GENESIS & THE BIG BANG
The creation story in The Book of Genesis isn’t just about the planet earth. It is about the entire universe. The text describes earth, sun, moon, stars and the planets. There is talk about the ‘firmament’ which we might refer to as the ‘expanse’ or space. The true power of this literature might be its intuitive genius. Perhaps, that is why we endlessly return to it.
Is it possible that an ancient author was truly inspired about the essence of reality? Yes, it is possible. There is ample evidence in the historic record to suggest the occasional appearance of incredibly intelligent or inspired individuals. Just think of Mozart or Albert Einstein.
The acquisition of new knowledge pushes back the boundaries of intellect or mental darkness. The accumulation of knowledge and new discoveries provide vocabulary and descriptive concepts which did not exist for earlier generations. Hence, when translating ancient texts there is good reason to use the words such as energy and matter; words which the ancient biblical author did not know.
Looking once again at the opening sentences of The Book of Genesis we are startled by its intensity and insight. The picture at first glance is that of an unformed, chaotic void of nothingness with the Creator ‘hovering’ or ‘infusing’ nascent reality with the energy necessary to explode into a material universe. “And God said, “Let there be light. And it was so.”
This brief look at the opening sentences of The Book of Genesis is not intended to prove or disprove any particular theological choice or belief. It is but another view of ancient concepts which are worthy of attention.
Genesis chapter 1: When God began creating energy and matter the universe was chaotic. There was only a dark void. Then, God said, “Let there be light.”
And the universe came into being.
Did the author of this ancient passage intend to initiate the Big Bang Theory? Probably not.
Did he intuitively perceive such an event? It’s fun to think that he might have. It is also incredibly profound!
I don’t mean any disrespect and many good people go off to study and practice their faiths. A lot of good work is done with religious motivation, however, for me some very difficult moral and philosophical questions exist WRT the whole Bible… here are but three big ones in Genesis.
1. Why is the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil off limits anyway, let alone present, if it is forbidden? If people knew the difference between Good and Evil, wouldn’t there be more informed choices and, one would think, less Evil in the world? The vast majority of people I know would seldom even accidentally do something that was consciously known to themselves to be harmful. Most people would act in a way that didn’t cause harm, even unintended harm, with this knowledge. The world would be a better place. God’s main concern sounded like he was threatened by a further potential of eating of the Tree of Life. With immortality and absolute knowledge of right and wrong, humanity be God’s peer. It seemed like God was more concerned with His own station than the development and preservation of the Creations.
2. Why would God go off and leave these “tree hazards” and the Serpent roaming the Garden of Eden in the first place? Being everywhere, omniscient and omnipotent, this is like leaving Charles Manson in charge of your children at armory while you go off to watch from a remote monitor. Innocents who have no knowledge of Good and Evil (unless they eat from the forbidden tree, that is!) would be ill-equipped to resist temptation by more powerful, sly forces of God’s Creation. Blaming Adam and Eve for the lack of supervision and intervention by the Creator is illogical. Also, God lied about the consequence of even touching the fruit, which Eve was told would kill her. The Serpent correctly showed this to be a lie by God. God lies to us?
3. Are we to believe that incest in God’s world is okay? The world, according to Genesis, was populated only by parents, brothers and sisters, as there were only Adam, Cain, Abel and Seth, Eve, and subsequent sons and daughters to interbreed after they were kicked out of the Garden. At what point in our moral and spiritual evolution did this become forbidden? If they had eaten of the Tree, they would have known about genetic inbreeding and known that this would be unwise, and dare I say, even “Evil”.”
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