

God blessed the first created beings, sending them out to multiply and fill the earth.

Note that creation consisted of rare and hidden events; it was never a question of filling the earth up with a great number of fully-grown creatures.  Natural processes of growth, reproduction, increase in populations and migration of new territories is what filled the earth.

God created two individuals: Adam and Eve and blessed them.  A man was created, not a thousand or a million Adams.

While acts of creation were specific, laws of nature are general.  Natural laws of biology relate to populations and the averages of many individuals.  Natural laws are applied to classes of things located in time and place, and not to their specific origin.

8. The principle of distinct kinds and of order  

There is order in the natural world because the number of basic types is limited.  This order makes classification and the naming of things possible.

Each distinct kind or class of life is different to other kinds by the possession of a certain number of innovative genes.  These may number about a thousand new genes.  These genes code for new organs, new structures or a new basic body plan in a new kind.

There are about 120 distinct kinds from which all forms of life are derived.  The kind is the unit of creation.

In origin new kinds were born from existing kinds.  The creature was born from a creature, but was also separate from the parental type.  For this reason geneticists can transfer genes from one form of life to another artificially.  The unified creation of life means there is one single tree of life.

9. The principle of humanity

Possession of mind depends upon language and soul, or word and spirit.

The neurons of the brain store knowledge as the brains of animals also store knowledge useful to their survival.  This is not mind; the brain does not know itself.  The soul of a person, on the other hand, does have a concept not only of what I am, but who I am.

I am called by name and I am capable of naming things.  The human mind has a gift of creativity and inventiveness.  Human culture is derived from this gift and from sharing with others by means of language.

To be made in the image of God is to possess a soul.  Mankind gains understanding by willingly opening up the soul he or she possesses to God.

The soul is specific to the individual person; there is no collective human soul.  The Spirit is experienced through the soul in a personal way.  Animals also experience God’s spirit, but in a generalized way.  Animals have consciousness and are aware of having a body.  But to be aware of my body and to call it me requires a soul.

10. The principle of evolution is creation

The structure of the genome as a double gene allele system for eukaryotes allows for the accumulation of genetic variation and this is the basis to the possibility of evolution. It was created this way. 

Bacteria were created with a genetic system that functions in a totally different way to that of all other organisms. All higher forms of life are diploid, while bacteria are haploid.  Bacteria have single copy genes.  But all forms of life change, adapt and evolve.

Mutation

The genetic system is set up to allow the occurrence of contingent events.  These events are unguided but occur frequently.  Mutations are errors in the replication of DNA and they are random.

Some mutations are the cause of genetic disease and of death, but other mutations may be beneficial in bringing about adaptation to new conditions.  The genome of diploid organisms was created with structural properties that allow it to evolve through mutation.

Life was made such that biological lineages can adapt to new conditions of climate and other environmental factors.  For this reason life has duration through time counted in millions of years, represented by the geological record.

All forms of life show subspecies, varieties and races due to adaptation to varying conditions.  The diversity of species are also grouped as genera, families, orders, classes and phyla which have varying degrees of relatedness.

Evolution is entropic

Mutation causes the information carried by the genetic code to be shifted around or lost.  No essentially new information is ever created.

Loss of information through error entropy causes evolution to run down in an essential way at the level of the genome; the physical body may be better adapted, more specialized and appear to have increased in complexity, but really there will only be an increase in the number of parts not new parts, or an increase in size but not a new form.

Evolution intrinsically runs down, but diverse forms are produced by these processes.  My new name for it is ‘Entropic Evolution.’

Becoming

The becoming of life springs from the first principles of life.

Creation is the principle of evolution.

That life can, to a certain extent, make itself is the intention of God.  Creatures have a God-given freedom to become something.

NB  Evolution is not a principle, but an outworking of the possibilities available to creatures; possibilities which were created within them.

Life possesses its own agency

The whole of the living world is formed of many parts, and what creatures do matters to the whole as well as to themselves. Life is the environment of other forms of life.  The adaptation of species to their environment brings about a web of life and causes ecosystems to form by the weaving together of diverse forms of life.

God blessed the secondary causes of life.

Earth was made into a biofriendly place, welcoming to new forms of life, by the action of bacteria, algae and fungi transforming basalt and sedimentary rocks over millions of years. Thus, microscopic forms of life provide the substrate for larger forms of life.

God set up the whole system of life such that interaction between varied forms of life would create well-being and beauty in the world.