Continuing day five.

 Genesis 1:21  "And God created great whales, (behemoths) and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."   This is the second time that the word "Create" appears.

This word will be used one more time in this chapter.  When God creates man.

There are so many things that I don't have the energy or endurance to tell you about the scientific truth of Genesis, but suffice to say, I am trying to hit the high points.  One thing you might be interested in is the Triassic, Jurassic, and  Cretaceous  periods  called the Mesozoic Era going back 245 million years ago.  At the end of this Era, Dinosaurs became extinct--and that was a very short time ago.  Wham.  Everything changed.  Almost everything vanished.  The fossil record drys up for over 60 million years.

Now,  how we are supposed to have evolved in the short time since then is a mystery to me.  This is where a good knowledge of statistics comes in handy.  If--as the evolution theorist claims--we are supposed to have evolved from something that simply vanished--it would be statistically impossible in the time left--after the Mesozoic Era--until now, to do it.

We are living in the Cenozoic Era.  And only in the tiny last part of this Era does man appear.

God was done with dinosaurs.  He started a new kind of life.  He..."created every living creature that moveth..."

Day five.  Here is where the fun begins.  The earth is ready.  The seas are ready,  The grass, flowers, and trees are ready.  The old dinosauric life is gone--with a some exceptions such as crocodiles, armadillos, crickets, numerous 'bugs'--just to name a few exceptions that made it through--and of course almost all of the sea life.

Genesis 1:20  "And God said, Let (let again) the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament (sky) of heaven."

When I looked at the dissection of birds--which sometimes swim, and fish--that sometimes fly, it is very noticeable that the fin of the fish and wing of the bird are very similar.  The tail as well.  Neither have lungs (with a few exceptions).  So if you are an Darwinist, and a Christian (which is an oxymoron to me),  this is one verse that might give you comfort.  But only on the subject of birds and fish.

  I personally believe the word  "let" was assumed.  "...Let  fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."  Two different kinds of creatures.  Fish have gills.  Birds send oxygen directly through their bones.   One species survived the destruction in the water, the other in the air.  Birds would have made it through by nesting in floating debris.  And there was probably a lot of that.

The tide--the force that now drives the motion of the oceans is bringing creatures onto land.  Crabs, fish that prefer to lay eggs in sand and then go back to the sea.  Turtles as well.  Many creatures of the sea had no problem using both sea and land--thus providing a food source for the abundant life that is getting ready to appear in Genesis 1:21.

I absolutely love this book.  Up to here has been description, but now God is getting ready to speak out loud to his creation.  

Someone asked me, "What difference does all this make?  Why does it matter so much to you?"

If Genesis does not stand up to the test of true and validated science, then there is room for doubt in the hearts of those who are not educated on the facts of what Genesis actually says. Especially our children.  We must hold the conviction that all of the Bible is true and that it is always true.  Once there is doubt about one part of the Bible, then how do you pick and choose what is true and what isn't.  We must rectify the truth of Genesis with true science.  That is why we must know what Genesis really says and what it does not say.

That is why I got the degree in Zoology.  In Pre-med.  And took all that work in Physics, Math, and Statistics.

I knew in my heart that the Bible was the true word of God.  I wanted to know what scientists knew for absolute sure, and what they were speculating on.  What was fact and what was just theory.  I was amazed.  Over and over again in the last fifty years science has reversed course, changed their minds, and recanted their 'facts'.  The book of Genesis has remained the same.  I subscribe to Discover magazine--among others.  I stay current.  The high-school textbooks don't.


Remember, everything scientists discover--atoms, molecules, distant planets, black holes--and the list goes on and on--God made.  He already knows everything about everything he made.

The world will disparage your faith if you don't understand Genesis.  They will say that you and I believe the world is 3000-6000 years old--which obviously it isn't.  They will mock your faith.

That's why it matters.

Genesis 1:19  "And the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

So, God 'let' the lights appear.  You recall that I said that the word 'let' means to allow something to happen.  I 'let' you out of the car.   From Genesis 1:1  In the beginning, God 'created' the heaven and the earth.  It was the earth that was void, dark, and without form--not the heavens.  Now the stars are visible.  All the atmospheric junk around the earth that interfered with a clear view of the heavens is swept away.

When I began this blog, I said there were three words that I found interesting.  One was "Create".  One was "Let".   And the third was "Made," which can be best described as meaning to take something and do something else with it.

 In Gen. 1:7,  God 'made' the firmament.  (Science says the firmament is still expanding.)

 Now we come to the second 'made'.  Verse 16-18.  "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."

This is the first time the moon is mentioned.

When the moon began rotation around the earth, something strange took place.  Tides.  Tides change everything.

Genesis 1:14-15  "And God said, Let (there's that word 'let' again) there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let (let) them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years; And let (let) them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

There are three more verses on this subject of 'lights'. (vs. 16-18) This is the longest passage on any subject so far. Lights in the firmament.  The heavenly expanse.  I've always wondered why this was so important to God that he gave five verses on this subject and nothing on dinosaurs.  Or on the life forms in the water, or on what happened in the verses between vs. 1 and vs. 2.  But He didn't.

Perhaps, as we get ready for man to appear in this story, the lights in the firmament were a mystery that spoke of God;  He speaks of Himself through the universe.  "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handwork.  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.  There is no speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard."  Psalms 19:1-3.

We have sunlight.

We have rotation of the earth since there is 'day' and 'night'.

We have grass, trees, fruit, photosynthesis.

Sea life is abundant.  Sea life was never destroyed.

How long did it take to rotate the earth?  How long was a day?   There is no way to know.  II Peter 3:8b puts it this way: "...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."  The earth could have been rotating slow, or fast.  God doesn't say.  If science proves that days were longer than 24 hours.  Fine.  If science proves that days were shorter than 24 hours.  Fine.  Just be sure it is proof and not theory.  Science will be hard pressed to prove it one way or the other.

But at this point we do know some of what was there, and some of what was going on.  And the stage is being set for a world transformation.

Gen. 1:13  "And the evening and the morning were the third day."

 Jeremiah described a desolate earth in 4:23-26:  "I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light,  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man and all the birds of the heavens were fled.  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger."

Had men been there?  If cities were broken down,  someone built them.  Birds fled.  Fruit no longer grew on trees.

Did this happen between Gen. l:1 and Gen. 1:2?   God doesn't tell us.  So there isn't much use in speculating.  Archeologists have found very old human bones.  How old?  Well, that depends on methods of dating--which are not very exact.  (More on this later.)

As far as I am concerned, the story of Genesis begins when God starts over.  When the sun breaks through the darkness and light allows trees to grow, birds to fly--when "The earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." Gen. 1:12

Gen. 1:13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

God's word is true.  So we don't need to be fearful that science will disprove it.  Each time science finds a truth, you must be sure it is not a theory.  If it is a truth, then the Bible will support it.  If it is a theory, well that's a different thing altogether.

Darwin's theory is that all life traces back to a cell that magically appeared, replicated itself in some way, became a cluster of cells, and eventually a worm or some other micro-organism.  And then (here is the kicker) 'over time' all life evolved.  The problem is that archaeologists  find fossils--or bones--in abundance of some given creature and try to connect it in some way with another creature with no evidence of anything in between.  There are vast eons between both creatures with no fossil record at all.  No missing link is found.  Thousands and thousands and thousands of 'missing links.'  It's not just one.   I've always wondered why one species of dinosaur appears thousands of times in a layer of strata with no ancestors in the strata above or below it.  Why are some creatures found in such abundance with no 'kissing cousins' in conjunction.  Darwin's Theory of Evolution  requires great leaps of faith from strata to strata with nothing in between.  And no connection between millions of organisms.  There is no "The" missing link.

I can't conjure up that kind of faith.  I prefer to have faith in something valid.  Something documented. Like the resurrection.  Witnessed by thousands.  No missing links.

Genesis 1:11-12  And God said, Let (there's that word again) the earth bring forth grass, the herb 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.

I've always thought this was such a provocative verse.  The seed that was in itself.  What does that mean?  Perhaps that each tree had fruit with the seed inside.  Or perhaps the earth brought forth seed that was in itself.  I personally think it was both.  I think some seeds survived those first destructions.  Perhaps in pockets the waters didn't reach.  I don't know.  What I do know is that many plants--such as gingko trees--survived.  And new plants appeared.

It's probably time to say the word 'evolution'.

We are losing our wisdom teeth.  Some people are still born with four.  Some with two, and some with none.  Most people don't have room in their mouth for wisdom teeth.  We no longer 'gnaw' our food.  But this is 'natural selection'.

It used to be that if you had diabetes, you were doomed.  People died before they reproduced  But then we found cures and treatments.  As  a result, diabetes is no longer rare.  People with a gene for certain types of diabetes now live to pass that gene on.  (Of course we are also 'naturally selecting' to overeat and get diabetes.)

Things change.  They 'evolve'.  But Darwin's theory of evolution is an entirely different ball of wax.

Three word combinations:  Natural Selection.  Evolution.  Darwin's Theory of  Evolution.  Just exactly what do we know is true?  Well, let's start with the Bible.  I believe it is the inerrant word of God.

When I used to drive back and forth to the college where I taught, (55 miles each way, every day, 110 miles a day for 20 years), I drove in rain sleet, snow and fog.  The fog was the worst.  You couldn't see at all.  I would get behind a semi and drive by his tail lights praying that the person driving the semi could see the road.  It gave new meaning to the phrase, "I'm in a fog."  It was so dense on those October mornings that I literally could stretch out my arm and not be able to see my fingers.

That's part of what I think God was separating when he separated 'the waters from the waters.'  The world was in a fog.  Some animals that were left behind--and lived through the great destruction (between vs. 1 and vs. 2) probably couldn't see very far, but had a keen sense of smell to seek prey.  They were meat eaters.  Plants, for the most part, had vanished for lack of sunlight causing a huge disruption in the food chain. Plant eating animals began to die out.  Perhaps those animals that ate the plant eaters began to eat each other.  Domino effect.  Extinction happened rapidly.

Vegetation had to be able to live without the sun.  Some plants lived. Certain types lived under water.  In the fossil record there are a lot of ferns.  Plants that lived in murky conditions.

So.  Land appears.  The sun is out.  The fog is gone.  The atmosphere is cleared of ash and perhaps  debris.  (Think of the Oklahoma dust bowl as thick as dense fog.)

Genesis 1:9-10  "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 he Seas:  And God saw that it was good.

God is preparing something.  Something different is happening.  Very different than what was before.

You recall that I told you there were three words that I found interesting in the first chapter of Genesis.  The third word  that I talked about is in the Bible passage I discussed yesterday.  It was the word "made".

This word is a little bit different from 'create' and 'let.'  It means to take something that is already there and 'make' something from it.  i.e.: I made my daughter a dress.  I didn't make the fabric.  I didn't make the thread, the pattern, the lace, etc.,  I just took those things, and made something else.  Something new.  Something different.

God 'made' the firmament...out of what was already there.  The waters settled, the fog went away, the air cleared.  You could see the blue sky.

Genesis 1:8-10 "And God called the firmament Heaven.  And the evening and the morning were the second day.  And God said,  Let (there is that word again) the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and 'let' the dry land appear: and it was so."

Upheaval.

Mountains are pushed up from the bottom of the water.  Land masses are shaking.  Continents shifting.  Always moving.  Always changing.  God put it in motion.  It is a continual process that still is going on today.

Our world has never been static.  It is always rearranging itself.

Genesis  1:6-8

"And God said,  Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  (Notice that the scripture uses the word "let" twice.  God isn't creating anything; he's just rearranging things.  Allowing things to happen.)

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."

This seems to indicate that not only was it dark, and void, and without form--but that it was a wet murky mess.  Exactly the atmosphere for some animals to survive in, and for others to die out.

Fish would have been just fine.  Fossil history includes many many species of fish as far back as you want to go.  They don't really change all that much over the millennium.  They just keep looking like fish.  Their differences are small, different perhaps, but fish just the same.

There are many animals that survived whatever happened between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  We have their bones.  We have their fossils.  This is why I believe that there was a "gap."  There was a period between the dinosauric age in which water life continued, but in which most forms of land life died out.  Note that I said "most."

I think it is probable that a gap occurred between verse one and two.  But this is a just a theory--the gap theory.  Many scientists who are Christians concur.  It fits the scientific evidence of the dinosaurs.

The world is entering a new stage.  It is being prepared for new kinds of animals.

As the sunlight cut through the atmospheric dust and ash, we read:

Genesis 1:3-5  "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 morning were the first day."

Sunlight, and darkness.  That means there was rotation.  Did rotation begin before this moment?  Did the earth rotate in twenty-four hours?  The Bible doesn't say.  Don't get into an argument about how fast, or how slow rotation was.  It was simply rotation.  There was night, and there was day.

Catastrophic events on earth can change the rotation and tilt of the earth.  We have seen that happen a number of times when volcanos and earthquakes occur.  A recent earthquake in South America affected rotation and the "time" it takes for a rotation.

Think what an asteroid would do.

Where were the North and South poles?  There is adequate evidence that our even our North and South poles have shifted.

But rotation settled in, and earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanos changed the topography of the world.

The dinosauric age came to an abrupt halt.  They began to die out.  I just bought a child's book on the "Wonderful world of Dinosaurs" by Disney that gives a great overview of the different kinds, categories, and a general time line of the dinosaurs.

There is also a section on a giant asteroid impact that says that dust and ash shot into the atmosphere worldwide and blocked sunlight.  The impact would have caused earthquakes, tsunamis and acid rain.  Scientists today think that is what happened.

I'm through with all that.  Simply wanted you to know about the "blocked sunlight", because that brings us to the second word I told you that I was interested in.  "Let."

Genesis 1:2  "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness (blocked sunlight) was on the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
Genesis 1:3 "And God said, Let..."

I take this word to be very different from "create".  You recall I said that 'create' meant to make something where nothing had been before.  Something entirely new.  But "let", put simply, means to allow something to happen.  For instance, "I'm going to stop at the corner and let you out of the car."   Nothing is created.  Someone is in control of the car.  They stop, open the door, and you get out.  They "let" you out.

Genesis 1:3  "And God said, let there be light: and there was light."   He didn't have to create it, he did that back in Genesis 1:1  The only thing God had to do was restore it.  Let sunlight pierce the darkness.

Here's what I think may have happened.  In the beginning, God created everything just like he wanted it.  It wasn't void; it wasn't empty;  it wasn't dark.  We know for a fact that there were animals.  Some looked strange in terms of what we think an animal should look like.  But in reality, we have some strange looking animals living today.

Some animals survived whatever partially destroyed the world between Genesis1:1 and 1:2.  Great forces picked many animals up and washed them into heaps.  Dirt settled and encapsulated them for us to dig up years and years later.  Great floods washed trees from one part of the earth to another.  Some of them were petrified.  One on top of the other for miles and miles.

But most of the animals that survived lived in water or in murky marshes.  They survived in a dark, void environment.  Those land animals that ate plants lost their source of food and began to die.  Which caused the food chain to begin to deteriorate.

What would cause such darkness?  Volcano eruptions that spewed ash?  Fire?  Whatever it was, when you couple an Asteroid  impact with anything else, it would be like trying to walk across a room with a shallow saucer of water without spilling it.  Slish, slosh.

Jeremiah 4:23-27 "I beheld the earth, and lo, in was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light...the mountains...trembled and all the hills moved lightly...there was no man and all the birds of the heavens were fled.  I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness and all the cities thereof were broken down..."

Very similar to Gen. 1:2.  But this account tells that there were men, birds, mountains, fruit, cities.  Is Jeremiah talking about what happened between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2?

The earth is covered with clues.  Asteroids in the Gulf of Mexico and Northern Russia.  Fossils.  Archaeological artifacts.  Floods.  Volcanos.  Changes in polar magnetism.  The list goes on.  The earth has been under assault for millions of years   Years counted in days.  Days counted as one rotation.  Which may not have been 24 hours.  It could have been longer or shorter.  Genesis doesn't tell us.

I believe there is no error in the book of Genesis.  The more fossils that are found, the more archaeological artifacts that are found, the stronger my conviction.

The past is recorded in the ice in the Arctic.  Huge plugs are pulled from the ice and the yearly layers look like stripes on a popsicle.  Volcanos erupt, soot fills the atmosphere and dribbles down on the ice which holds the record like a diary.  The earth reveals its secrets.  The layers can be counted in years. Volcanic eruptions from thousands of years ago can be dated.

Fossils found in the highest mountains tell us that those mountains were once a seabed. The fossils tell us of creatures that existed "once upon a time".  They were alive.  Now they are gone.

But something interesting is held in these records.  A cricket 'then' looks like a cricket now.  A shark 'then' is recognizable as a shark now.  A fly preserved in a drop of amber looks like a fly today. The list goes on.  And another interesting fact: creatures once declared extinct show up alive in our ocean depths.  It so happens that they weren't extinct after all.

So "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."  I believe he did.  How?  I don't know.  When?  I don't know.  (Certainly a long time ago.  Which some religious groups think is heresy.)  Where?  I don't know  Why?  I don't know.  But I believe in creation.  I believe in a supernatural designer.

What?  Well, that is where the controversy begins with people who take different sides of the three possibilities.  1. God, 2. Accidental event from nowhere and nothing.  3. Alien invasion

In the first group--those who believe in God--the question concerning what happened next is not agreed upon.  You can't know what Genesis doesn't say.  There are many speculations which is another story.  Let me say that I, after much study and much zoological, mathematical and chemical pondering, believe in dinosaurs (duh) and that there were probably  millions of years between verse one and verse two.  This theory is sometimes referred to as the "Gap Theory".  I definitely believe there was a gap because in verse two we find something terrible has occurred.

Genesis 1:2a   "And the earth was without form, and void;  and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

This doesn't sound like a creative work to me.

So what happened?

I don't believe that something came from nothing.   The only other possibility is that something came from something.  We were created.  The question is how.  There are two possibilities unless you believe we came from space.   (Mercy.  ET call home.)

1. God did it
2. Somehow we evolved from a spark of nitrogen that mixed with some oxygen and other stuff (that supposedly came from the same place the nitrogen did) and created a cell. This cell divided?  The science is iffy here.  But eventually enough cells hung together to make a worm.  The next step was the acquisition of a spine so a little wormy creature called the amphyoxis (probably spelled wrong) got a gelatin type of cartelidge down its back...and so on...until we got humans.  This is a very short synopsis of a tiny part of Darwin's Theory of Evolution.  The only problem is that something still had to come from something.  Well, no, that's not the only problem.

Which brings me to the first word:  "Create"

I don't really consider myself a Bible scholar.  But when I started checking on this word "create" I found that it was used three times in the first Chapter of Genesis and once more that I could find.  (If you find a Hebrew reference for other places, let me know.)

This word means "Do (design) something completely unique."
Genesis 1:1  The heaven and earth
Genesis 1:21  Great whales, creatures that move, birds
Genesis 1:27 Man
Psalm 51:10 A new heart  (David cried out to his God to let him start over.  Let him be clean again.)

Obviously, I believe in God.

There is a Creator.  Something didn't come from nothing.  There was a beginning.  Something was there before the moment of the beginning of our world.

"In the beginning, God...."  He was there.

"He...created..."

There are three words in the first chapter of Genesis that hold my interest.

The first word is 'created'.

The second is 'made'.

The third is 'let'.

From those ancient manuscripts a poet made an observation that is universal.  It is a truth that even the most simple person can understand.  It resonates in our souls:

"The heavens declare the glory of God:  and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.  Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge.  There is no speech  nor language where their voice is not heard."

My interpretation:  If you look up, look around and listen, you will see something and hear something that rings true.  Our universe is truly a miracle.  And all people everywhere see the same thing and hear in their own language.  God speaks to our hearts.

Scientists want to  find out when the 'big bang' occurred.   What ever you want to call it, it was the beginning.  When did it happen?  Where did it happen?  Who can say.  But how it happened, well that's another story.  The existence of a Creator is evident.  All of this came from somewhere--and I for one will never believe that it all came from nothing.  I believe it was "In the beginning, God..."

Why defend "Genesis"?  Well, there are three major points on which the world will challenge your faith.  There are other points,  but these are the 'biggies'.
   1.  The Virgin birth of Jesus
   2.  The resurrection of Christ
   3.  The Biblical story of creation

I will leave the Virgin birth up to scholars who are certainly smarter than I am.  But it always seemed to me that the major evidence on the subject was Joseph's acceptance of this truth.  God spoke to him through a messenger, an angel.  In their culture, under the circumstances, she would have been "put away".  But Joseph embraced her.  He married her.  He raised her child.  He helped her flee to Egypt to keep her child from being killed.

The resurrection of Christ, on the other hand, is one of the most magnificent historical events that was ever recorded by man.  Witnessed by thousands.  Not just Christians, but documented by others as well.     When Christ died, the disciples went back to the same lives that they had lived before they met Jesus.  But something happened that changed them all.  So dramatic that they gave up their lives to carry the story to the world.  And died in the process.  They didn't do this as a group;  they each one died alone.  You don't ever have to apologize for believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It happened.

The creation story, however, is under siege.  'They' think you are stupid if you believe it.  Like I said when I started this blog,  I went to college to find out just exactly what the scientific world knew.  I wanted to know the truth.  Once I started taking classes, I just couldn't stop.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  And my faith in this book called "Genesis"was strengthened with every class I took.

So much for background.

The ultimate question is whether there is a "God" or not.

If you say no, then you have to explain all this stuff around us.  Where did it come from.  Dirt, trees, bugs, and more precisely, humans--yourself. It poses a dilemma.   The last I heard, Stephen Hawking (the smart guy in the wheelchair with Lou Gehrig's disease,) is trying to prove that something can come from nothing.  It seems like a last ditch effort to avoid admitting there is another "something" that created all this.

If you say yes, then you must make a decision about this God.  Is he 'good'.  Is he 'evil'.

If he is evil, well, there you go.  You have to find a way to appease him.  Like they did in some of the cultures of the past.  Sacrifice babies, cut off people's heads, build the Tower of Bable.

If he is good, now that's another story.  Questions arise:  why, when,  how...  Why make humans?  When did he do it?  How was it done?  And does he want to communicate with us?  And where would you find an answer to such questions?

There are old,  old documents that address this subject.  Collected by the Jews.  One of the documents is called "Genesis".  The collection is called the "Old Testament".

"In the beginning...".  That's how it starts.

Are you still with me?  This has all been very boring, but I wanted to give you a little validation from my background.  Here's what I've learned:

1.  You don't need a college education.
2.  If you read Reader's Digest in the 50's they should have given you a degree in everything.  (Once RD started accepting advertising, well, that's a different story.)
3.  Read something.
4.  You will get interested in something.

I was teaching a class of 17 year old seniors at my church in l968 when the schools had started teaching evolution as a fact--which was disturbing  to the Christian community to say the least.  I just wanted to find the truth about what the other side knew for sure.

Ken came home, (Thank God)

If it hadn't been for fossils and carbon dating, this subject  wouldn't have been so interesting.  I was hooked.  So I started taking all the science courses they had.  The list was comprehensive and I reached the point that I either  had to graduate  or change my major.  I changed my major.  First it was zoology, then education, then it was pre-med, then math.  As long as I kept changing majors, the tuition scholarship continued.  Eventually there wasn't any way I could keep from graduating.  I ended up one course short of a bunch of stuff.  One more course and I was done.  It was just a matter of which course.

Let me say, I had student loans which came due if I quit.  The rule about student loans was that if you weren't enrolled in six hours, you had to start paying them back.  So I kept going, and going, and going. Physics, Italian... and that was when I gave up and started paying the loans back.  I just didn't have the heart to learn Italian.