The Creation Story Revised

THE CREATION STORY REVISED About a third of the American public rejects evolu�on and believes it contradicts the Genesis story of crea�on. Although science has amassed an immense amount of evidence suppor�ng the Theory of Evolu�on, it has not swayed opinions. Part of the problem is the widely held belief that the Genesis story is the unerring word of God. The Genesis story gives us no indica�on of how or when the story originated, and it is believed that God communicated informa�on concerning how the universe, the earth and life on earth came about. It may be that God communicated with someone in the remote past and the informa�on was without error. However, what we today are reading is what that person believed they heard. Rather than engaging in arguing which version is correct, I have found that concentra�ng on what events are taking place in the Genesis story and comparing them to that of science produces an interes�ng result. See Exhibit -1. There are some twenty events, and all match events in science and are all in the proper chronological order of occurrence. That appears to be more than mere coincidence. Exhibit-1 1-Genesis 1:2 In the beginning there was darkness and the Earth was without form. Science: The universe was extremely hot but there was no light nor atoms. There was nothing but hot plasma.__________________________________________ 2- Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void. Science: There was nothing but hot plasma as it was too hot for atoms to form. 3-Genesis 1:2 The Anchor Bible translate the verse as “--an awesome wind”. Science: The universe was expanding rapidly sugges�ve of a strong wind to the ancient author.____________________________________________________ 4- Genesis 1:3 God separates light from darkness. Science: Light is trapped in darkness un�l the era of reioniza�on some 380,000 years a�er the Big Bang. ______________________________________________ 5- Genesis 1:5-6 God divides the waters from the waters. Science: This may be a descrip�on of accre�on of dust and gases forming planets and stars. Separa�on of atmospherics water from ocean water makes no sense. ____________________________________________________ 6- Genesis1-:9-10 At first earth was covered In water and then dry land emerged. __ Science: Science agrees. The earth was a vast ocean and then land appeared.__ 7- Genesis 1:11-12 Grass and trees did not exist during this period. Science: It may be that what is shown to the author is views of microscopic life that looks like grass and trees.______________________________________ 8- Genesis 1:14-18 God created the sun and the moon. Science: The sun ignited on day four and could not be the light of day one. Primi�ve life may have evolved in the ocean before the sun ignited. _________ 9- Genesis 1:20-25 Life flourished in the sea first and then on land Science: Science agrees.______________________________________________ 10- Genesis 2:7 According to the Anchor Bible Adam is created from a clod of soil; that is, soil that is stuck together and suggests clay. Science: Life may have started in the inters�cies of montmorillonite clay._____ 11- Genesis: Adam was not male but asexual. li Science: The Prokaryotes were early life forms and were asexual. Sex arrived only with the Eukaryotes. ________________________________________________________________________ 12- Adam was immortal since he had not yet disobeyed God. God surely would not inflect death on Adam if he obeyed God. Science: Prokaryote life con�nually cell-divided into iden�cal cells and thus were essen�ally immortal.__________________________________________ 13- Adam was free of sin since he had not yet eaten of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Science: The early life forms were non-sen�ent and thus incapable of commi�ng sin. ________________________________________________ 14- Genesis 2:21-23 Marks the arrival of Eve and the Eukaryotes that involved sex for reproduc�on. Science: With the appearance of Eukaryote life forms sexual reproduc�on involving males and females. This life form would eventually result in humans. Jesus was correct when he said “In the beginning God made them male and \ female. ____________________ 15- Genesis 2:21-23 Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs. Science: When human chromosomes are lined up, they give the appearance of a rib cage, and that most likely is what the author believed he saw. Interes�ng that only in the male is there a missing rib in the 23rd chromosomal pair.________ 16- Genesis 3:6 Adam and Eve disobey God and acquire knowledge of good and evil. Science: The appearance of Eukaryotes set us on a path that would lead to senescence and awareness and the ability to control our ac�ons; that would include commi�ng sin._______________________________________ 17- Genesis 3:19 Adam and Eve are condemned to death for disobeying God. Science: The Eukaryote life form no longer divided into iden�cal cells but non- Iden�cal cells. Death was a natural result and had nothing to do with disobedience.______________________________________________________ 18- Genesis 3:7 ---and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves garments. Science: Cells eventually developed green chlorophyll that produced oxygen and set the stage for the emergence of higher life forms.___________________________ 19- Genesis 3:24 God drives Adam and Eve out of the Garden and places a Cherubim at the entry to prevent them from returning to the garden, . Science: During cell division of Eukaryote cells spindle fibers, that to an ancient person would look like a flaming sword waving back and forth, prevented the genes from returning to their former condi�on._________________________ 20- Genesis 4:2-5 God accepts Abel’s gi� of flesh but refuses Cain’s gi� of vegetables. Science: It is inconceivable that God would act in such a crude manner. Perhaps what the author is trying to describe is God favoring the Kingdom of Animals. Life divided into the Kingdom of Plants and the Kingdom of Animals some�me between 2.1 and 2.7 billion years ago and the later was favored as it is where God’s greatest achievement would arise; us.____________ One of the major reasons for belief in a literal reading of Genesis is it supposedly clearly indicates that we were made whole by God and did not arise from some lower life form. In addi�on a literal reading describes how sin entered the world by the disobedience of two individuals and thus the need for the salva�on offered by Jesus. It is strange that nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus men�on the crea�on stories. His gospel is not concerned with where we came from but only with where we should be going and how to get there. Jesus also never men�ons how sin entered the world. His gospel asserts that sin is present and infects all humans and thus the need for his plan of salva�on. Skep�cs ask “A�er Cain killed Abel surely it must have occurred to God that sin was an inherited gene�c flaw and would spread to future genera�ons. Why then didn’t God prevent that from happening?” The evolu�on of the Eukaryote life form was a natural event that had to happen and if it had been interfered with, life now would be not much more than pond scum. Skep�cs also ask: “Why did God expel Adam and Eve into a world that is filled with disease and dangerous animals and plants?” If God is in this universe, as many believe, would not God have created only things that were beneficial to humans?” The answer may be that God has never been in this universe as the nature of God may be incompa�ble with our universe. God may have set the laws of nature just so and then launched the Big Bang crea�ng our universe. It is conceivable that God uses evolu�on to bring about change. Evolu�on produces a vast variety of things and does not dis�nguish between what is good for humans and that is exactly what we see. Although the foregoing demonstrates that evolu�on has no nega�ve affect on religion there is one major reason why many reject evolu�on and it has nothing to do with religion. It can be stated in one word, VANITY. It is o�en expressed as “Well I certainly didn’t evolve from some ape.” That statement is correct. It was the Bonobo apes that last branched off from the humanoid line and that event took place around 7 million years ago. If we consider that females in a remote age began having children at 15 or 16 years of age then our lineage spans some 450,000 or more genera�ons. If we line all those ancestors up five feet apart the line would extend well over 400 miles. Interes�ng that some will accept that they arose from a pile of dirt or a man’s bloody rib but are offended that they could have arisen from a lower life form Relax. Your Bible is now skep�c proof and on a solid founda�on. Concentrate on following the instruc�ons on how to conduct your life that your religion prescribes and leave the details of how everything came to be to science. Perhaps some �me in the future we may know precise details on how life came to be. In the interim concentrate on making this a beter world.