Genesis Revisited by John Everett - HTML preview

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Retelling the whole myth

So here is the whole of the modern retelling as one single narrative:

Time began when Elohim willed the material and the non-material into being. Initially everything material, especially the liquid, was at a primitive stage of development, with no light even, and the spiritual was set to mold the physical. The first stage of the progression of the material universe was the bringing into existence of light as electricity, magnetism, and radiation. This was given independent existence, in contrast to the absence of light; it was just the right beginning. The next stage was that the vastness of space was made possible. The environment necessary for life came next, with land and water as the main components. All sorts of flora emerged on dry land, each with its own inbuilt system of self- replication. To provide the daily and annual variations that are essential to the respiration and cyclic nature of plant life, the sun and moon were arranged to give night and day, and the pattern of seasons. Animal life began in the sea, living beings that could self-replicate, and then there were the first living beings that could use the air too. The progression of biological development reached its last stage with the emergence of all kinds of living beings on dry land. Finally humans were given the divine attribute of wisdom, and the responsibility to manage and care for the planet earth and all its living beings. They were given male and female sexuality so that they could populate the whole planet and all the vegetation was to be their sustenance, as it was for the other dry land animals. Now the universe had become complete. After six stages of development there was a seventh stage where no new interventions occurred, a cessation of development. Thus in any week a seventh day can reflect this pattern of work and rest. All this has been the account of how the whole universe, physical and non-physical, came into being.

Bearing in mind the antiquity of the original writing down of this account - and who knows for how long it may have existed as an oral recitation? - it is worth contrasting this with other creation myths. I do not intend to cite any at this point, but will do so later. It will be seen how much better the Genesis myth, as retold in modern language, fits with modern scientific understanding of the history so far of the observable universe than any other creation myth ever told.