8ed The observer of Genesis - LARGE PRINT - The science behind the creation story by Alberto Canen - HTML preview

 Chapter 10

9

TRANSCENDENTAL CONTENT

The doctrinal content of the story, the lessons that persist after we finish reading it, the theological lessons we might call fundamental could include:

• God is the only Creator of all things, of all the concrete and abstract, of what is above and what is below, of all entities and creatures. All matter, and the forces acting on it are created by Him and respond to His mandate.
• The power of God, omnipotent and omnipresent, is an expression of His intelligence and wisdom, reflected in the order, balance and functioning of creation.
• Every creature is good for it has been created according to that idea of order and perfection. They are created by God, they are created by parts of God but they are not God. This distinction, this separation is crucial because it is very subtle, and can be easy to confuse Creator and creature. God creates everything from itself, thus we would all be part of God, but we are not God; we are ultimately His creation. At this point the comment that a student of the Bhagavad Gita, the sacred book of Hinduism, is interesting: "A comparison that allows us to clarify this separation between Creator and creature would be the fruit of the pomegranate. Grains within the pomegranate are part of the grenade but not the grenade. They are part of the fruit but they are not fruit."
• The stars, which at the time were recognized as gods, are clearly objects created by God; He decides how they move; and the purpose of their passage through the universe is helping men tell the time.
• The fertility of animals is a blessing from God and part of the machinery, the operation of the system; there is no deity responsible for that, it's just functionality.
• Man – we might call him creation´s summit- is the only one made in the image and likeness of God and is therefore special and rises above the rest of living things; this immediately gives him rights and obligations.
• And finally, this one, in gratitude and as second to God, should keep one day a week to worship him, resting as God Himself did, the seventh day.

In these key ideas-that the sacred author gives us so accurately and in as few lines-there is a true revelation of antiquity which no other ancient civilization gave us. No other people dwelling the earth at the time came to an explanation as close to scientific truth as the Hebrew, the chosen people.

It is clear to me that the hagiographer in these first lines of Genesis attempts to explain the origin of the world but not from a scientific perspective but from the point of view of the relationship between creation and God. Everything is God's work, both the world and space, the stars, the forces, ideas and whatever is there and we cannot yet see. Heaven and earth.

Everything is reasoned and logical, to the point that the original chaos seems to be the original matter of a work of art, a sculpture´s putty, canvas and paints; but with the detail of free will, a great little detail; one detail that is not minor; one detail that makes a huge difference and gives us an accurate idea of the infinite mercy and love of the Creator.

His work would not be the same without freedom, without the vaunted free will; that free will that has brought humanity to make such large and important achievements and to commit so many regrettable mistakes.

It's clear that God is not interested in beings who act like robots, nor cares for uniformity; hence, He has created this huge diversity of animals, plants, and humans of different colors, languages, carvings and thoughts, philosophies which even have different perceptions of Him–Who is the same for everyone.

In the context of free will, it is truly wonderful to see in the Bible how God dictates the rules; then gets angry because humanity does not do what He commands; then rebukes; forgives; amends laws He had set to see if this time man can follow them... which usually does not occur. Then again, disappointed and angry because they don´t -they don´t change their ways- He modifies them, makes them harder, makes them more permissive. He changes dangerous toys like pagan gods by ideas closer to those of a single god; and removes from the game those who clearly cannot play with the rest, as happened with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Yes, the great Free Will -capitalized- the old free will that we cannot yet control.

We have once more strayed from the target which was a comparison of Genesis with science, but the detour is worth it, as it is good to see it in the context of the book to which it belongs and in which it plays a part.

Talking to my wife, I said that -until recently- there had not been the possibility of making this comparison of Genesis with science, because the scientific findings needed to understand what our observer talks about occurred only in recent years -with revolutionary inventions such as the Hubble telescope, radio telescopes like Arecibo and many other specialized satellites. Only now, in this time and age, you can perform a complete and thorough comparison of the text with science, and I find it truly amazing to see how they fit.

You need to understand that both the hagiographer -obviously- and the biblical commentators until about twenty years ago, have not had sufficient resources to understand and tie many loose ends.

Today, with some knowledge and a computer connected to the Internet, anyone can check what is narrated in these lines and also make new contributions to a better understanding.

It is undeniable that scientific advances of recent years and future discoveries will allow elucidating many of the mysteries that the Bible still keeps for us, although we should not forget that the real breakthrough we should aim at is always going to be spiritual.