A new theistic Creation Story (II)

Part II of II: Life on Earth

(For a new nontheistic Creation Story from which you can customize your own, see this Story here. If you are one of my billions of fellow theists, I invite you to customize this Story to form your own theistic Creation Story.)

With an interplay of evolving habits and creativity, the universe has always been open to new forms arising from waves in the Field.  Even on the physical and chemical levels, nature has been conscious and creative – incessantly growing toward ever-more complex competence.

Across the universe over the past 14 billion years, there have emerged billions of livable planets. From the combined effect of God’s Presence, the presence of the spiritual universe, the presence of Field energy and information, and the presence of photons and electromagentic energy — all of which are activating presences — there has arisen life on myriads of planets.

God endowed natural life with a preference for increased life. God infused living organisms with a will to survive and replicate, which has stimulated a drive to grow, adapt, invent, innovate, and become ever-more aware, creative, intelligent, and resourceful. 

And so on each planet in the universe with life, there has been a direction. God’s directing agency has pulled and guided life forward — toward greater and greater competence and a greater and greater capacity for wise goodness. Organisms and sometimes whole species have drawn themselves up and pulled themselves forward — and been drawn up and pulled forward — sometimes in rapid creative leaps.

And for billions of years, God has known that life on planets all over the universe has held abundant potential for good.

And behold! Some 3.8 billion years ago, molecular frequencies in molecules of inorganic chemical matter gave rise to the first life on Earth.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and some 3.6 billion years ago, some of these rudimentary organisms enclosed themselves in a membrane-like barrier: a cell. One-celled life began and soon developed in multitudes.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and some 1.1 billion years ago, there emerged the first multi-celled organisms.

Ever since, the fluid genome of each organism has responded and adapted to forces and stresses in its milieu by rearranging.  And so living species have used the same genetic mechanisms a nearly infinite variety of ways.  From shifting expressions and uses of genes and gene switches, there has arisen on Earth a great complex diversity of biological forms.

And so God enabled the planet Earth to give rise to a rich, abundant, creative, coherent, elegant, and dynamic unfolding of interconnected life.

“Come closer,” sang Yehovahe, and there came to thrive a wide range of oxygenating and nourishing plants. In the oceans and seas arose green algae, and fungi moved from water to land, and forests with seedless spore-generating moss and ferns, covering the land.

And there emerged plants with seeds — protected embryos — with every seed capacitated to multiply and bear fruit,. And so there emerged trees and bushes and other wooded plants, flowering plants, grasses, and a wide variety of edible vegetables and fruit. 

On many planets across the universe, there have developed living natural beings that do not, after their physical bodies die, inhabit the spiritual universe for the remainder of eternity. We call these beings animals.

Some 600 million years ago, there emerged Earth’s first animals.

“Come closer,” sang Yehovahe, and in the oceans, the invertebrates without shells became ever-more flexible, invertebrates with shells became ever-more protected, fish — the first vertebrates — became ever-more agile, and crustaceans developed the first true hearts.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and some 400 million years ago, the first animals climbed onto land.

Tetrapods developed legs, arms, a two-lobed brain in their skull, a wide mouth, and upward-looking eyes.

And frogs and other amphibians developed legs with feet, the ability to hear airborne sounds, and (as adults) true lungs to breathe the air.

And there arose arthropods, arachnids, and insects.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and reptiles left the water permanently, and began to move across the land. Lizards, turtles, snakes, crocodiles, alligators, and other reptiles began to reproduce and give birth to their young by laying eggs after internal fertilization.

And flying reptiles and later true birds began to fill the air.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and some 200 million years ago, there emerged the far more emotional and social animals we call mammals.

There emerged the dolphins, whales, horses, cats, and dogs as well as the platypus, mice and squirrels and other rodents, bats, raccoons, rabbits, pigs, deer, antelope, bears, camels, elephants, the rhinoceros and hippopotamus. giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, lynxes, leopards, pumas, jaguars, cougars, panthers, foxes, coyotes, jackals, wolves, and marsupials like the possum, koala, wombat, and kangaroo.

Mammalian mothers have nursed their young with milk, and adult mammals have spent a long time protecting and caring for their young.

Mammals have had keen and long memories – and a well-developed forebrain and cerebrum – that boost their range of movement, emotions, curiosity, exploratory behavior, intelligence, language, communication, and self-awareness.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and some 85 million years ago, there emerged the first primates.

There emerged the lemur and the higher primates: the monkeys, the baboons, and the apes without tails, which include gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees.

Ever since, primates have had short noses, large forward-looking eyes, and binocular sight for enhanced full stereoscopic vision. 

Primates have had dexterous hands and feet with nails, and they have excelled at reaching, grasping, and manipulating objects.

Primates have relied heavily on their eyes for complex visually-guided movements, and they learn movements by observing them. 

The upper lip of primates has been free of their nose and gums, allowing them a wide range of facial expressions.

Primates have tended to homestead with a strong bond between one male and one female. 

And primates have tended to have one offspring at a time and to invest a great deal of time in their young, who are for years heavily dependent on their parents.

Primates excel at friendships and alliances.  They invest time being aware of and thinking about events, actions, feelings, and relationships.

Higher primates excel at seeing, working with strong and efficient hands, achieving complex maneuvers, recalling past experiences, thinking, making quick decisions, communicating, and cooperating.

The most advanced primate, the chimpanzee, has a larynx that repositions between the pharynx and lungs in the first two years of life – making highly complex speech physically possible.

Chimpanzees embrace, kiss, hold hands, tickle each other, and use many postures, gestures, and calls to communicate with each other.  Chimpanzees experience sadness and happiness, and display a wide range of social behaviors from aggression and brutality to family bonds and altruism.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and several million years ago, there emerged the first hominids.

Compared to primates, hominids have had a chin, longer legs relative to their torso, a longer thumb and shorter fingers, less hair, and a longer life span.  Hominid mothers have gestated their young longer, and hominids have spent even more time raising their young. 

And for at least four million years, hominids have been bipedal – habitually moving while standing upright on both feet.

Compared to primates, hominids have had bigger brains with new structures.  Hominid brain size doubled in 1.6 million years.  Hominids have a much bigger Broca’s area of the brain, enabling more complex language and speech. 

Hominids use signals and words while displaying a wide range of facial expressions to communicate with each other.

For 2.5 million years, hominids have used tools to hunt, cut, and carve.

And for 500,000 years, hominids have controlled fire to cook food and keep warm.

“Come closer!” sang Yehovahe, and some 250,000 years ago, there arrived on Earth a culminating form of life and a new beginning. 

There emerged on planet Earth a new species – and we call our species homo sapiens.

Among the most remarkable things about us, we humans have 1,000 more spindle cells in our brains than do any primates. Spindle cells activate when we respond to other people with empathy or trust. Despite the baggage we carry from the struggle across eons of developing life here on Earth, our capacity for love may be a thousand times greater than that of any animal.

Spiritually, we have a consciousness so advanced that we are capable of actively receiving Divine Wise Love and communicating and acting from It. We human beings have a spiritual will and a spiritual mind that can become vessels of God’s Wise Love.

Some 14 billion years ago, God created the universe to bless living beings with Divine Wise Love — and Its accompanying joys — first on a planet in the natural universe and then to eternity in the spiritual universe.

For 14 billion years, Yehovahe has sang the universe forward, to give rise on as many planets as possible to advanced life that can receive Divine Wise Love — that can conjoin and be conjoined with the Diving Being, and cooperate in the Divine Story and the Creation Story from a free will and a free mind.

And here on Earth, for some 250,000 years now, we human beings have possessed souls capable of responding to that Great Music.