Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the expanse and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse. And it was so. God called the expanse Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:6–8 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)
The word translated to English expanse is the Hebrew word raqia. Much is said about the word, and what it means. I have something, too.
The word raqia is used as the barrier between waters above and waters below. The word raqia is relatively rare in the Old Testament. It means something firm which is why it is translated to the firmament in some versions and heavens in others. My preferred uses expanse.
Now with that in mind, I am going to speculate a bit. My speculations will be about the meanings conveyed by the words translated as water and expanse (firmament, heavens.) The science is real and conveyed as best I understand it.
I like to think of the word waters as a description of something like a fluid of super-plasmas. Plasmas are an ordered superheated state of matter that consists of ions (nuclei) and electrons. In this state, electrons are free of their orbits around the atom. Plasmas are superabundant in the universe and comprise almost all visible matter.
All four (known) fundamental states of matter are found in the expanse. Even now, I cannot help but to speak of an unsettling aspect of plasmas that may clue us to something fantastic. Every particle in plasmas ‘knows’ what every other particle is doing. It is like ‘something’ (wink-wink) is in control. With that, perhaps waters describe a super state of plasmas that is non-local and has a closer interface to eternity. Perhaps this idea of waters is a super-dimensional reality just beyond our perception.
And as I sit pondering this, it may be that the idea of firmament is not a hard dome as is often asserted. Perhaps it is a domain where matter is cooled to a ‘firmer’ (harder) and ‘timier’ states like gas, liquid and solid. Matter takes on the physical (four-dimensional spacetime) properties of our universe. It is an expanse where electromagnetic matter interactions can happen.
What I mean by matter interactions are the things we can experience such as our three dimensional bodies moving around a four-dimensional spacetime. Couple that with the senses we use to interact; sight, touch, hearing, for example.
As plasmas cool, the electrons resume orbit around the nucleus of the atom. It means they become more ordered.
For some perspective on the forces that come to bear on ‘cooled’ plasmas that become lower fundamental states of matter, you will need a correct idea of an atom. The one you learned in school is quaint and wholly insufficient. Take the simplest atom hydrogen. It has one proton and one electron. To make the model easy enough to understand, let’s say the nucleus is the size of the pinhead. The electron that orbits the nucleus is about 100 yards away. Think of the forces needed to keep two pinheads interacting separated by a football field.
What that entails is that our perception of solid matter like a block of wood has far more empty space than actual particles. The solidity we perceive is due primarily to electrical forces.
Which leads some to say that our reality is more like a simulation.
It is satisfying to ponder. I hope I made the science easy enough to grasp. I thank you for your indulgence in my feeling free enough to post like this. How presumptive of me to expect you to read this far. Seriously… Thank you. My goal is to get you to not be afraid of trying to understand science.
The latest science seems to parallel the things in Genesis. There is a Creator just beyond our perception. It seems like a plausible, even reasonable explanation of greater domains where He is more perceptible.
God bless you.
Master's Crumbs 