WHY I USE THE TERM "CREATOR"

The other day Joe in Cyberspace wrote taking me to task about sometimes using the word "Creator" in my essays. Over a decade ago Joe got fired from his teaching job because he wouldn't omit the topic of evolution from his high school biology class. That same week his fellow faculty members voted him "Teacher of the Year."

Joe wrote that when I speak of the Creator and keep "... guessing as to his/her motives {it} leaves you looking weaker as a naturalist. It's simply not science."

I explained to Joe that I don't pretend to be a scientist. I'm just publishing what I see and think, and let people subscribe and unsubscribe as they wish. However, there's more to it than that.

For, I mean to consciously and passionately resist how the term "Creator" is being co-opted by those self-identifying as "creationists." Creationists represent a Creator in which the whole Universe is a static stage for humans on planet Earth who determine by their behavior whether a paternalistic, vengeful "Creator" applying 2000-year-old rules assigns people upon their deaths to either Heaven or Hell. "Creator" is a word that's too beautiful and important to be surrendered to such a dismal meaning without a fight.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary at http://www.etymonline.com/ the word "create" upon which "creator" is based derives from the 14th century Latin creatus, meaning "to make, bring forth, produce, beget." These meanings explode with a sense of action, of movement, of blossoming -- of EVOLUTION!

In my writings, then, I do what I can to pass along the Good News that a rambunctious, artistic, dancing and singing, playful and jiving, diversity-obsessed and absolutely lusty Universal Creative Impulse -- a Creator -- can be detected and beheld with awe with our own minds if we will only open them.