Article 4: A Carpenters Choice

Authors note: Due to the sheer volume of articles this series has resulted in I want to take a moment to tell you they are intended to be read sequentially, the ideas building on each other as they progress. While they can also be read individually, a fuller understanding can only be reached by starting at the beginning, found here: https://www.pjbenjamin.net/a-long-overdue-elucidation/

If I were to point to the major thing that distinguishes the Firmament from other literary universes it would be found in the following rule and its subsets. Other writers have written of universes where God exists, and any world-build style could have effectively landed on a similar cosmology. No, I think what really sets it apart will be the type of mythical race I create. Not because they are so original in themselves necessarily (though I do hope you think so of them), but because they are built from the ground up with the following structures in mind. When I begin to people a place in the Firmament, I must first look to this section and ask myself a series of “if/then” questions until I have created the setting I desire. This rule will take seven articles to cover, and not just because of its size. In order to understand it properly I will need to explain some heavy theological concepts, some you might never have encountered before. My hope is that you will not only find this interesting, but that it might well change your understanding of humanity, and of God’s choices regarding our history.

Rule Three of the Firmament:

All intelligent races in existence likely stand within one or more of these states

*Primordial
-Made New and Blameless
-Corrupted and Afflicted:
- Recipients of Passive Wrath
- Promised and Waiting
- Justified or Judged
- Made Blameless Anew
-Maturing and Blameless
-Authoritative and Blameless
-Mutually Interactive

The first thing I would like to draw your attention to is the word “likely” in the first line. I must accept from the get-go that there may be further categories that I have yet to guess at. I fully reserve the right to add to this list should other possibilities be made known to me. Beyond that, I am sure it is clear to you why this article will be so lengthy. The ideas presented will be splintered to ease their digestion.

Represented here are the results of a great deal of thought and study. To reach these conclusions I began with what we know of humanity (its literal Genesis, current condition, and destination as revealed through the book of Revelations), and compared it with what we know of the other confirmed race ‘Angels’ (its state before rebellion, its place in history both angelic and demonic, and its final judgment). By comparing and contrasting various elements I have what I intend to be a possible blueprint for any intelligent creation’s relationship with God and possibly each other. I then added together my own estimations on what alternative racial paths could have been (i.e. a path taken in absence of a “Fall”). I cannot claim complete originality, however, for though my categories are original, much of my inspiration came from my observations while reading “The Space Trilogy”. Indeed when I am done it would not be difficult to read those books and witness several examples of these categories.

Before jumping into the first category I want to take a moment to address some potential biases in regard to how we categorize life. If we consider things objectively, the difference between the species and indeed races are human concepts. They are born from our attempt to apply categories to the massive range of created beings in our small corner of the universe. Humility requires, no rather it demands, we accept that while human-defined rules fit within our small World, they might not fit universally. For example, science has separated species into 6 categories (Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, Fish, and Invertebrates). The duck-billed platypus notwithstanding, these are sufficient for our World. But it does not necessarily follow that such distinctions are universal.

It is all well and good for me to say that the Firmament is fantasy, yet an altogether different claim to say that such fantasy is plausible. I would say that one of the most foolish things we can do is to try and place limits on God’s options based on our extremely limited perception and experience with the sum total of reality. There could be countless other life forms that fit into no such categories, but because our world cannot sustain, perceive, or witness them, we have no examples to give rise to their classification. Indeed one need merely look at angels to realize they do not fall into such categories.

And so, while I have grounded the Firmament in a blend of scripture and logical analysis, what is important moving into Speculative Theological Science-fiction and Fantasy is that we challenge the idea that our definition of reality, and our rules for defining it, are universal. After all, just because we might not have an example of something does not mean it is an impossibility. It may only be unobserved. This is significant to the first subcategory because it will be dealing with a possibility we might have observed without realizing it.

Primordial

Can a life already in existence without intelligence or soul be given or raised up into one? If so, such a life would be categorically Primordial. To give it the Firmament definition, life in the Primordial stage does not have a soul, does not bare god’s image, and does not meet the definitions of sentience. Yet it has the potential to.

I firmly believe one of the great themes (if not intended purposes) of all creation is the fostering and experience of growth. We see a grand microcosm of this in the rearing of children, and of course, growing up ourselves. I think that when God sets himself to creation, he builds systems (family systems, ecosystems, hierarchical systems) all in mind for teaching and being taught. We see this time and time again in the parables of Christ, as though the whole world was created in such a way that it might be used to teach us deeper truths using different facets of our environments. I think that this experience is not only to mirror and teach us of our relationship as God’s children but is part of the very fabric of soulful existence. We live in order that we might experience life, which is followed in lockstep by an intention for some measure of authority to share our stories, skills, and experiences with others.

It would seem to me a deep way that God might teach a race about himself is by having them raise up a different kind. For humanity, we understand ourselves and God better when we raise children. We learn what it means to teach from nothing, to love despite rebellion and disobedience. We learn about how the sin runs so deep that it is present from the beginning (anyone who says children are never selfish, violent, or filled with opposition to authority has never raised one). So what might God do for a race that does not bear children? What might he do for a race that exists solely as made, with no progeny or death? Might he not seek to teach such lessons another way?

With the wide possibilities of the Firmament and its capacity to explore potential creations, I wondered what things God might teach us about the universe, and what are the different ways he might go about it. What are the things he might do to teach creatures of purely aquatic life? Of creatures who are plants? Who are spirit? I don’t have all these answers yet, even for the Firmament, but when it came time to ratify my categories I knew I had to include an exploration of this possibility.

Now, this idea has some wide-ranging implications when it comes to the debate of creation versus evolution. To get ahead of this let me affirm: Humanity was created in Adam fully formed with soul, nature, and body which bore the image of our creator. He did not evolve into a human. Yet I would say that there exists the possibility that he intended to rule over and raise up creatures that predate him. Animals, plants, and possibly Creatures who were not human in the ways in which we bare God’s image (that which makes us truly human), and yet might have been similar genetically. One does not need to accept macroevolution (that life evolved from single cells to modern complexities) to accept that creatures once existed who were like humans but weren’t human. Creatures we classify as neanderthal and Cro-magnon, as well as many others. Might they not have been to humanity much of what humanity was for angels? Scripturally there can be no doubt that angels rank higher than us in the authoritative order of creation, just as how it cannot be dismissed that we are to be raised above them. Is it then so impossible that this might have been the potential path for the Cro-magnon? It is only speculation I know, but a fascinating question to ask, and even more so to explore with other fantasy races.

And so, although I know it to be a sensitive topic, let me address evolution a little further in regard to this category. Merely bringing it up can entrench us so deeply into our ideological camps that many risks missing something glorious. God, being God, and infinity more clever and powerful than us, can do as he likes with life. Why couldn’t he allow some creatures to evolve from what he has created or taught others to create? And if he did, why could he not also create by the very word of his mouth? Why must we think because there is a method used for one that it is impossible to use any other? Think of it like a carpenter constructing a bed. He might use an electric lathe to spin and carve the posts, but hand sculpts the headboard. Further, he might buy the mattress slats from Ikea. Depending on how a group looks at the finished product they might think that either the whole thing must be done by automation, or else impossible to construct without an artist’s direct hand. One points to the slats and says it was clearly done out of function, and thus by a pre-set mechanical process. Another might point to the posts and say that, while clearly designed, it is outside the capability of a single entity. The examiner of the headboard would then reply that the thought of a machine carving such artistry is equally impossible. The carpenter meanwhile stands back and says that, as the constructor, he can use any and every tool at his disposal. Selecting the exact correct tool for each element of his creation. And so, though I have my own personal opinions, the Firmament will contain elements of all matters of creation, with God using any and every tool as he likes according to his will and purpose. Whether I guess correctly on any or all of it is a matter I will excitedly ask him on the day of my death. But until that day I will accept in humility, as I hope all of you might, that a complete understanding of God’s creative choices is well beyond our ability to fully comprehend or categorize. Whether God gives a soul by the air in his lungs or awakens it by an intended stage of evolution might be determined individually for each race. Whatever the truth for each, any and all determination belongs to the carpenter.