Allow me to change one word in the first sentence of this biblical quote, "In the beginning, God created the universe and the earth."
       When I sit too much, I usually think about such heady stuff as "black holes" and "dark matter." When this two or three minute exercise is over, I then think about Stephen Hawking and his stuff, "An Answer for Everything." If you happen to see a picture of him, you're looking at a genius with unruly hair. "How could a phenomenon have such bad hair, especially if he is such a renowned cosmetologist?" I ask.
       "Well," answers Julie, "It is because he is a renowned cosmologist and not a beautician, you nimrod."
Julie is so wise. I'll bet she can't spell Saskak..., Sasacat..., sarsasparilla. "It can be spelled as Saskatoon or Saskatchewan, and don't make me smack you!"
       To narrow down Hawking's background in a simple way: he has studied quantum cosmology, cosmic inflation, helium production in anisotropic Big Bang universes, quantum entanglement and, of course,you know the rest. He also believes,  "Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare." I don't know about you, but I think I've just been "served."
       Down to brass tacks. Hawking believes creation was so simple that he has a so-called "Creation Cookbook" and his recipe says there are only three things needed to create this known universe of ours: matter, energy and space. I can handle space up to a point. The universe has no beginning and no end. It has no dimension since there is no height, depth or width. There is no north, south, east or west. My mind is beginning to hurt - a lot. Our intelligent theologians state that the universe was created "ex nihilo" or "out of nothing."
       I think I have found the flaw in the brilliance of Stephen Hawking's cookbook. If there was nothing to begin with, then where'd the matter come from? And if there was no sun to begin with, then where'd the energy come from? (Yes, I know the last sentence is in the subjunctive but "was" sounds better.)
       Please, be gentle with me as I am not knocking the superbly gifted mind of Stephen Hawking and I couldn't carry the water bucket for the extraordinarily brilliant physicists who speak the language of the stars in mathematical formulas beyond the laymen's comprehension. The reason I say this is because I truly believe their theories are sound. All I want to add is, "What caused the Big Bang that put into place the stars, galaxies, solar systems, black holes and gave celestial mysteries to tax the minds of the brilliant and not-so-brilliant for all eternity?"
       The Bible gives me the right and the audacity to look to the heavens and announce, "In the beginning, God!" I just can't say, "In the beginning there was nothing and out of that nothing came something!" If anything, that statement is pure blasphemy!
       So, once again, I say, "In the beginning, God!" And, God will also have the last word.
       Tonight, open The Book and read Psalm 8. Then, go outside and look up to the heavens. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you hear?