{RJW Note: The last session Friday night was a breakout, with a separate room where each speaker led a Q&A about their plenary talk. I was a “teaching assistant” for Dr. Walton, which basically meant I made sure he got to the right room at the right time, and all needs were met. As his needs were few, I was able to take good notes. I do not have any info on the other breakout sessions, but CD’s, MP3’s and even DVD’s of the entire conference can be found at www.vibrantdance.org. Since it was a Q&A session, the topics jump around a bit. I will try to make each bit clear either by giving the question then answer or making the topic obvious from the context.
As a reminder, Walton’s position was that the Genesis Creation account was viewed by the ancient Hebrews as the story of inaugurating or consecrating the temple of Creation from chaos to order, with Eden effectively being the Holy of Holies and how God’s Sabbath rest was an active concept that meant He was situated to reign over a Creation brought under His order and control, not a passive kick back and eat Nachos in front of an NFL game in His Lay-Z-Boy.}
The Cosmic Temple Inauguration view is trying to understand/explain how the ancient world actually thought, what their ‘scientific’ understanding was. It in no way says or implies that the Hebrews borrowed from pagan mythology. This is because what the Canaanites believed about deity was different than what the Jews did, but how the Hebrews viewed science was extremely different from us and closer to the Babylonians, much as a modern Hindu’s scientific understanding of the world is much closer to ours than it is to that of ancient Hindus. From ancient near east (ANE) mythology we get information about their understanding of reality. There was a common understanding of reality but different explanations, as given by the different mythologies.
WE believe in a material ontology, which goes back originally to the Greeks, and sees the world in a material sense. Essentially, we believe an object exists if it has mass and volume and/or energy. We are so immersed in this ontology we don’t realize another exists, just as a fish doesn’t realize it’s wet. Science is our culture’s understanding of reality, and naturalism is our culture’s mythology.
