The
Bible begins with the creation of the universe: "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1 NIV).
This single verse describes the actual transformation of invisible
energy into all of the fundamental physical matter (as summed up in
Albert Einstein's famous E=mc2 equation) that would be formed
into stars, planets and everything else - including us. Scientists now
estimate that the great event took place approximately 15 billion years
ago.
The next verse describes the earth after its creation, long
after the creation of the universe: "Now the earth was [or became]
formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and The
Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Genesis 1:2 NIV).
Scientists estimate the age of the earth to be about 5 billion years old
- leaving an estimated 10 billion years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.
There has been a tremendous amount of
disagreement between science and religion, each side armed with its own
obvious facts to refute the other. People of science and religion need
not disagree so often if they would realize that their different
observations are the result of each looking only at opposite sides of
the same coin. The contradictory evidence is actually an illusion,
caused by omission, which virtually guarantees that alone, either
scientific theory or religious doctrine can only be half-right in their
understanding of the creation of the universe or the origin of humanity.
Together however, the picture is complete and harmonious.
We all realize that God was Creator, but how often do we consider
what was involved in that creation? God was a chemist, a physicist, an
astronomer, a biologist. He was most certainly an artist, a maker of all
of our world's beauty. He was the lawmaker of all of the unseen forces
that make "nature" orderly and predictable.
The universe as it exists was not produced by some cosmic accident.
The conditions of creation were intricately planned and considered. A
mindless uncontrolled "big bang" would result in
destruction and chaos, not the life and order we now see.
On the other hand, a great initial expansion (explosion) of physical
matter that had just been transformed (created) from pure energy (from a
physical point of view, literally nothing), followed by orderly
development (from natural laws put into force beforehand by a Creator)
of stars, galaxies and everything else, is reasonable and logical. It
satisfies both religion and science.
The First Day
The first recorded Words of God that we have are "Let there be
light" (Genesis 1:3 NIV). The sun was already shining brightly, but
God made the earth's thick new atmosphere allow diffuse light to
penetrate to the surface. And so it was that the light was made separate
from darkness. The first day of earth's creation was literally the first
"day" as someone on earth's surface would experience it - a
period of opaque light, and a period of darkness. (Genesis 1:3-5)
The Second Day
The separation of the waters. There was yet no liquid water,
no oceans. All of the water was in the form of a vapor, a worldwide
super-fog, extending a number of kilometers/miles up from the very hot
(above the boiling temperature of water) bare-rock earth's surface (the
earth's core remains molten right to the present day). God's
"hovering over the waters" in verse 2 describes His being
above that gaseous-water atmosphere, not a liquid ocean. God then caused
most of the water to condense onto the cooling earth which
simultaneously formed a whole-planet ocean and cleared the sky. (Genesis
1:6-8)
The Third Day
The first appearance of dry ground. The further cooling of the surface
set in motion a process of natural contraction, uplifting and motion of
the crust (the process continues today, called "plate
tectonics"). The earth changed from a smooth one-level molten
"cue ball" to a planet with an irregular surface with ocean
basins and continental landmasses. With dry ground available, the first
plants were made to grow in great abundance. (Genesis 1:9-13)
The Fourth Day
With the sky now clear, the sun, moon and stars were dependably visible.
They were to "serve as signs to mark seasons and days and
years." The sun marked the day (sunset to sunset), the moon the
month (new moon to new moon), and the stars the seasons (constellations
are seen in particular seasons e.g. "Orion" is visible in
winter in the northern hemisphere, which is summer in the southern
hemisphere). (Genesis 1:14-19)
The Fifth Day
Great numbers of birds and sea creatures. God blessed them and said,
"Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas,
and let the birds increase on the earth." (Genesis 1:20-23)
The Sixth Day
Vast numbers of land animals. Man.
From the man, woman
(humans today are just now discovering how to genetically alter
fertilized embryos, and even to create one human from the tissue of
another - known as "cloning"). (Genesis 1:24-31)
The Seventh Day
The Sabbath Day. "By the seventh day God had finished the work He
had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested
[or ceased] from all the work of creating that He had done."
The day that is the basis for The
Fourth Commandment. (Genesis 2:2-3)
