elohimsworld ~ WELCOME
Elohim’s World is the most modern expression of what has been with us from our earliest writings. From the beginning our minds have been drawn to thoughts, ideas, and images of what we see before us and we have sought to put it to words, stories, art, music, even our practical creations. Our pottery with designs as cooking utensils, the jewelry around our necks, the stunning paintings on the walls of long forgotten caves, these all speak of our creative souls. The ancient arches to soaring Roman aqueducts followed by Renaissance Cathedrals to today’s architecture, even to the works of art we hang in space to look to the furthest reaches of our universe, these are all expressions of what we have come to know and what we desire to know. Our thoughts within have soared to express these things without, as the things without inspired the thoughts within us. We also have the increasing understanding that we have not changed that much from our earliest ancestors. Elohim’s World explores all these things.
Elohim is the name of God used in Genesis 1:1. The text literally translates Hebrew to English as this:
in·beginning he-created Elohim the heavens and the earth …
Genesis 1:1
אלִֹהים aleim Elohim
If you search the web as most curious will do these days, you could find this;
E·lo·him [eˈlōhim, elōˈhēm, elōˈhim]
NOUN
a name for God used frequently in the Hebrew Bible.
ORIGIN
from Hebrew ‘ĕlōhīm (plural).
Translate Elohim to Hebrew אלוהים
[The definition above is from “bing”. I favor the 2nd use of the pronunciation, as do those I most commonly associate with; elōˈhēm.}
Elohim is presented to us in the first sentence of the account in Genesis. A singular noun depicting a plural person, we are immediately confronted with a mystery and a complexity that still confounds the best attempts of man to frame it in human terms. Yet this enigma is expressed in language, our most common means of communication. People have died over the controversy that surrounds this name and the name of God as a whole, even Elohim Himself, if you follow the progression of the text from the beginning. It is a name to wonder about, to consider, contemplate. Try saying it: a normal voice, a quiet voice, a whisper; feel your breath leave your body, and then return. Elohim.
The account in Genesis One states we are made in Their Image; most do not even recognize the name. When we consider an ontology, the study of what is and how it came to be, we are most interestingly presented with a very real focus and application of the questions that surround an ontology. In today’s culture our business, particularly the efforts to develop AI (artificial intelligence), ontologies play a most critical role. As was stated in a trade article on the subject “Without an an ontology we have ambiguity.”. We can access a rich source of material and perspective for thought regarding both ethics and practicality from today’s world while considering this ancient ontology.
We also have the same advantage when it comes to unseen realities. The ancient wonder that emerged to become our philosophies and ultimately our sciences, and now most recently the metaphysics of our quantum world support an understanding of a complexity and entanglement of reality that has never been understood to this degree before. Again, in our culture we now have rich understandings to draw on, viewpoints to be considered.
Elohim’s World is the site to present our most current thoughts on all aspects of our present world in the context of the ancient writing of Genesis. A statement to set the stage; “We are entangled.” It is a metaphysical reality, one that has always been with us and we are only now beginning to perceive the awesome complexity of it. Yet in all our knowledge, we are still searching for the simplicity of our own essential nature and the world around us. On the metaphysical level the long sought “unified theory” still eludes us. Yet Genesis captures all the complexity in the most concise terms, with profound implications in each sentence, often in each word, while reading like poetry.
In the world today when the unseen becomes a known experience, it creates a tension of a metaphysical nature in our culture, often even within us; most walk away from this tension, at least in their minds. There is little frame-work to reconcile what has come to be accepted as “faith” with the “rationality” that washes up against faiths’ walls, leaving in many cases a chasm that cannot be bridged short of the sharing the same experience.
The purpose of “elohimsworld” is to create the formats for the dialogues that bridge that chasm. This requires long and patient thinking, really a meditation of not only the intellect, but of the soul and spirit; a thinking and meditation that calls upon the Creator, truly to hear Them speak. For this is the shared experience, that They do speak; but not all have heard, and many for reasons we do not know until the dialogue begins. There is another requirement to bridge this chasm ~ it is the discipline of empathy. From the beginning in Genesis, it is clear that there is a profound empathy, an entangled empathy between the Creator and the creature. We as creatures should do no less with each other, particularly when we are given the opportunity to so think and act. The practical expression of this empathy will be the response that evokes another thoughtful response, not a reaction. Since it is a bridge, there is no echo chamber as there are no walls to reverberate, just a vista to be shared as we stand over the chasm on the common ground of the bridge we choose to create. Another perspective can be framed within the context of the “Great Commandment”: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” This statement is a focus on the strength of the involvement, that there would be an investment of time in the contributions and considerations we offer to each other. When we realistically consider the medium (stone tablets, papyrus?) that Genesis was originally written on, we have a new appreciation of the necessity of choosing words carefully, and hence their clarity and beauty.
This is a little of the philosophy of “elohimsworld” and the hopes for the people it might draw to it and the content it could express. Personally, I have never participated in a blog, run a web-site, or have belonged to a social media that I actively participated in. Hopefully these things will manifest themselves as assets in the eventual outcome, as it is not modeled after the present culture, but what has been in my heart for a long time, which is to engage the world on its terms with my own experiences and perspectives, and to invite others to share theirs, within the context of “the beginning – Genesis.”
I will end with the greeting of our web host, Blue Host, who greet my log-ins with
“Alright world, time to take you on.”
I hope you will be evoked, engaged, empathetic, encouraged, enabled as we walk in elohimsworld together.
William Heath 