I never really thought too much on the history of the world until about a year ago or so when a co-worker/friend really started to ask me about it. Questions that called for more than a vague response and understanding; and for each question posed, I became more and more curious myself, with a burning desire to understand.

Most of the people who identify themselves as Christians, when asked if its seven days of creation or billions of years of evolution don’t have clearly defined answers. We are presented with what we are told is airtight scientific fact; we are shown in recreated fakeumentaries what life was like for dinosaurs millions of years ago. It all comes as very convincing when the alternative most have is a much generalized understanding and straw man rendition of the creation account in Genesis.

It was around the time I really began to wonder the methods of a Genesis account creation that I began to design games. And after much studying of geographies, histories, and biology; combined with getting into the Unreal 3 engine, I feel I have a very well rounded view of what happened. When working in Unreal, designing a world of your own and relaying the process back to Genesis, it is easy to see that we are living life in God’s game engine.

This is a brief look at how the first four days of Creation can easily relate to game design. Genesis 1 1-19.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Upon first opening the engine, you are in the middle of a dark emptiness. Just as God’s first step in creating our world began, so does ours in creating another world.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Next, to create your level, you carve out your BSP geometry and, so you can see what you’re doing, you make light by toggling between Lit and Unlit modes. Day One, and day is defined by God.

One argument common is that these days are not actual days. Or they’re “God days”, not days as we know them. However, day four provides…the cosmos, if you will. We define a day as the amount of time it takes for the Earth to rotate its axis…it takes roughly a month for the moon to orbit the Earth and one year for the Earth to orbit the sun. We are in a giant clock, designed by God, He set the time scheme. Would He change the definition of what a “day” is halfway through His creation?

Say you’re in a band. Your band has been practicing this song for the past few weeks and you’re about to get some studio time to record it. You’re in the studio recording and halfway through the song, you all start playing different songs…that’s the amount of sense it makes. We can only conclude it is a literal day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and morning were the second day.

God separates the water from each other, above and below the firmament. In the creation, there are three degrees of firmament, or Heaven. There is the space that is the sky, there is the space we know as outer space, and there is the Heaven space which is the Kingdom of Christ. This is not entirely unlike the situation of your world you’re creating using the game engine. The character of your game “lives” in the realm you created for him/her to. The space from which the player knows to the end of the world BSP is their sky firmament. Outside of that, a vacuum of virtual space, dark, empty, much like our outer space. Then you have everything outside of the game and engine…you have our world, other virtual worlds, things and places the character confined to your game world you made for him/her, if capable of thought, could never imagine.

One theory is that this separation of water above the sky essentially put the earth in a bubble, creating a gigantic hyperbaric chamber. This, combined with a vegetarian diet rich in antioxidants and a virtually disease free environment would allow for organisms to have very long life spans.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

When land was first created, it was in one place. There were not broken continents and islands as we see them today. The earth was one land mass, Pangaea. And vegetation was created, grown by the light of God on day 3.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Up until this point in building your game, you have just been using the worker lights to get around in you level, but now, it’s time to add real lighting so that when we do a build and run it, the lights will affect and interact with the game play. Ok, so why is the moon referred to as a light here? We clearly know that the moon isn’t the actual source of the light, the sun is. Well, the Bible says that it “gives” light. From our perspective, the moon provides us with light it reflects from the sun…indirect lighting.

And from this point, days 5, 6 and 7; we will begin to set programming values and rules so that the environment responds to the player’s actions and we’ll add some characters…but that is for another time.

Once a game is launched and live, the developer can add new content, updates, patches; the same goes for God interacting with His creation here. And of course, He has God mode.

Many Christians reject a 7 day creation as documented in Genesis, and in turn accept a secular portrayal of billions of years of evolution, the big bang theory of how the universe formed. This acceptance makes little to no sense. The belief is that God created this lone atom, flicked it into nowhere, and it imploded, creating the universe. What sense does it make that God created an atom, left the room for 15 billion years, came back two thousand years ago, sent His Son to die for a world of mutant organisms He had zero interaction with or participated in? We know this is untrue. We see the documentation of God's interaction and guidance throughout the world's 6 - 7,000 year old history. The Bible doesn't say; "Meh, God thought this place was alright." The Bible says For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life John 3:16.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. If you accept this, you realize there is nothing in the Bible that is impossible.

Some Kind of Wonderful

There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and female…They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. Genesis 6

What is a kind? Where in taxonomy ranking do you place a “kind?” Would ranking it conflict with a disbelief in evolution?

First, we need to get an understanding of what these kinds are and where they came from in the first place. Unsurprisingly, we find this in Genesis 1. On the fifth day, God created all marine life and birds. On the sixth day, He created all the beasts of the earth, and the cattle, and every creeping thing.

So right out of the gate, we get an understanding of divisions of the creatures God made. It’s fairly standard practice for schools to teach evolution, but through a basic understanding of scripture and an understanding of how God’s creation continues to produce life, we see that the designs of creatures are not coincidence, happenstance, or random. There is a set design. Life, from the moment of creation, by God, was complete and perfect.

An example would be the very screen you’re staring at right now. There are thousands of pixels firing red, green, or blue at various intensities. These are your three most basic colours, which in turn, are capable of producing a vast spectral array of additional colours. Does this make red, green, and blue (RGB) any less advanced than purple, yellow or orange? Of course not.

Thinking of these colours as kinds; is aqua an evolution of blue and green, or is it just the natural outcome of the two when set to their appropriate intensities? True, colours are not living things, but the certainty of their outcome when manipulated holds interchangeable with life. It is no random happenstance that red and blue will produce a purple, it is in the design, God’s design. In this same light, the dogs involved in the breeding process to produce the first cocker spaniel were picked for their traits to continue and consolidate those traits into one animal. Mixing, just like with colours to reach a designed outcome. This process is so obvious that it’s not called evolution, it’s called breeding. The end result is still a kind of dog.

In Genesis, we are given information as to what a kind is. Like with the colours, we have base animals, only instead of RGB, we have kinds of: beasts, cattle, winged fowl, creeping things and the waters brought forth all living things after their kind. Without getting too hung up on semantics, let’s look at these categories and see where they land in the current taxonomy record of; kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species.

These groupings seem very broad at first glance, but one in particular really stands out, and that is of course, the cattle. The word “cattle” primarily encompasses the domesticated animals which in Mosaic law are deemed clean. Cows, sheep, deer…these are animals of the artiodactylous order, or otherwise known as even-toed ungulates and bovidae. Then there are the fowl, which are the birds, or class of Aves. More broadly there are the beasts and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind. These are broad strokes, but with a little common sense, we can see what a kind is.

There are four basic groups the Genesis account breaks down, land animals, winged fowl/birds, creeping things(presumably insects), and creatures of the water. So what this is saying is that, for instance, creeping things according to their kinds, would say that roughly through the class Insecta, there are all different kinds of insects.

A couple of other notables are with the creation of land animals and sea animals. With the account, the land animals and sea animals were both in a sense, given divisions. The land animals were created as 'cattle' and 'beasts'; where as the sea animals were created, but there is the mention that 'whales' were created as well. In reading, I can only conclude that 'whales' are mentioned to distinctify between air breathing aquatic animals and pure marine life. So there would be different kinds of air breathing marine life. This makes sense, as more than likely, neither Moses, nor the original recipients (the Jewish people) had never actually encountered or even knew what a 'whale' as we call it today was.

The taxonomy record, in my opinion is not entirely correct, but to contrast, in understanding what a kind is against it, it would run along the Family region and into the Order and Genus regions as well. As so:

One question which presents itself is; what about bacteria? Did God create bacteria, and why did'nt He include that part of creation in Genesis?

Bacteria is not all bad. We could not live without bacteria. For example, we all have stomaches full of bacteria to break down our food so that we can digest what we eat. So yes, God did create bacteria...but was there and is there a need to mention that in creation? No.

Say you get a Madden game to play and you pick the Carolina Panthers to be your team because a video game is the only place you will see them win games. When you get the roster of players you can use, you get Steve Smith, Julius Peppers, DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart, etc...these are the guys who are the Carolina Panthers. Who you don't get to play in the game, or see, or hear about are the guys who take care of the uniforms, the guys who tend to the field and stadium, the guy who gets the players their Gatorade, never the less, these folks play a key role in the upkeep and maintanence of the Panthers. These uniform, Gatorade fetching, field tending, pencil pushing folks are the bacteria of a team, they do not need to be mentioned.

There are many questions to ponder, but if we take just a few at a time, and know that God's Word is true, it all becomes more clear. These are my interpretations of what I read in scripture and how I see similarities around me in other things. If 3 people watch a car wreck, movie, or whatever, you'll probably get 3 different perspectives, and I encourage you and anyone to read the scriptures for themself and gain their own approach to it.

Foreshadowing

It's common practice in some video games to show the player an overview of the level he/she is about to play prior to playing it. It gives the player a sense of what they are up against. And being that our existance is a huge video game, this world is not an exception.

For thousands of years, man has looked up to the cosmos for answers to the future, the universe, and existance. We see things in the sky. We see stars, the sun, comets, and we see other planets. What if these planets around us are not just random formations? As in a video game, most everything in the virtual world is there for some kind of reason, otherwise you've just got a bunch of useless rendering your pc or console has to be put through. These cosmic bodies are seen from earth, some with the naked eye. They are there to be seen. But why?

The answer may or may not come from a combination of what is written in scripture and science. In this entry, let's just look at two planets around us; Mars and Venus. The ideas I am conveying here are purely hypothetical of God's creation that surrounds us. But I do view them as legitimate questions correlating God's Word to our world.

Matthew 25:41 - Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'

As hell was created...can we see it and not even know it?

Venus. Venus is the second planet from the sun. It is a giant wasteland speckled with volcanoes, supervolcanoes, a massive global storm system, and nine-hundred degree temperatures. It is named after a Greek goddess, and is one of the brightest objects in the sky. Venus is referred to in the Bible, and this reference has become infamous and synonymous with satan.

Isaiah 4:12 - How are thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are thou cut to the ground which didst weaken the nations!

The day star, the morning star, called Lucifer which is referencing the planet Venus. Now some theologians may argue that Isaiah is consciously referencing the devil, or that he was solely evoking the actual planet Venus. Perhaps both arguments are correct. The very idea that there would be a debate about it is an indication that there is something there. When we read the desctiptions of hell, we are given a picture which strikingly resembles the conditions of Venus - hot with sulphur and brimstone, dry, and dark. The bible also indicates hell is below within the earth. Clearly we cannot see down into the earth from this perspective...or can we? Check out these specs of Earth vs Venus per NASA:

EARTH - Mass: 5.9736, Radius(mean): 6371.0, Volume: 108.321, Equatorial raduis: 6378.1.

VENUS - Mass: 4.8685, Radius(mean): 6051.8, Volume: 92.843, Equatorial radius: 6051.8.

Given the above information we see the resemblance between Earth and Venus and see essentially if the earth were an orange, if you peeled the skin away, you would have Venus.

So, just as we know heaven is both a spiritual and physical place, we can only gather from the descriptions that hell too is a spiritual and physical place. Is Venus our gleaming preview of hell in the sky for all to see? Is the "Lucifer" remark both directed at satan and hell?

Mars on the other hand...Mars has long been a favourite speculation point for scientists looking for life outside of Earth. And recently this quest to find life on Mars has increased as we recieve seemingly weekly mainstream news updates from NASA's two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. We're entertained with the prospects of areas which seem to have once held water on Mars, while some see areas on Earth such as the Tikal pyramid layout and Stonehenge to be mirrored on Mars.

What could it mean? I sometimes entertain the idea that Mars might be a warning in the sky, a warning. What would Earth look like fourty thousand years from now if God forsake it? If God's grace were not here, if Christ's salvation were not available, if we were not saved before we destroyed Earth and everything on it, Earth would undoubtedly become...Mars.

So the notion is simple. Could Mars be Earth, a few dozen thousand years from now, which we see through a parallel dimension, without God's redemption?

Game Over

Outside of the sports genere of gaming, it is well established that "game over" in videogame terms means you're dead. Of course, "game over" held more weight in games twenty years ago when you had 3 lives to complete the game (extra men not included). Nowadays there isn't really a "game over", it's more along the lines of "try, try, die again". But even with ulimited attempts, the idea remains the same; you don't want to leave the game world. And so just is life.

Alright, so in your game let's say you perish in some clever videogame world way...now what? You have exited the virtual world you have been emersed in to return back to the real world. Just as the Creation post above, you are now in a world far more expansive than the one you just left. You go from your camera's visual allowance to about a 180 degree field of view, counting perepheral vision. You are able to experience sensations you could never experience in game. You are able to once again see the big picture of your game. You can go out with friends, go to the beach, take your dog out for a walk. Clearly death in your game means life to every other possible element of your, well...life.

This same idea rings true to our earthly lives. All of the trappings and limitations of this world will give way to a much greater, more powerful sense of understanding and awareness. When our "game over" time arrives, in Christ, it truly is "game on!" to a Heavenly existance.

Most every game has an object. The object to most games isn't to simply stay in the game or be in the game, you have missions, you have goals to meet. The same goes for life on earth. Just simply being alive is not the objective in life. In our lives we are tested, we have missions, we have goals to meet, we have responsibilities, obstacles to overcome. When playing a game, you know there is going to be an end, the game is not going to last forever; and we all know we are going to die, life here does not last forever. So it isn't so much that we should dread leaving this world or a game world, it's that we shouldn't want to leave any world with loose ends. We want to beat all the levels and get all the achievements we can; face our Creator with as much advancement toward greatness as we can. We're all going to die, growing up is hard, growing old sucks, but growing in a relationship with God is rejuvenating.

The Writing on the Wall

The written word has proven to be invaluable as a means of guidance through all aspects of life. And perhaps I'm just a bit dense, but if you're anything like me, when you sat down for the first time to play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, or any other Tom Clancy series; you found yourself filing through the booklet, trying to figure out what the hell you're doing. You may sometimes think that you wish there was an instruction booklet for life and you're in luck because there is! It's the Bible. Sometimes coined as an acronym: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. First, how about that title...

The phrase "writing on the wall" is derived from an event in the book of Daniel, chapter 5. The king Belshazzar has just sat down to a decadant feast with some concubines and nobles when he notices in the darkness a hand writing on the wall.

Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him.

Daniel is summoned to explain what the writing on the wall means and the king is greatful for the information. Unfortunately for Belshazzar, he's killed that same night.

Let's look at a game booklet; I've got the Assassin's Creed booklet here, so it'll do. It's got a basic overview of how the game is played, such as what buttons to press for various situations, it explains that you'll see glitches, and some basic social interaction explinations. So, the booklet doesn't go into deep detail of every situation you're going to encounter in the game. The booklet doesn't go into every element the developer used in creating the game. The booklet is there to give you an overview of important information you will need to know in order to successfully complete the game.

As such does the Bible. Sometimes I'm asked (condescendingly): "What does the Bible say about (insert random specific scientific query)?". That is not what the Bible is there for. Like the game booklet, the Bible is a basic overview showing us the big picture and directing us on how to successfully live from this life to the next. In the Bible we see geographical changes, we see biology, we see economics, warfare strategy, romance, deceit, socio-political changes. It gives an overview and doesn't spend a whole lot of time dwelling on pithy details. In this means of presentation, we get the message being relayed, but we also aren't so drawn into minor details that we lose sight of the big picture.

In an urban city setting, when you're driving or walking through town, it can be like a war zone. You've got sirens, people yelling, asking you for money, asking you for cigarettes, people following you, cutting you off in traffic, one way streets, you can get lost driving around the grid. It's stressful, hectic, and can easily piss you off and ruin your day quick. But, find yourself fifty stories up in a building looking down on the city, and it's quiet, you clearly see the order of the city below, it's peaceful, you see the big picture.

For most AAA titles out now, you can find a strategy guide for the game. The strategy guide may or may not have direct input from the creators of the game, but the information is inspired by the game. This will go into much greater detail as to help the player with specific events of the game. There are also biblical texts not cannonized in the Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Enoch, various Papyrus discoveries, many people would include Paul's writings of the New Testament...texts which are not (or should not) be in the instruction book that is the Bible, but may make up the equivalent of strategy guides. I would also put modern texts in that category such as Answers in Genesis information, Billy Graham's works...etc...

A Rad Theory

This little article is not going to relate back to the video game world, ultimately because I can honestly think of no real equivalent.

In Genesis 1, verse 26, God says “Let us make man in our image…”

So who is God talking to? What is this “us” and “our” business? To understand, we need to understand what exactly God’s image is. Then we need to understand how that relates to us. In doing so, we might be able to actually quantify through science, the presence of God.

What is the appearance of God? According to Scripture:

1 John - This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 Kings - But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.

Psalms - Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Isaiah - The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

Just from a couple of excerpts here, we see that God is seen as light. God is vast, God is omnipresent. When Christ went up on the mount and transfigured, he became as light. Going further, we can look at Moses’ experience of being with the Lord. The bible says that his face shined, it radiated from being in the presence of God and speaking with Him “face to face.”

“Light” is defined as an electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength. So my assertion theory becomes both simple and obvious. The Holy Spirit, or at least the footprint of God is radiation.

Radiation is omnipresent. Radiation produces light. Radiation is energy.

This can relate back to God’s creation of man. As God exists as a trinity entity as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; we also exist as a trinity of mind, body, and spirit(soul). Our bodies existing as the physical form which we live life on earth. Our minds to project and process our consciousness. And our souls are the eternal entity of ourselves.

Our souls cannot be pinpointed to an exact location in the body because there is not a specific location in the body that houses it. The soul is the energy, the radiation in the body that dissipates abruptly from the body upon death.

The potential of identifying God and the soul through science is somewhat of an alarming aspect. Scientific discoveries imply an ability to contain, control, and harness; and human nature in its current state is to try to achieve these things. If ever there were a line to be crossed to initiate the end of man, I would imagine that would be pretty close.