Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 7/22/2002 8:05:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time, iangoldsmith1969 AT yahoo.co.uk writes:


> > Do you mean that you find the notion that the 
> > cosmos was created out of water realistic? 
> > That the earth was a collection of dry from 
> > wet? That daylight was created before the sun? 
> > And that it all happened in six days? 
>
> If were asigning to God the ability to create matter
> out of nothing, isn't it rather a small thing for him
> to be able to re-arrange the atomic structure of an
> element to make it what he wishes?
> Of course if we were to suggest that the laws of
> science as we know them could be flexible in the hands
> of someone greater than ourselves, we open up the
> possibility of an omnipotent God. We wouldn't want
> that now would we?


Whether I find it realistic is not the question.  The question is, was it thought to be realistic then.  Consider the fact that Thales of Miletus who live in the 7th-6th cent. B.C. and founded the Milesian school of philosophy did precisely posit water as the foundation of all things -- see 

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/t/thales.htm#Thales%20says%20Water%20is%20the%20Primary%20Principle

gfsomsel