The Story of Creation

How we each look at the first chapters of Genesis is somewhat of a bell weather for how we think about the Earth, God, and human beings in general.

Two Choices only

In the middle 1850’s all of a sudden there was the great struggle between the Creationists and the group, probably called at the time, the Darwinist. This basically came down to those that read the Book of Genesis fundamentalist style and those that stood up for Evolution. This fight gave us only 2 choices.

Fundamentism gave us that the Earth was created just as the Bible says. It was completed in 6 days and on the 7^th day God rested. Then the Evolutionists gave us… that sometime long ago the Earth was formed by some sort of force (Most Evolutionists still regarded God as the Creator) but then over time life evolved and eventually the species that we now know came to be… Each species improving over time… those that could not survive… died out those who had changed enough to survive… continued to thrive.

A time before

The point of this article is to break down some of the mythology concerned with both of these claims and to point out how we can now read these Early World stories. For certain the Church as a whole held that the general story proclaimed in the Book of Genesis was true… And It still does. Go back far enough there were no other explanations that made enough sense. Science hadn’t evolved itself.  While indeed, the Church developed the Scientific methodology, no one had the time or thought to look at these basic questions.  There were no archaeological digs, there were not sonar systems developed to look deep into the Earth itself.  By the 1800’s everyone was just beginning to explore the possibilities of seeing other galaxies.

While germs were known of, how they worked etc. had not been finalized yet. So the truth of the matter was that well we couldn’t find out anything more, how can we actually determine scientific fact without any well facts.  Now did the Church actually believe that the entire Universe was created in 6 days?  I would tend to think, no. It was and is something easy to teach to get the basic ideas across. But the Church also knew where the Story had its origins and that there were various groups that wrote down these stories.  Each one of these groups may have received the stories from their History (perhaps it was Moses himself) But the History of Judaism is pretty clear. And it is pretty easy to determine what historical events were influencing what.

Babylon Influencing things

It is highly likely that the Creation story (as we know it) came during the time of the Exile in Babylon.   Lots of ink and paper have been used to show the similarities between it and the Enumah Elish.  The Jews had been evacuated to Babylon and it would make sense that during that period they would want to have their own creation story to go against the Babylonian’s. The idea of One central God creating out of nothing is unique in the various creation stories throughout the ages. It is entirely a Jewish thought that the is a single God which created all that is seen.   But when one looks deeper at the story itself… it says much more about the relationship between God and Man than it really does about How the Earth was created.

This makes it even more unique in that God created the human being (this is not unique) and that God wanted a relationship with the Human being (This is quite unique) But my experience has shown me that many people are quite confused by the literal explanation of the Creationist and the proposed evidence of the Humanist groups. But this is exactly where the thoughts and tradition of the Catholic Church comes to the fore. Too many people want to take the words as we have them in the “Book of Genesis” and treat them as literal words.  We have to avoid this mentality; it gets us into some huge quagmires. 

But how do we know which is which? Use our experience in life. One of my friends, years ago, tried to make the point that Evolution couldn’t be true because over the years human beings hadn’t changed. We do the same things, we have the same passions, out base instincts are the same, etc.

Pinnacle of Creation

Well I listened, thought about this for a while, then rejected it in hand.  Human Beings are probably under the subject to the same processes that everything else in in the world. But my thought is that we haven’t changed, simply because we are the pinnacle of everything.  Once you have ascended Mount Everest, how can you climb higher here on earth?  And if you take a look at the Creation stories in Genesis that is the whole point. Human beings were the pinnacle made by God.

For those that believe in Evolution, there should be no argument there. There is nothing greater than human beings on Earth. It is the common reality that we can all believe in.  Human beings may not always make the best choices or do the right things… but that is another issue. Regardless Human beings will not progress, because there is nowhere to go.  Put us in another environment or planet, we may develop ancillary parts to increase our chance to survive. There is nothing against the Evolutionary Theory here. Human beings can over time add body parts that give it a further advantage, why not? But here on Earth we are second to none. What do we need to change to survive?

Theory versus Reality

Another big idea we have to recognize. Everything we have is THEORY. No human being was around, obviously, when mankind came into being, much less the Earth, the Universe, etc.  Without documentary evidence all of this is and will be nothing but theory. I personally can think what I want, but none of it can be proven.  We have some evidence but nothing going back to the origins. If we look for evidence based on the two extremes, either A. everything would be so excessively changed over time, even the most powerful computer, would be unable to make any headway at putting it back together as it was. Or B. It was all just created as it is and there is no evidence to be found.

My point with this part, is simply stop the division on this point. We take over time what truths can be formed by the Scientific methodology. Other parts will need to be developed by other means, until confirmed or denied by ACTUAL scientific developments.  Keep in mind there has not been one scientific development that has actually denied anything found in Scripture. The purpose of the two should be used in unity to bring further understanding about the relationship of God and Human beings.  You see the Bible can be thought of as God’s view of Human Beings…. Science perhaps thought of as human being’s view of God.   Like two aspects of the same picture, but just a difference direction of view.

How should we react

With the previous few paragraphs as a backdrop we can finally begin to look at the Genesis account with perhaps a bit more open eyes. What Genesis is actually saying is quite simple, but so absolutely beautiful.  It may be thought of as poetry perhaps. There is analogy but with a great reality placed within this. Simile is used but specific truths are highlighted and are the point of the stories, The book of Genesis is not to be a formal “History” of detailed steps. The reality is that this is pretty much how things were looked at until the Enlightenment and development of the fundamentalist religious strains. (These were established in a response to the “modern” liberalism in some areas, denying long held beliefs).

So let’s take a look at what was believed and thought by the Church, the one sole entity which has been around longer than any other. It takes also its thoughts from the Jewish who wrote the book in the first place. But as Christians we have to avoid the “slavery to literalism” as Pope Benedict says. We also must read through Holy Scriptures in light of Christ. Without this focus, we can be pulled anywhere.

Christ is the focus

God is a single unity. We know that he has shown Himself, on Earth, as three persons. Christ himself identified Him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) We read at first there was chaos.  This is the exact opposite of order.   So God gave order to the Cosmos. Cosmos can be used as all that is known and it can be used as including all that is unknown.  Obviously, until very recently we knew nothing of stars, black holes, constellations millions of light years away.  Keeping it fairly simple. Something made this. Whatever your thought is about the origins of the Cosmos, that is your idea of God. Now there is something to think on.

There are a number of truths which we can pull from the Genesis stories. I will try to present these truths with logic and some fun as well. God wants our lives to be enjoyable, so at times we must release our hold on things that cause displeasure.

Well perhaps that is a good place to start on the next installment of Genesis. Part II. It might be a great idea to read Genesis Chapter 1 Verses 1 through 31. Here is the link to those verses http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/1 It might help as a reference to the next post.