Science and Genesis One: A Good Correlation

Here in the early 21st century, when we look at what we know of astrophysics, geology, earth science, biology, and botany; our perspective on the history of the Earth and Universe actually correlates well chronologically with Genesis 1. That this is not better known is perhaps due to the fact that many Christians are not well versed in Science, and many Scientists are not well versed in the Bible.

If we assume that YHWH does exist, and that he (or his agents) communicated the creation story to the people of many thousands of years ago, one problem encountered was that of language, another that of perspective. The former problem involved trying to explain creation to people whose language was limited to their experiences with their environment. The latter problem involved trying to explain such a vast and deep subject to people who were herdsman, with only simple tools and no written language.

Let us look at history from the perspective of science, and then map to Genesis 1. I will use the New American Standard Bible version, but other translations are similar. To mark the transitions between the science and the Bible, I will quote the Biblical texts.

In the beginning the Big Bang produced the early universe consisting of elementary particles and a quark gluon plasma. The quarks and gluons then produced neutrons and protons. The early atoms (mainly hydrogen and helium) formed, and then the 1st generation suns came into being. These early stars produced nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen; but they produced no visible light.

Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

Water was created as a product of the first generation of stars, and it was common. The phrase formless and empty comes from “tohu wa bohu”. Tohu means void or empty. Bohu means empty. The two together mean utter emptiness, or chaos. At this point “earth” is formless, merely an aggregation of light elements. It is not referring to the planet Earth. The “deep” describes space itself, and how it appeared before the formation of modern suns. These first generation suns emitted strong ultraviolet light, but that would not have been visible to humans (if humans could have seen this); and a dense hydrogen fog soaked up the little visible light that was emitted. Thus it is true that “darkness was over the surface of the deep”. Then the second generation of stars was born, these stars produced the heavier elements that eventually formed the planets and all carbon based life; the second and third generation stars produced visible light.

Genesis 1:3-5 “Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night and there was evening and there was morning, one day”

The separation of the light from the darkness came as the first planets formed and rotated, thus experiencing day and night. The third generation stars were born – it is thought that our Sun is a third generation star. Our Earth forms, but at this point there is no surface water as it is far too hot. The moon is formed at this period. Over time Earth cools so that there is rain, and surface water; although it is still very hot. There is very heavy dense cloud cover – solid clouds from the surface to as high as they can go. If someone could stand on that early earth they could not see the sun, or the moon, or the stars. All they could see would be could see diffused light in the day and darkness at night. Nothing yet lives upon this earth. The atmosphere is not like our atmosphere; we could not breathe it and live. Volcanism is very active.

Genesis 1:6-8 “Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.”

It has now cooled enough that while there is still a very heavy cloud deck, the clouds now are no longer touching the surface but there is a clear area between the surface and the bottom layer of clouds – one can now see a distance, perhaps all the way to the horizon. This is the expanse separate the waters (the hot puddles and sheets of water on the surface) from the waters (in the massive storming clouds above). As it continues to cool land emerges and continents rise (Hadean and early Archaean eons). There are clearly oceans and seas and continents. Life emerges and there are plants (Proterozoic eon). The plants commence converting CO2 to oxygen.

Genesis 1:9-13 “Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.”

As the plants spread and continue to produce oxygen the greenhouse effect is diminished and eventually there are breaks in the clouds. Finally the atmosphere becomes similar to that of today -- a mixture of clear sunshine and localized clouds and storms depending upon region and local weather. The transition from the Proterozoic to the Phanerozoic has occurred.

Genesis 1:14-19 “Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.”

So here the sky has finally cleared to the point that the Sun, Moon, and stars are visible from the surface. This is the effect of the land plants consuming the Carbon Dioxide and producing Oxygen. Before this the water plants only got the Oxygen atmosphere up to about 5%, but the seed bearing land plants drove it up to around 20%. For the first time in the history of Earth to date, the atmosphere becomes similar to what it is today. Notice that here it does not say that God created the Sun, Moon, and stars at this point. Instead it says he made (Hebrew: “asah”) them to “govern” the day and the night. It does not say that he created (Hebrew: “bara”) them at that point. The context here is the governance.

Now that there is sufficient Oxygen there is an explosion of non-plant life. There was a massive extinction of sea life at the end of the Devonian, and then a new explosion of sea life. Sea creatures now became “large” (the “great creatures of the sea”). The land animals (reptiles and amphibians) spread, and lead to the dinosaurs, and the avian dinosaurs become the birds.

Genesis 1:20-23 “Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens." God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.”

So again there is good chronological correlation. Animal life arises first in the waters, and then spreads to the land. Birds come from the avian dinosaurs (and modern birds are the descendents of those avian dinosaurs, so in one sense the dinosaurs never really did die out). But there are no large mammals as of yet, the largest are the size of shrews (and those are pretty tiny!) and are considered “archaic” mammals. Marsupial type mammals don’t even show up until later yet, and modern mammals later still. This time correlates to the Triassic, then the Jurassic, and finally the Cretaceous periods.

Finally the Paleogene and Neogene periods pass. Here is where mammals finally arise and the dinosaurs (except for the birds) pass away. Mammals expand in types and numbers and grow significantly in size. And then we enter the Quaternary and an animal arises that becomes self aware, developing language, tools, and the art of conceptualization. This animal became human. At that time humans were primarily eaters of fruits, tuber, other vegetables, and insects.

Genesis 1:24-31 “Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

What is being referred to here as the “image” of God? It is that ability of self consciousness, of conceptualization, the ability to empathize and to have language to capture these concepts and relationships. And it is true that this has only arisen very recently in the narrative of geological ages, in fact it has just occurred.

Now the first chapter of Genesis actually continues with Genesis 2:1-3. The original Hebrew was not divided into the arbitrary chapters that we see today – this was not done until the 2nd millennium of the middle ages in Europe! As it happens the Hebrews believed that God’s 7th day continues right through to today (this is seen in the letter to the Hebrews verses 4:1-11). So to wrap up:

Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made”

Another clue that the old view that the seventh day is still continuing is that this is the only day that does not conclude: “And there was evening and there was morning, the Nth day”

Here you have it. The scientific chronology from the creation of the universe, the generations of suns, the formation of the Earth, the geological changes to Earth (oceans, continents, atmosphere), the development of life (water to land, plants to animals, birds before mammals, and man last of all). And as I have demonstrated, this tracks exactly to the Genesis 1 chronology.

So assuming that YHWH or his agents communicated the development of the universe and of Earth in language that could be understood by people who could conceptualize but had only simple tools and no written language – then this creation account is the best that could be done. I hope you have enjoyed this account and would be happy to hear your thoughts.

From what I have learned (and imo), YHWH was never the name of God. Many versed Jewish Rabbis knows this. Yahweh was an expressive term relating to the build-up and releasing of dynamic energy, always associated with the act of sex. Hard to track on the modern day internet, but the encyclopedias and reference books denote this.

Originally posted by rstregooski
From what I have learned (and imo), YHWH was never the name of God. Many versed Jewish Rabbis knows this. Yahweh was an expressive term relating to the build-up and releasing of dynamic energy, always associated with the act of sex. Hard to track on the modern day internet, but the encyclopedias and reference books denote this.

Exodus 3:13,14: "Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, "YHWH (I AM WHO I AM)"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you."
And:
Isaiah 42:8: "I am YHWH, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images."

God was referred to by many names in the Old Testament, mainly these names referred to his attributes. But Elohim occurs about 2K times and YHWH about 6K times. These words are used far and above any other term.

But don't get hung up on that. What do you think of the chronology?

reply to post by SunSword


I have already made a post that explains Genesis chapter one with science.

If God is everything, and always was and always is. This is what God looked like before he created heaven and earth.

Just darkness. You can read about it in verse 2.







This is what it looked like when God initiated the creation of heaven and earth. "when God moved upon the waters"






This image is what science would call the Big Bang. The Big Bang was initiated by Gods movement upon the waters.
Gods movement in this case would cause a compression of energies.

That is why there was LIGHT. A massive compression of energy would create light.

Light expands, as light and energies expand, what ever is in the middle will start to cool down and harden "become solid".

reply to post by SunSword


You must know, that "those" who allowed the development of what we call the bible today are the same people who removed the at least 13+ books of the original "bible". The book of Enoch? Where'd it go? There are many more. The stories of the bible have been controlled for centuries by the vatican. I have learned that the stories of the bible are not only very important, but in point of fact quite encoded. Why do you think they call the King James Version the "authorized" King James Version? You weren't authorized to go do too much thinking on your own back then- you'd get your head cut off! A quick example- many christians believe Judas was sent to Jesus to Identify him. Why would that be necessary? It wasn't like he lived in Chicago. Everyone knew him. He lived in a small town and was performing miracles like crazy. So why would he need to be identified? The bible says Judas went out to Betray him. The "Kiss of Death", just like in ancient Egypt, the scorpion, it bites you and leaves a mark that looks like two lips. The Mafia would "Kiss you off" before they killed you. The scorpion, the kiss of death. This is research from Jordan Maxwell, of which I am sure if people engaged in some of his material, it could enlighten many...

reply to post by rstregooski

Perhaps this should have been posted on the Science board...