written 5-2-21

God created the Earth. In the beginning, the Earth was too hot and too lacking in atmosphere for life. Gradually, over the eons, it settled down and various life forms began to evolve. Life began in the oceans and gradually some creatures adapted to become amphibian and to live on land.

Millions of years later, back in the Jurassic era, dinosaurs roamed the earth. They were the top of the food chain and definitely the dominant living creatures. They had huge bodies, very small brains and were generally pretty antisocial.

God paused and assessed His work so far[1]. “I don’t think I like these critters I’ve made,” He said. “I think I’ll create a course correction and try again.” So, he sent a big comet that knocked Earth off its axis, changed the climate a good deal, and gave a little rodent-like creature a chance, for the dinosaurs were now all gone. The little rodent, over the next few million years, became the first human being[2].

Fast forward a few more thousand years. God did another progress check and said: “I’m not very pleased with how these humans, whom I had such high hopes for, are proceeding. I think I’ll get rid of all but a few really good ones, and start again.” So, He spoke to Noah and told him to gather up two of each species and his immediate family, and build an ark. God then sent a Great Flood; it rained and poured for forty days and forty nights and the lands became water. Finally, the rain stopped and Noah sent a dove to fly out and look for land. The dove came back with an olive branch, meaning land was available above the waters. The ark ended up on Mount Ararat and all the animals and humans started over in new settlements.

God commanded the climate to be just right for humans to flourish. This was the Holocene era, lasting about 12,000 years and ending in the 1960s. It’s been referred to as a “Goldilocks” age – not too hot, not too cold, not too dry and not too rainy[3],[4]. But it’s ended and some refer to the current geological age as the Anthropocene.

Now in the 21st century, God took another look at His creation and said to Himself: “Perhaps I overdid things, and made it too easy for these humans to be fruitful and multiply. My periodic earthquakes, volcano eruptions, hurricanes and pandemics don’t seem to be enough to keep them in check. It was OK when Earth just supported a few million of them, but they’ve been so clever at using all the minerals I provided, so ingenious in all their inventions, that they’ve created a huge unintended consequence – overpopulation and the greenhouse effect. They have taken over earth as the dominant species, are incredibly warlike, and aren’t leaving much for the rest of My creation, which is rapidly going extinct. So, I’m going to let the planet get too hot for them; this’ll be a bigger deal than with Noah, as the seas will rise for many centuries as a result. I’ll enable Earth to get back down to just a few million people, and try again. Time to look for a few new Noahs!”

[1] Some people may feel it’s blasphemous or inappropriate for me to put words into God’s mouth. However, let’s remember that the entire Bible is human recollection / interpretation of God’s word. The Bible that most Christians know was put together at Nicaea in 325 AD by a bunch of male priests. See https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Council-of-Nicaea-325. The books they left out are generally more feminist, as any Gnostic bible will show.

[2] This tale is beautifully told in Stephen Jay Gould’s story Dinosaur in a Haystack.

[3] https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2016-02-22/goldilocks-zones-habitable-zone-astrobiology-exoplanets/6907836#:~:text=The%20Goldilocks%20Zone%20refers%20to,Earth%20we%20also%20find%20life.

[4] In this article 3 Major Scientific Discoveries In The Past Century That Point To God (thefederalist.com) Stephen Meyer claims three scientific arguments for the existence of God, one being that the 12,000 year long Holocene age, which ended in the 1960s, offered a “sweet spot” or “Goldilocks” era climatically, in which human life could, and did, thrive. It remains to be seen what a faith-based interpretation of the current, Anthropocene age will include. This is my personal attempt.