Science and religion: The creation story

We are all keenly aware of the tension that exists between science and religion. We are all too familiar with the story of Galileo Galilei. He was born in Pisa in 1564. As a scientist and scholar, he defended the idea that the earth circled the sun. But, believing otherwise, religious authorities persecuted him and he became science’s first martyr.

The origin of the universe is another long-standing area of tension between science and religion. It was Einstein’s general theory of relativity that changed the previously accepted concept of a static universe. By introducing the idea of space-time curvature, Einstein changed our earlier understanding of space and time as being a mere passive background in which events take place. According to the theory of relativity, space and time are active participants in the dynamics of the cosmos and the universe began with the “Big Bang” about 15 billion years ago.

The predictions of the general theory of relativity are supported by observations made by scientists. They observed that the farther the galaxies are from the earth, the faster they are moving away. In other words, the distance between galaxies increases steadily with time. Scientists theorize that if today these galaxies move apart from each other, then they must have been closer together in the past. In the beginning they must have been one big mass of infinite density and a “Big Bang” must have caused these billions of galaxies to scatter into space.

As Christians we are familiar with the account of creation in the Book of Genesis: In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters … God looked at everything he made and he found it very good … Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing, he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken … So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy (Gen 1:1-2, 31,2:2-3).

The Genesis creation story was written about 450 B.C. but we read it as if it were science or history. Consequently, we face great difficulties. We ought to realize that it cannot be history because no one could have ever witnessed creation. It also cannot be science because how could three days pass before the sun was created. If we read the creation account more carefully, we can see that the story reflects a society that practices a six-day work-week and a Sabbath day of rest.

The author of Genesis must have been grappling with the question of how everything came into existence. Because of his religious background, his reflection must have led him to come out with the answer that it is God’s work. With this theme in mind, he then organizes the story around a structure that he is familiar with — a six-day work-week and a day of rest.

Based on the observation of the realities around him, and drawing from his own religious and social experience, the author gives God three days to separate things and three days to populate what he has separated. Thus on the first day God “separated the light from the darkness.” On the second day, he “separated the water above the dome from the water below it.” And on the third day, God separated the land from the sea.

Starting from the fourth day, God populated what he had separated. Thus he populated the dome of the sky with the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the fifth day, God populated the water with fish and the sky with birds. On the sixth day, he populated the dry land with animals and plants and human beings. Then God rested on the seventh day, just as the author’s community rests on the Sabbath.

The author was not writing a scientific paper. He was writing theology. Bible scholars believe that the author was familiar with the creation story that was known to the Babylonians entitled Enuma Elish. The author must have been concerned that his community was being influenced by the Babylonian creation story and he wanted to set things right. And so he wrote a narrative that told the community that creation did not result from conflict between gods, and that the universe was not created from the corpse of a rebellious and defeated god, as believed by the Babylonians.

Indeed the author of Genesis wanted to support the theology that a good God created the universe and that his creation was good. The author wanted to free his community of the worries that burdened the Babylonians. Since there is only one God, one should not worry about inadvertently displeasing one god while honoring another. He wanted to impart the truth that all creation was good.

The Genesis creation account contains profound religious truth about our nature and our relationship with God. It is an imaginative story that uses symbols to speak about the reality of our existence. Since this profound reality is beyond comprehension, he uses symbols to impart the message. And we believe that God chose to reveal himself through the insights of this gifted author.

It is easy to see that the Big Bang theory is not incompatible with our belief that there is but one loving God who created all. But more importantly, isn’t it gratifying to know that we have been created on purpose by a loving God? Isn’t it consoling to be reminded that we have been created very good? Indeed it is heart-warming to think that we exist because God created us and he found all his creation very good.