Why Does God Call the Dry Land "Earth"?
After the definition of time, the perception of reality becomes limited to the experiences appearing in the present. Therefore, for the Human, the material world can be perceived only in the present.
Earth is the material manifestation of the laws, which was defined in the first verse of the Bible. This is the most fundamental law. The definitions created by God are truly definitions because what they define appears in the material world.
The more laws are defined, the more ways they are able to manifest, because every new definition is influenced by what already exists. The manifestation of every new definition is always influenced by what already exists.
The manifestation of the material world is influenced by every law that exists, by everything that has been defined in Heaven.
However, the laws would not be knowable if the perception of consciousness were not limited, because then the definitions could not be distinguished from one another.
The definition of time limits the perception of consciousness and transforms the perception of the material world into a process, in which the laws appearing in the material world become a sequence of experiences because we are able to perceive only a tiny portion of reality at any given moment.
Since Earth is the name of the material world, God calls the part of Earth that is appearing and can be perceived in the present Earth. This part is the Dry Land, which is the experience that can be perceived in the present.
Since the past and the future cannot be perceived by us, and we are only able to imagine them according to the knowledge we have already acquired, the perception of reality is possible only in the present. Therefore, we can be certain only of the reality of the experience that is appearing at this very moment.
Because of the limitations of perception, the only part of Earth that we are able to perceive is the Dry Land. Therefore, God calls the Dry Land Earth.
The meaning of Earth is not limited to the present moment. Earth exists at all times and everywhere in space. However, the process of knowing can come into existence only if the perception of consciousness is limited, so that it is able to come to know the world, the appearing reality, in its details.
As long as the perception of consciousness is limited, the possibility of knowing remains. During this time, consciousness is able to experience the manifestations of the laws in many different ways. As long as consciousness perceives the material world through the human body, perception unfolds along a timeline. Based on the experiences that appear, the intellect continuously creates increasingly accurate and increasingly detailed interpretations, and within the process these interpretations can continuously be tested according to how well they correspond to the appearing reality.
Thus, the Dry Land is rightly called Earth, because for us the perception of reality is limited to the experience that is appearing in the present moment.
God calls the Dry Land Earth in order to express this even more concretely. Reality is not what we are able to imagine about the past or the future based on our knowledge, because in those only what we have understood—or believe we know—about the laws of the world appears.
The experience appearing in the present, however, is a gate that is continuously available to us and provides a glimpse into reality.
For us, this is all that can be perceived of reality.
Consciousness is like a flashlight that continuously moves forward, continuously mapping what it illuminates, yet it does not preserve the events themselves. What it has already passed over, it interprets, and according to those interpretations it is able to imagine what it previously experienced. Likewise, based on those same interpretations, it also imagines what it will illuminate in the future.
“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Reality, however, exists in its entirety, at all times and everywhere in space. Therefore, it is not the imaginations of consciousness that become reality; rather, what appears during the process of knowing is the contrast between our imaginations and reality.
After the Dry Land is named, Earth becomes the fixed point. In the present, we can be certain that we perceive the appearing reality, and by comparing our imaginations with the appearing reality, we become capable of refining our definitions, describing them in greater detail, and creating new definitions as well.
As long as we do not seek to change the appearing reality, but instead seek to understand the laws that determine the manifestation of reality, our knowledge continuously grows. We come to know with increasing precision and increasing detail the laws that determine the material world.