Difference between revisions of "Creation week"

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'''Final Fantasy VII''' is a best selling RPG for the Sony Playstation. Despite being a best seller the game is filled with highly offensive material. For one it features a hockey team named the AVALANCHE who are also a terrorist group. They blow up a coal power plant but justify it by saying they are helping the environment. The game is also filled with profanity especially from Cid and Barrett (who bears a strong resemblence to Mr. T). The game was also critcized harshly because of the sexual liasons of the main character Cloud Strife. He has relations with three girls in the course of the game including a 16 year old Japenese girl named Yuffie.
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The '''creation week''' is the seven days described in the [[Bible]] during which God created the universe, including the day of rest.   The six days on which God created are collectively referred to as the Hexaemeron.
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==Characters==
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== Length of the days ==
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===Cloud===
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The main protagonist of the game. Once a member of the US marines, now heads an eco-terrorist group called Avalanche
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The Bible does not of course say that each day was 24 hours, because hours are a later human invention, but there is sufficient reason for believing the days to be normal days. These reasons include:
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===Barrett (aka Mr. T)===
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* The Hebrew word ''yom'' (day) must mean a normal day in the context of Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, each day is numbered and used with the words "morning and evening".
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An African-American man who is second in command in Avalanche to Cloud. Has an adopted white daughter named Marlene. Shows love and affection to her, one of the few redeeming qualities of this highly offensive game.
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** ''Yom'' only ever means a normal day when used with a number.
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===Tifa===
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** ''Yom'' only ever means a normal day when used with "morning".
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Cloud's gf from his childhood. Flashbacks show Tifa and Cloud engaging in sexual acts as early as age 12. This part of the game as been highly criticized
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** ''Yom'' only ever means a normal day when used with "evening".
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===Aeris===
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* God used the seven days of creation as a basis for keeping the [[sabbath]] every seven days, in the [[Ten Commandments]].
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Another one of Cloud's love interests. Cloud steals Aeris' virginity. To be fair though, Cloud does show genuine affection towards her and becomes extremely upset when she is brutally murdered by Sephiroth.
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* Each day is ''defined'' as comprising a morning and an evening.
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===Cid Jefferson===
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Owner of the Jefferson Airplane, an aircraft you can use to fly all over the world. Joins your group after he is offered a night with Yuffie and a 12 pack of Blue.
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That the passage describes normal days is the consensus of the experts. Professor James Barr, former Oriel Professor of the interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oxford University, wrote:
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===Vince the Pince===
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{{quoteBox|...probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: ... creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience ... Or, to put it negatively, the apologetic arguments which suppose the "days" of creation to be long eras of time ... are not taken seriously by any such professors, as far as I know.<ref>Letter from Professor James Barr to David C.C. Watson, quoted in [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/943/ Should Genesis be taken literally?] by Russell Grigg, ''Creation'', vol. 16 No. 1 p. 38.</ref>}}
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A mysterious man who has been locked in the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim for 30 years. He has been crygenically frozen so he still resembes a 27 year old man. Shoots people with his Colt 45.
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===Cait Sith===
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== Narrative or poetry? ==
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A puppett controlled by a 40 year old virgin who works in an office in Midgar. Turns out to be a mole for Shinra but later joins the cause of AVALANCHE
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===Yuffie Kisagari===
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Since the rise in popularity of ideas that the Earth is much older than would be indicated by a straightforward reading of Genesis, many people have proposed that the creation account is poetry rather than literal history.
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An attractive Japenese teenager. She has a passionate affair with Cloud Strife and also has relations with Cid (she only slept with Cid so the crew would get access to the Jefferson Airplane). She was kidnapped and molested by Don Corleone in Tokyo but was rescued before Corleone could have intercourse with her.]
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However, there are a number of reasons to reject this proposal.
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===Red CXIX===
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Cloud's pet dog. A loyal companion with a gentle temperment, Red is probably the most moral individual in the game (sad to say because he is not even human). He shows affection to all he meets especially children.
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The quote from James Barr (above), points out that the language indicates that the writer intended it to be understood as actual history.
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===Sephiroth===
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The style of writing does not conform to the distinctive style of Hebrew poetry, which includes, among other characteristics, parallelism of thoughts.
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A highly dangerous psychopath with superhuman strength. He is also a leader of a dangerous cult known as Jenova's Witnesses. He is the main antagonist of the game and brutally murders Aeris in the Canadian Rockies.
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A statistical analysis of the verbs used in the [[Old Testament]] shows that percentage of [[preterite]] verbs in narrative accounts have a median value of 52%, whilst the percentage in poetic passages have a median value of 4%.
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==Criticisms==
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The creation account in Genesis has a preterite verb percentage of about 65%.<ref>DeYoung, Don, "Thousands... not Billions", Master Books, 2005, p.157-167.</ref>
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Although from a commercial standpoint Final Fantasy VII was highly successful, it has been criticized by a variety of both liberal and conservative groups including Christian groups, women's groups, and minority groups.
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===Christian Criticisms===
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==The Sabbath Rest==
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Although the game does not mock Christianity or make any references to God or Jesus, the game does violate Christian values. On one hand, Cloud does show genuine affection to his friends and lovers and Barrett is shown to have a good relationship to his daughter but the game is fraught with moral relativism. The protagonists of the game are eco-terrorists who although their cause may be noble, their methods are brutal and repugnant and their actions kill innocent civilians. Although their renounce terror later in the game, this does not excuse their actions. Also sex is trivalized in the game. Instead of being the ultimate act of intimacy between a man and his wife; Cloud has relations with three unmarried young women, one of whom is still a teenager. Although the acts were depicted as consensual, this does not send a good message to young impressionable children and teens.
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===Women's Rights Group Criticisms===
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The common literary feature of the creation week is that it is broken down into days. Different English translations have different styles in the English, but the main feature is the way the creation week is broken down into listed days. The following is the last verse in the first creation account.
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Ironically, many women's rights groups share some of the same complaints as Christian groups. Despite often being at odds with each other, feminists and Christians find some common ground in their opposition to this game. Women's groups find the way sex is trivalized to be highly offensive as well as the fact that the girls in the game are sometimes treated as sex objects by the other characters. The fact that a 16 year old is depicted in sexual acts with an older man (Cloud is 21 years old) has also been harshly criticized.
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===Minority Rights Group Criticisms===
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{{Bible quote|book=Genesis|chap=2|verses=1-3|version=NIV|Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.}}
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Both Japanese and African-American groups have been highly outraged by the stereotypical portrayal of Japenase and African American characters. Barrett is depicted as loud, hot-headed and prone to violence, reinforcing the stereotype of black gang members. Yuffie is portrayed as a nymphomaniac which perpetuates the stereotype that Japanese women are merely the playthings of Western men.
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This change in literary structure is considered important by some, who claim, despite the past tense, that it conveys an idea that is found in several other Bible stories: The seventh day is still continuing, it never ended.
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Mankind was created in day six, likely the last thing created in that day. According to this idea, mankind then fell. God, in his mercy is at rest in this day of mankind's fall, but he is working doing one thing: Rescuing fallen mankind.
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== Other views ==
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Despite the arguments listed above, some Christians try to harmonise the biblical account with naturalistic science, usually by interpreting the days to be long periods of time, figurative days, days of revelation of the account, or other explanations.
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Some do this by claiming that there was a "[[Gap theory|gap]]" of millions or even billions of years between the events of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, into which the billions of years of naturalistic science and the fossils are placed.<ref>[http://www.gospelcenterchurch.org/Gaptheory.html Gap Theory]</ref>  Others do this by reference to [[Theistic evolution]] or [[Guided evolution]].
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== Notes ==
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{{Reflist}}
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[[Category:Creationism]]

Latest revision as of 21:27, January 9, 2017

The creation week is the seven days described in the Bible during which God created the universe, including the day of rest. The six days on which God created are collectively referred to as the Hexaemeron.

Length of the days

The Bible does not of course say that each day was 24 hours, because hours are a later human invention, but there is sufficient reason for believing the days to be normal days. These reasons include:

  • The Hebrew word yom (day) must mean a normal day in the context of Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, each day is numbered and used with the words "morning and evening".
    • Yom only ever means a normal day when used with a number.
    • Yom only ever means a normal day when used with "morning".
    • Yom only ever means a normal day when used with "evening".
  • God used the seven days of creation as a basis for keeping the sabbath every seven days, in the Ten Commandments.
  • Each day is defined as comprising a morning and an evening.

That the passage describes normal days is the consensus of the experts. Professor James Barr, former Oriel Professor of the interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oxford University, wrote:

...probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: ... creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience ... Or, to put it negatively, the apologetic arguments which suppose the "days" of creation to be long eras of time ... are not taken seriously by any such professors, as far as I know.[1]

Narrative or poetry?

Since the rise in popularity of ideas that the Earth is much older than would be indicated by a straightforward reading of Genesis, many people have proposed that the creation account is poetry rather than literal history. However, there are a number of reasons to reject this proposal.

The quote from James Barr (above), points out that the language indicates that the writer intended it to be understood as actual history. The style of writing does not conform to the distinctive style of Hebrew poetry, which includes, among other characteristics, parallelism of thoughts. A statistical analysis of the verbs used in the Old Testament shows that percentage of preterite verbs in narrative accounts have a median value of 52%, whilst the percentage in poetic passages have a median value of 4%. The creation account in Genesis has a preterite verb percentage of about 65%.[2]

The Sabbath Rest

The common literary feature of the creation week is that it is broken down into days. Different English translations have different styles in the English, but the main feature is the way the creation week is broken down into listed days. The following is the last verse in the first creation account.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:1-3 (NIV)

This change in literary structure is considered important by some, who claim, despite the past tense, that it conveys an idea that is found in several other Bible stories: The seventh day is still continuing, it never ended.

Mankind was created in day six, likely the last thing created in that day. According to this idea, mankind then fell. God, in his mercy is at rest in this day of mankind's fall, but he is working doing one thing: Rescuing fallen mankind.

Other views

Despite the arguments listed above, some Christians try to harmonise the biblical account with naturalistic science, usually by interpreting the days to be long periods of time, figurative days, days of revelation of the account, or other explanations.

Some do this by claiming that there was a "gap" of millions or even billions of years between the events of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, into which the billions of years of naturalistic science and the fossils are placed.[3] Others do this by reference to Theistic evolution or Guided evolution.

Notes

  1. ↑ Letter from Professor James Barr to David C.C. Watson, quoted in Should Genesis be taken literally? by Russell Grigg, Creation, vol. 16 No. 1 p. 38.
  2. ↑ DeYoung, Don, "Thousands... not Billions", Master Books, 2005, p.157-167.
  3. ↑ Gap Theory
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