A new approach with new means – the analysis.
Up to Copernicus science did not have any problems with the allegedly biblically
founded geocentric conception of the world – that is to say with the planet earth as the center of
the universe. Some of the astronomers of that time may have found the unexpected and unexplainable
movements of some planets a little bit suspicious, but on the whole this view of the things was
accepted.
Only when Copernicus found out that the center of our solar system is not the earth,
but the sun and that the universe does not move around the earth, but that our entire solar system
moves within our galaxy around its center, astronomy emancipated itself from astrology and became a
fully-fledged science of its own. As an act of revenge so to speak, because the Bible allegedly had
misled science for such a long time, from that time on the Bible has been excluded in general from
all considerations.
This holds true all the more since it was found out during the past fifty years that
the universe consists of hundreds of billions of galaxies and that they, in turn, consist again of
hundreds of billions of suns. Most recently the theory of the “big bang” as the cause of the
genesis of the universe about 13.7 billion years ago could be confirmed for the most part. Also the
drifting apart of the individual galaxies as a consequence of this explosion of the so-called “cosmic
egg” (that is the agglomeration of all matter of the universe in one cluster – some say “the
size of a pinhead”, others say “the size of a fist” - with an inconceivable density and mass)
could be proven.
Meanwhile we know that this expansion takes place all the slower the more the galaxy
clusters are apart from each other. Here the scholars discuss today the question if the universe
will continue to expand for an unlimited period - that is to say if the matter of the galaxies got
so much energy from the big bang on their way that by that the power of gravitation is compensated -
or if gravitation will prevail sometime or other. Then the galaxies would move backward and rush up
to each other. Due to the mutual power of attraction matter would melt into one another and form
bigger and bigger masses, which finally would “absorb” all matter at enormous speed - on account
of their enormous gravitational attraction as so-called “black holes” until finally everything
would collapse in a single point of place and time with infinitely high density, in order to maybe
repeat then the circle in a new big bang.
If one considers this development in the past twenty, thirty years, it is only all
too understandable that today this science smiles at the statements of the Bible in Genesis 1 and
does not only itself show no signs of looking for a possible connection here, but also declares any
scientist who makes such an attempt out of touch with reality and unscientific. But this situation
is also a little bit the fault of the creationists, these are Christians, especially in the USA, who
adhere to the statements of the Scriptures on the genesis of the universe they have on hand in spite
of scientific findings to the contrary.
Insisting on the truth of the Scriptures is, of course, a good thing to do, however,
such an attitude should not be the result of a superficial study of the Scriptures, which puts the
words of God in the Bible in the obvious contrast to the realities of the visible creation out of
one's own laziness and incapability. It is exactly this attitude of his contemporaries that hindered
Copernicus for a long time from publishing his new discoveries. When he then published his complete
works “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” (On the rotations of the celestial bodies) on
May 24, 1543, precisely leading clergymen tried to prevent the publication of the work. Johannes
Calvin (1509-1564), the Swiss Reformer, declared that the earth could not move according to the
biblical doctrine, and Martin Luther (1485-1546) said, “the fool (Copernicus) will turn the
entire science of astronomy upside down”.
Therefore, we as Christians, who believe in the Bible, should learn from these
mistakes of our forefathers in faith. If we proceed from the assumption – and this always has to
be the basis of our belief – that the Scriptures, cannot err because it is inspired by God, and
that on the other hand the fact that the earth rotates about its own axis as well as about the sun,
cannot be flatly denied any more, Calvin and Luther must have been mistaken. So, therefore it is not
the Scriptures, which is wrong, but it is its wrong interpretation by us men, which leads to
mistakes. And when we examine the Scriptures, we do not find a single basis for Calvin's assumption
“that the earth cannot move according to the biblical doctrine”. Even quite on the contrary: If
we interpret Isa 24,20 correctly, this is even precisely a hint at the fact that the earth is very
well “movable”.
The earth shall be shaken as a drunken man.
Isa 24,20 With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and
shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and
it shall fall, and not rise again. Isa 24,20;
But what about 1Mo 1,1-5? How shall we interpret these statements? Let us first have
a look at the conventional translation (New American Standard version, 1995):
In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
1Mo 1,1In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. 1,2 And
the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God
moved over the waters. 1,3 And God said: Be light made. And light was made. 1,4 And God saw the
light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness. 1,5 And he called the light Day,
and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day. 1Mo 1, 1- 5;
Here, there is talk about “heaven and earth”. The “earth” was “void and
empty” and darkness was upon the face of the “deep”. What “depth” is meant here, and why
was the earth void and empty when it was completely covered by water according to 1Mo 1,7-10? And
what shall we understand by “heaven”? These questions make us realize that only a very
superficial beholder could proceed from the assumption that an unequivocal statement on the genesis
of heaven and earth can be found here. But how shall we interpret these words?
Let us first start with the fundamental things and let us ask ourselves what
alternatives we have. If we see it correctly, we have three possibilities according to the
principle: thesis – antithesis – synthesis:
- The findings of science are wrong, and the conventional representation of
the act of Creation in 1Mo 1,1-5 is correct. This is the approach of the creationists.
- The statements of the Bible are wrong, and the results of scientific
research are correct. This is the conviction of the scientists and evolutionists.
- There is a link between these two extreme ways of thinking, which has not
been taken into account so far.
We can exclude the first alternative on account of the extensive and worldwide
scientific arguments with the same certainty as we know today that the earth rotates around the sun
and is not the center of the universe. We have to exclude the second alternative in its relation to
the Bible, because for us the Scriptures is the Word of God and therefore, cannot be wrong in
itself. So, there is the third alternative left and the question, where there could be a link, a
mistake in the way of looking at it, in order to unite these two points of view.
As the scientific facts are irrefutable, as a weak point the question is left, if we
interpret the statements of 1Mo 1,1-5 correctly. As already mentioned above we have to bear in mind
that so far no one examined this possibility of a synthesis really seriously; the evolutionists out
of arrogance, the creationists out of unimaginativeness and what both groups have in common is the
lacking willingness to analyze the position of the other one objectively. Therefore, we want to
start right from the beginning and have a look at the original text of these passages from the
Scriptures. The translation which comes closest to the Hebrew original text, is the one by Martin
Buber. In contrast to traditional translations, which choose their words relatively freely with
reference to understandability, Buber tries to convey the form as well as the original sense of the
words without excessive consideration for the German word order, but always in keeping with the
meaning of the word in accordance with the original. This even goes that far that he, in cases where
there is no known verbal equivalent in German, “invents” own words, which are at first a little
bit strange for the reader, but which, upon closer examination, make the reader realize what
particular connection shall be expressed here.
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Genesis 1,1-5;
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was error and confusion. Darkness over face of primeval whirl. Ferment of God vibrating over the face of the waters. God said: Be light made! Light was made. God saw the light: that it is good. God divided light and darkness. God called the light: Day! And the darkness he called: Night! Evening was and morning was: One day! |
If we now can proceed from the assumption that these words are a message of God to
men, in order to give them an idea how they themselves and the bases of their lives – the space
surrounding them, the planet they live on - were created, we have to bear in mind that at the time
when the text was written nobody had an idea, what “space”, “planet”, “matter” or even
the “universe” is. Therefore, this message had to take the possibilities of the language and the
understanding of the people living at that time into consideration. But as we know from many other,
comparable texts, this does not mean that these statements would be incomprehensible or completely
incorrect at a later time. Precisely this is the proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit that the
text is written in a way that it remains understandable and true throughout thousands of years.
However, not for the superficial reader. This kind of reader will read exactly those things into it
which the people of that time should understand and thus he would, however, fail to understand the
meaning of the statements which is valid for all times. It is approximately similar to the way how
our ancestors used to explain the progenitive act to their children: flower, bee, pollen grain,
etc.. The little ones had an idea for the time being and were satisfied. When they then started to
doubt it later on, they were grown up physically that far that they could realize themselves how
these things work.
It is beyond doubt that also the non-analyzed history of Creation is a satisfactory explanation for
the ordinary believer – in a similar way as for the people in those days. Those, however, who
strive for more knowledge, have to examine the definitely clarified facts of science and then to
analyze the text on the basis of this background. And this is exactly what we want to try now by
means of Martin Buber's translation which is very close to the original text on the one hand and the
undisputed facts and relations from scientific research on the other hand.
“In the beginning God created heaven and earth”: This statement is, strictly speaking,
only a caption and a summary of the subsequent verses. Nevertheless, we can see - even from these
words already - a concrete hint at the sequence of events. It says here “In the beginning”. So,
it was the first work of God's Creation. And we also find the sequence in which this act of Creation
took place: first heaven, then the earth.
“The earth was error and confusion”: In contrast to the traditional translations ”The
earth was void and empty”, we see here several differences which are relevant for the
understanding. While those translations insinuate an easily understandable description of the state
of affairs by the terms void and empty”, the original text, which contains the terms “error and
confusion”, is not at all so easy to understand. Here, the point is not that something is “empty”.
Quite on the contrary, there is “error and confusion”, and this implies that there is something
that can be in error and confusion. But what is it now that is in error and confusion? Is it the
earth, that is to say the planet? Although both translations say the “earth”, the question
arises here, why the earth shall be in error and confusion, when in verse 1Mo 1,7 the impression is
given that the earth was covered with water. This representation conveys rather the picture of a
quiet and peaceful earth in a proper state of affairs and not error and confusion.
“Darkness over the face of primeval whirl”: With the term “primeval whirl” quite an
essential difference arises as opposed to the traditional translations, which interpret here with
“depth”. In the term “primeval whirl” we find in fact a summary of the preceding statements
in one word: “primeval” means “in the very, very beginning” and “whirl” reminds us of
“disorder”. However, the term “whirl” can also be easily associated with “eddies” and
similar physical processes with a suction effect, where objects are drawn into. And also here the
question arises again, if this is really a description of the earth, the planet earth. While “darkness”
does not need any explanation and while we know that by the term of “face” the “visible
surface” is meant, the term “primeval whirl” cannot really be assigned to the earth properly.
“Ferment of God vibrating over the face of the waters”: So, it is the Ferment (Spirit) of
God oscillating or pulsating over the visible surface of the waters. We see that here, the “waters”
are mentioned for the first time. If the waters of the earth were meant here, we would have a
problem with the interpretation in so far as we found out at the beginning that the sequence of the
Creation seems to be fixed with heaven - earth. So far heaven has not been mentioned yet, this will
not be the case before 1Mo 1,7-8. So, how can we assume then the existence of the earth already at
this stage? So, we see, also here the question arises again: Do all these statements refer to events
taking place on the planet earth or is something else meant here?
“God said: Be light made! Light was made. God saw the light: that it is good”: So, up to
this moment light had not been created yet! This was also confirmed to us above by the statement:
“Darkness over the face of primeval whirl”. And when we now visualize the connections, we would
have to come to the following conclusion: In verse 1Mo 1,2, the earth is mentioned (it was void and
empty or it was in error and confusion respectively) and it is only here, afterward, that light is
created. This would mean that the planet earth was God's first act of Creation. And we are now able
to better reconstruct why the Ptolemaic system of a geocentric universe (with the earth being in the
center of the universe) was defended also by many scholars of the Middle Ages who were well versed
in the Bible. They concluded from these statements in 1Mo 1,1-5 that the earth was the “primeval
whirl”, on the basis of which God created the rest of the universe. But is this correct? Can this
be true? According to our knowledge of today certainly not! And therefore, the question arises here
again: Does the term “earth” in 1Mo 1,2 really mean the planet earth or something that is “similar
to the earth”, which might have not been comprehensible to the people of that time by another
expression?
“God divided light and darkness.”: Now we have to ask ourselves, of course, what is meant
by the “light” here and in the preceding verse. The verse following after that one, where God
calls the light “day” and the darkness “night”, makes us suppose that the sun is meant here,
which causes the phenomena of day and night on earth. But this cannot be the case. The first light
in the universe was not the light of our sun, but the light that had been caused by the big bang.
This explosion of the cosmic egg had actually been only the beginning of all galaxies, all suns and
with that also of our sun. So, the “Be light made” is not supposed to mean the creation of our
sun – by the way, our sun is also mentioned in quite concrete terms some verses later (1Mo
1,14-16) – but it is the “ignition of the cosmic shell in the black original hole”. And with
that we have now finally reached a point where we cannot uphold the supposition that by the “earth”
in 1Mo 1,2 our planet is meant any more. But what is then meant by the “earth” there? As already
mentioned, it must be something similar to the earth and something that the people in those days –
in contrast to us nowadays – were not able to understand by another expression. It must also have
existed already before the creation of the “light” in terms of time.
If we now proceed from the assumption that the only thing that existed before the “light”, that
is to say before the big bang, was that inconceivably highly compressed matter that was contained in
the cosmic egg, and that the only possibility to give the people who only disposed of the level of
knowledge at that time a rough idea of these events without distorting the true core of this
message, is a comparison with the earth, which consists of the same matter, then we have here an
explanation for the term “earth” in 1Mo 1,2. So, the “primeval whirl” was not the planet
earth, but the cosmic egg. With that we also have a line of argumentation which is to a certain
degree plausible on the fact that the act of Creation in the Bible, 1Mo 1,1-5, describes the
beginning of the universe and that it therefore corresponds absolutely with the findings of modern
science.
With that the creation of matter would be explained. But as the universe consists of matter and
space, in addition the quite essential question arises here - as well as in science - how space came
into being. Whereas science does not have any exact idea of that yet, we have a concrete statement
in the first sentence of the Bible. There it says, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth”.
On account of our previous analysis we know now that in this passage of the Scriptures the term “earth”
is used as a synonym for the entire matter of our universe. Therefore, by analogy to that, “heaven”
has to be the expression for the “space”, in which this matter spread. And as already mentioned
at the beginning, we can also see here the logically correct order of the Creation: first space,
then matter. But now we can also make another important discovery from what has been said above: “Heaven”
and “earth” in the statements of 1Mo 1,1-5 differ basically from that heaven and that earth, as
they are mentioned from 1Mo 1,6 on. While the former ones were synonyms for space and matter of our
universe, the latter ones are, of course, space and matter, too, but the heaven of 1Mo 1,8 is that
space, which immediately surrounds our planet, that is to say the atmosphere, and the earth in 1Mo
1,11 is this planet of ours in its actual material shape. On the basis of these new presuppositions
in the understanding of the history of Creation we want to have a new look at the relevant texts of
the Genesis.
“In the beginning God created heaven and earth”: This corresponds with
the statement: In the beginning God created space and matter.
“The earth was error and confusion. Darkness over the face of primeval whirl”: We are
here still before the big bang. The explosion has not taken place yet and therefore, light has not
been created yet – there was darkness. As already mentioned above, the “primeval whirl” is the
cosmic egg, which contained – possibly in a very first black hole – the entire matter of the
existing universe in a cluster of the size of a pinhead up to the size of a fist. The pressure in
this inconceivably highly compressed cluster of matter had a dimension that even the individual
atoms could not resist any more and fell apart. Therefore, this cluster of matter did not have an
inner structure as matter usually has. It was “degenerated” matter, or in a certain way it was
not even matter at all any more – at least not the matter we know. There were no atoms any more
and also the atomic nuclei – the protons - , which are approximately a hundred thousand times
smaller than the individual atom and exist several times in one atom depending on the element, could
not keep up their cohesion (their coherence) any longer. The order and structure of the matter was
completely abolished. There was “error and confusion”.
“Ferment of God vibrating over the face of the waters”: After the atoms had been fallen
apart due to the immensely high pressure in this cluster of matter, the particles converted into a
kind of “elemental soup” of the matter, in which quarks (the smallest detectable particles) and
gluons (bonding substance in atoms) were separated and hovered freely.
“God said: Be light made! Light was made.”: This is now the moment of the big bang, of
the tremendous explosion of the cosmic egg. The energy of this explosion is titanic and cannot be
expressed in numbers. We can get a rough idea of that when we visualize that all the energy which
still today makes hundreds of billions of galaxies existing of altogether hundreds of trillions of
stars fly through space at partly nearly velocity of light in some cases, is a result of this very
first explosion.
“God saw the light: that it is good”: At the time of this explosion the entire universe
was filled with light. The temperature of the universe was in the first two minutes after the
explosion approximately one hundred thousand million degrees Celsius (= 180 thousand million degrees
Fahrenheit). A heat, which today cannot be found even in the hottest stars. At that temperature
there were not any protons any more either. At that time the matter consisted only of the subatomic
elementary particles, of neutrinos and antineutrinos, which drifted farther and farther apart.
“God divided light and darkness”: Today it is assumed that the temperature dropped
relatively rapidly still during the explosion and had already reached a cooling to one billion
degrees Celsius (or 1,832 billion degrees Fahrenheit) after approximately three minutes. But with
that a state was reached, in which matter could begin again to form complex nuclei. The simplest
form developed again, namely hydrogen with one proton, the nuclei of which then formed, in turn,
helium nuclei with two protons. After some hundred thousand years matter was cooled down that far
that the nuclei could fuse together to form atoms of hydrogen and helium. Still today these two
elements make up approximately 98 percent of the entire universe (75% hydrogen, 23 % helium). But
with that ordered and structured matter existed again, out of which in the course of some billions
of years on account of its increasing gravitation clusters of matter developed, which then densified
and formed twinkling galaxies and stars (light). Then the part of the universe emptied by that
seemed to be dark again (darkness).
“God called the light: Day! And the darkness he called: Night!”: We are here, in 1Mo 1,5,
at the end of the creation of space and matter. The universe has taken shape and only in the next
verses the creation of the atmospheric sky above the earth and of the earth itself is reported.
Therefore we cannot interpret the above statements of “day” and “night” from the earthly
point of view either. This is not yet an earthly day and not yet an earthly night! Here, God calls
for the time being the light of the billions of suns in the universe “day” and the darkness of
the intergalactic space “night”. An earthly day/night cycle could not set in either since at
that time neither an atmospheric sky nor the earth, neither sun nor moon were created. All that does
not become reality before the subsequent verses 1Mo 1,6-10. And this is also the soundest reason why
the days of Creation cannot be equated with days on earth: Otherwise we would not have any “days”
for the first three days of Creation, let alone “evenings and mornings”.
“Evening was and morning was: One day!”: In contrast to the conventional interpretations
and for the reasons just put forward, we therefore cannot interpret this “evening” and this “morning”
as real earthly expressions of time either. But why does it say here “evening and morning” then?
In order to answer this question, we have to visualize once again the objective of all these
statements here: The people living in those days should be initiated in the secrets of Creation in a
form that is as simple as possible and that is easily understandable to them. And here, at this very
particular passage of the statements – as well as then subsequently - , it should be explained
that an interruption had taken place. The first phase of Creation – the creation of the universe -
was finished. Since the first days of mankind day has been now a time of activity due to its bright
light and night has been a time of repose due to the lack of this precondition. Evening and morning,
however, are the junction points; the one stands for the end of work and the beginning of the phase
of repose, the other one the other way round. So, what would suggest itself more, therefore, than to
use these well-known terms in order to illustrate the end of one creative activity and the beginning
of the next one?
Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters.
1Mo 1,6 And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the
waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. 1,7 And God made a firmament, and divided
the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so.
1,8 And God called the firmament, Heaven; and the evening and morning were the second day. 1Mo 1, 6-
8;
Be a firmament made amidst the waters. Genesis 1,6-8;
God said: Be a firmament made amidst the waters to be separation between waters and waters. God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from the waters that were above the firmament. It was so. God called the firmament: Heaven! Evening was and morning was: Second day. |
“God said: Be a firmament made amidst the waters to be separation between
waters and waters”: Although the message of these verses seems to be quite unambiguous and
clear, there are nevertheless only quite few exegetes, who can - after a long struggle - bring
themselves to leave the text here as it is. And this mainly because most interpreters do not succeed
in finding an explanation of that or because they are afraid of the consequence of an eventual
explanation. As for the rest, the translation by Luther and others with “Feste” (foundation)
contributes considerably to the fact that the explosiveness is taken off this text and that it is
passed off as a “semantically misdirected information”. But this is unjustified as we can
discover with Buber. Whereas one can understand by “foundation” still “comprehensible”
things such as an island or a mountain, Buber does not leave us any scope any more here with the
original translation “firmament”. So, if we do not want to distort this text, we have to draw
the following conclusions from it: The earth – and it is the earth that is meant here, as we can
doubtlessly infer from the statements of the next phase in 1Mo 1,10 - was at that time of
development covered with water – possibly also with highly saturated watery vapor - on its entire
surface. The height of this covering is not mentioned, but it cannot have been all too shallow, when
God then put in a “firmament”, an interspace amidst these waters – that is to say in the
middle between the bottom and the surface.
“God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from the waters
that were above the firmament”: With that God had brought about a separation of this mass of
water on the one hand and created a waterless space, an airspace, an atmosphere in between on the
other hand. However, this “firmament” could not be a local phenomenon, but it had to stretch
over the entire terrestrial globe – as “firmament” in the true sense of the word. One could
imagine these waters “above the firmament”, which enclosed the planet here as a kind of coat, in
all three states of aggregation. We know this natural phenomenon as clouds still today. If these
waters had reached the uppermost part of the atmosphere, they would have had to form a sheet of ice
because of the low temperatures. If they had been liquid, this “firmament” would have had to
have a supporting function. By the way, we find a confirmation of this water jacket theory in the
statements of the Scriptures about the Flood. It would be an explanation for the otherwise
inexplicable origin of the enormous mass of water, which covered the highest mountains of the earth
after the Flood. It would be an explanation of the fact why the people living before the Flood –
that is to say at the time when the earth was isolated from outer space by a water jacket and
therefore also protected from any harmful radiation – reached an age of up to 969 years, whereas
after the Flood, in the course of little less than six hundred years, life expectancy dropped
rapidly to 150 years (Jacob).
(See also Table 01: “Chronological table from Adam
to Jacob.”)
And it would also explain the otherwise incomprehensible unprecedented appearance of
a rainbow after the Flood. It can be perceived from the text of 1Mo 9,12-14 that this “bow” was
something completely new for Noah and his family. They had never seen anything like that before. But
from that we can draw the conclusion that there had not been any rainbows on earth before the Flood
either. If we now take a look at the physical preconditions for this atmospheric and optical
phenomenon, we realize that a rainbow can be seen when the sun positioned in the back of the
beholder shines on a rain cloud or rain wall which is situated in front of him. Due to the
refraction of the sunrays in the rain drops, the white sunlight is broken down into the spectral
colors and the reflection directs the rays into the eye of the beholder. So, the basic prerequisite
for the formation of a rainbow is therefore sunrays which fall in directly. If we now proceed from
the assumption of a worldwide closed water jacket before the Flood, it is true that there had been
translucent light on earth at that time, but no direct insolation. And therefore, a rainbow could
not be formed either.
By the way, this “protective shield” round the planet before the Flood could also give us an
answer to another question. The data of natural science on the age of mankind are a complete
contradiction to those of the Bible. While the Bible makes us draw the conclusion that man (not the
universe!) was created approximately 5800 years ago, geologists calculate with 1 – 5 million
years. Arthur E. Wilder-Smith describes in his book “”Herkunft und Zukunft des Menschen”
(Hännsler Publishers, Stuttgart) [Man’s Origin, Man’s Destiny, Wheaton, Ill.: Shaw], page 119
and the following pages, the finding (with photography) of a clearly preserved footprint of a
brontosaur in the riverbed of the Paluxy River (Texas, USA) from the Cretaceous period
(approximately 140 million years ago). A few meters from there, there are human footprints in the
same formation, which means that they must have their origin in the same time. But with that the 1
– 5 million years of the geologists are obviously disproved. If one now takes a look at the
measuring methods of natural science, one finds out that for instance the “C14 - dating method”
- a so-called “short-time watch” for measuring the past ten to twelve thousand years -, which is
used for the age determination of human bone finds and which thus forms the basis of the scientific
theories on the age of the man of today, starts out from the assumption that all living beings
absorb together with the air also radioactive carbon (C14) – that is to say with their bodies -
and therefore are at balance with the C14–content in the air as long as they live.
When a living being dies, the metabolic process between the dead body and the air stops, and the
radioactive C14 which has remained in the body starts its process of decay. The advance of this
disintegration is measured then. If there is still a large amount of C14 left in the bones, the body
has been dead only for a short time. If the residual amount is low, the process of decay has been
going on already for a long time, and therefore, the body has been dead for a long time. That means,
much C14 signifies young age, little C14 signifies old age. However, one has to mention that C14 is
produced high up in the stratosphere by a bombardment of the air with cosmic rays. These rays react
with atmospheric nitrogen and form radioactive carbon - namely C14 - which, then - in the lower
layers of the atmosphere - is breathed in by all living beings with the air and is absorbed by the
plants. Proceeding from the assumption that the earth had been surrounded by a water jacket up to
the Flood, which, of course, had filtered the cosmic irradiation considerably and might have even
prevented it, the reliability of the above-mentioned dating method has to be gravely doubted and /or
is not safe any more at all.
All bone finds of living beings, who died before or during the Flood – for instance also saurians
– would, on account of the filter effect of the jacket while they were still living, show a
C14-content of almost zero and would, therefore, be assigned an age of millions of years according
to this method, although they died maybe only four or five thousand years ago. This should at least
make us thinking about it. And precisely this filter effect of the water jacket as protection
against the radioactive radiation could also have been the reason for the amazingly advanced age –
up to 969 years -, which those people who had lived before the Flood had reached.
With regard to the geological development and in contrary to many Creationist-Geologists who
advocate the “Flood-Geology” with geologic models according to which the most of the geological
systems beginning by Cambrium originate in the year of the Flood, this approach here – the
primitive-history biblical geology - sees also considerable formations of layers and fossils in the
time before the Flood and partly even thereafter.
(See also Chapter 08: “The reorganization of
heaven and earth.”)
“It was so. God called the firmament: Heaven! Evening was and morning was:
Second day!”: So, in the second phase of the act of Creation God created heaven. The fact that
this is the earthly, atmospheric sky and not another “sphere” is confirmed by a statement from
the fifth day of Creation (1Mo 1,20), where it says in the New American Standard version 1995, “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.'” With Buber it says at this passage, “… and let flight of
birds fly above the earth past the face of the firmament!”. As the birds fly in this space “above
the earth” and below the “firmament”, it certainly cannot be an “extraterrestrial sphere”.
On account of the biblical history of Creation we therefore have to proceed from the assumption that
the earth in its biblical early times - that is to say until the Flood - was provided with a water
jacket in the upper zone of the atmosphere, which was dissolved at the Flood and fell down upon the
earth's surface as rain for forty days and forty nights (1Mo 7,4) (2Ptr 3,5-6).
And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters,
he called Seas.
1Mo 1,9 God also said; Let the waters that are under the heaven, be
gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. 1,10 And God
called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God
saw that it was good. 1,11 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 upon the earth”
And it was so done. 1,12 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. 1,13 And
the evening and the morning were the third day. 1Mo 1, 9-13;
The dry land God called: Earth! And the dam up of the waters, he called: Seas! Genesis 1,9-13;
God said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place; and let the dry land appear! It was so done. The dry land God called: Earth! And the dam up of the waters, he called: Seas! God saw that it was good. God said: Let the earth bring forth sprout, plant which may seed, fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself, upon the earth! It was so done. The earth brought forth sprout, plant yielding seed according to its kind, tree bearing fruit after its kind, having seed in itself. God saw that it was good. Evening were and morning were: third day. |
“God said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered into one
place; and let the dry land appear!”: From today's point of view there are two conceivable
possibilities of explanation of this process of “gathering” of the waters. We have to proceed
from the assumption that the waters had not yet formed any seas at that time, but were in some way
or other more or less evenly distributed on the earth's surface. So, in order to make such a “gathering”
of the waters, that is to say the flowing together of the waters, possible, the waters must have
been either highly saturated watery vapor on a relatively hot surface of the earth, which then
condensed on account of a cooling down of the surface and flew as water into the basins of the seas.
Or the earth's surface was reshaped by worldwide earthquakes – at that time there was not yet life
on earth anyway - in such a way that mountains and valleys and also the basins of the seas were
formed, where the waters could flow off then.
“It was so done. The dry land God called: Earth! And the dam up of the waters, he called: Seas!
God saw that it was good”: Also the fact that obviously only after the dam up the “dry land”,
that is to say the ground proper, became visible would speak for the approach of a global
earthquake. This means the other way round that the waters had covered the entire ground of the
earth before and that therefore, this ground of the earth had not been able to show any all too big
geological differences in the form of elevations and depressions.
“God said: Let the earth bring forth sprout, plant which may seed, fruit tree yielding fruit
after its kind, which may have seed in itself, upon the earth! It was so done. The earth brought
forth sprout, plant yielding seed according to its kind, tree bearing fruit after its kind, having
seed in itself”: With an unreflected approach one could think that this text does not need any
particular explanation. However, this is absolutely wrong! We have here the third day of Creation,
and at that time there is explicitly not yet a hint at the existence of the sun.
But without light photosynthesis is not possible and without photosynthesis plants cannot grow. But
here it says, “The earth brought forth sprout”, and if we want to adhere to our principle of
trusting in the correctness of the statements in the Bible on the one hand and the acknowledgment of
the scientific findings which are beyond all doubt on the other hand, a plausible explanation is
needed here. So, let us visualize the situation: The earth has an atmosphere – supposedly of
oxygen. High up in this atmosphere the planet is surrounded by a closed water jacket – probably in
solid state of aggregation, that is to say consisting of ice crystals. On the face of the earth the
seas gathered in their basins, and the “dry land” appeared in the form of one or several
continents.
And now plants began to grow on these continents. As the sun had not been created yet and as plants
cannot grow without light as has been proved, this light must have come from somewhere. In point of
fact, this light has already existed since the earth took shape and since the “firmament”, that
is to say the earth's atmosphere, was created. The solar system is part of the Milky Way, in the
exterior areas of which a hydrogen and helium cloud, the matter of which is supposed to have been
produced by the explosion of a supernova more than five billion years ago, lit up outer space.
This cloud of matter began to condense and finally caved in on account of its own gravitational
attraction. In this phase of the birth of our solar system, which covered a period of approximately
more than one billion years, also the planets were formed. And it was first of all the light of a
former supernova, which illuminated the earth at the end of this phase of Creation, whereby the
harmful ultraviolet radiation was filtered by the water jacket. Due to that quite a normal
photosynthesis could take place and all “plant” of the earth could grow.
“God saw that it was good. Evening were and morning were: third day”: Here, on the third
day in the course of the preparation of the bases for life of man, the cosmic and geological
activities were completed and the biological environment was initiated with all plant life.
And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven.
1Mo 1,14 And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of
heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days
and years: 1,15 To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth, and it
was so done. 1,16 And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light
to rule the night, - and the stars. 1,17 And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon
the earth. 1,18 And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God
saw that it was good. 1,19 And the evening and morning were the fourth day. 1Mo 1,14-19;
God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven. Genesis 1,14-19;
God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, so for seasons, for days and for years, and let be lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth! It was so done. God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day; and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. God set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth, to rule the day and the night, to divide the light and the darkness. God saw that it was good. Evening were and morning were: fourth day. |
“God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day
and the night”: Before now all animals and man were created, the sun and the moon are
mentioned here. In 1Mo 1,16 it says with Buber, “God made the two great lights, the greater
light to rule the day; and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars”. And this seems
to be the statement, which has made even scholars who have been well-versed in the Bible believe in
a geocentric conception of the world since the time of Plato (427 – 347 B.C.), up to Aristoteles
(384 – 322 B.C.) and Ptolemäus (100 – 160 A.D.) for almost two thousand years, until there was
a turning point in the way of thinking then with Copernicus (1473-1543) and his new, heliocentric
conception of the world. So, at the first glance one could think that here, at this time, the sun,
the moon, and the stars were created. And as we saw above, in the explanation of 1Mo 1,11-12, this
does not apply to the universe, all right, but very well to our solar system. After the
above-mentioned hydrogen and helium cloud had caved in due to the explosion of a supernova, it
attracted more and more dust and debris as a result of the more and more increasing gravitational
attraction so that finally a heating up to up to 20 million degrees Celsius (36.64 million degrees
Fahrenheit) set in because of the incredibly high internal pressure. Owing to that the hydrogen
nuclei could fuse into helium nuclei in a continuous series of very many chain reactions and thus
brought about the birth of our sun. In a similar way as after the big bang the abundance of light of
the universe densified into bright stars and in a similar way as this process is described in the
Scriptures, in 1Mo 1,4, with the statement: “God divided light and darkness”, we find also here,
in the origination of the solar system out of a bright cloud of gas as remains of a supernova, in
1Mo 1,17-18 an identical description: “And God set them in the firmament of heaven, (…) to rule
the day and the night, to divide the light and the darkness”.
As already mentioned above, also the origination of the planets and therewith also the origination
of the earthly moon falls within this phase of the development of the solar system. Even though the
satellite of the earth is called the “lesser light” in the text of the Scriptures, we know that
it does not have any illuminating power itself, but reflects only the light of the sun. So, the
birth of the sun was also its birth as the “light to rule the night”. Also the mention of the
stars in the above text, in 1Mo 1,16, refers to their function as “coregents with the moon”, as
“lights of the night” (see also Ps 136,8-9) and is not supposed to mean that they were created
together with the sun and the moon. For they had existed a long time before the origination of our
solar system, and the beginning of 1Mo,16 tells us quite clearly: God made the two great
lights”. Therefore, the mention of the stars in this verse is to be seen in the immediate context
with the preceding statement on the moon as “light to rule the night” together with the –
already existing - stars.
The further phases of the act of Creation that comprises six parts deal with the
creation of the aquatic animals and all flying birds on the fifth day and with the creation of the
terrestrial animals, worms, and insects on the sixth day. The creation of man is finally handed down
to us as the last activity in the history of Creation in 1Mo 1,27. There it says (according to
Buber):
“God said: Let us make man in our own image, in our own appearance.”
The fact that this statement refers exclusively to the optical appearance and not at all to the
chemical substance of the human body – in a similar way as pantheism (the doctrine that God is
everything and everything is God) or Teilhard de Chardin in his “Point Omega” want to see
it (“all matter is animated by God”) -, is confirmed by another statement in 1Mo 2,7 (according
to Buber):
“and He, God, formed the man (= ‘adam’ in Hebrew), dust from the field (= ‘adama’).”
So, man was formed out of the dust from the ground. Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, the earth
itself had been formed out of the conglomeration of dust and gases which had been produced by the
big bang. Accordingly, this “origin” of man would also have to be scientifically provable. And
this is the case! 99 % of the matter of all living beings consists of only four different elements:
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Every atom in the human body is dust from the field”, dust
from the earth, dust from the matter of the universe and with that it also was an integral part of
the big bang.
And now scientific circles think that they can do without this “intervention” of God, who formed
man out of this dust. Scientists claim that man “quite simply” originated as monocellular
organism out of the elemental soup of our planet. And innumerable experiments were made with the
principal ingredients of the early earth’s atmosphere - a mixture of methane, hydrogen, and the
two carbon oxides, which were mixed with the steam of boiling water and ignited by an electrical
high voltage of 60000 volt - in order to prove this process of development. However, these
experiments have always been without success up to this day and finally the scientists had to take
shelter behind the pretext of “inconceivably long periods of time”, in order to explain why this
“quite simple” process cannot be reconstructed with our state of the art. Considering that it is
quite interesting to note that for instance the human body produces large quantities of monocellular
organisms in its immunological system every day, without needing for that any elemental soup,
electrical high voltages or inconceivably long periods of time.
In connection with this kind of interpretation of the history of Creation, the
question is raised again and again, why there can be talk about “creation” here, when actually a
“formation”, a “development” or an “origination” is meant here. The best answer to this
question is a comparison: Nobody would deny sculptors such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da
Vinci or painters such as Rembrandt and van Gogh that they pursued a creative
activity. But the contents of this creative activity was quite certainly not the production of
hammer, chisel, paint brush or paint, but the creative use of the materials by the artist in order
to form something. In the same way the God of the Bible created man and his bases for life in an act
of formative creation. But in contrast to painters and sculptors, God actually created also the “material”
the Creation as a whole consists of: He created space and matter. And this is – if you want to put
it like that - the first and only creatio ex nihilo – the creation out of nothing.
Everything that comes after that is creative formation and – as God provided this Creation with
its living and dead matter with the capability to develop dynamics of its own – growth and
development.
As we have seen in this excursus, the statement which is often quoted by scientists that “in spite
of the overwhelming evidence that supports the theory of the big bang, millions of people continue
to firmly believe in the biblical statements of the spontaneous creation of the universe by God
about 5800 years ago”, - except for the indication of the time, which however, cannot be found in
the Scriptures either - does not really form a contrast. What would have been more spontaneous than
the big bang? And the cause of the big bang is also for science today still a mystery. Due to the
tremendous density of the cosmic egg heat could not develop, for in order to reach high
temperatures, the atoms need “room to move about”. So, it was a “cold” cluster of matter.
And without high temperatures it was not possible for a nuclear reaction to develop. So, an impulse
from “outside” was necessary in order to set this development going.
But even and precisely theologians of our time do not want to accept this and think,
“The church speaks (…) of the Bible as the 'Holy Scriptures',
because it learns, believes, and professes that God is speaking through this book (…). This
conviction of faith (…) does not depend on changing scientific findings (…)”.
At a time where – at least basically - there cannot be any talk about “changing
scientific findings” any more, this attitude means a denial of the realities of the Creation of
God and finally leads to a narrow-minded, withdrawn attitude of mind, which completely lost the
capability of growing through new findings – be it in the Scriptures or in science. And that
although the Scriptures shows us that it can even give answers to questions which science is still
looking answers for. For instance the question of the origination of space: It was created by God.
Or the future of heaven and earth: they will pass away and with them possibly the entire universe,
on the way back to the origin, as Rev 20,10 suggests:
The earth and heaven fled away: and there was no place found for them.
Rev 20,11 And I saw a great white throne and one sitting upon it, from
whose face the earth and heaven fled away: and there was no place found for them. Rev 20,11;
But the Bible also gives us an answer to the question: “What comes afterward?”,
which science, probably, will never be able to answer: According to Rev 21,1 there will be a new
beginning again, with a new heaven and a new earth:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
Rev 21,1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first
heaven and the first earth was gone: and the sea is now no more. Rev 21,1;
(See also Chapter 14: “The New Creation.”)
Other questions the physicists of today cannot answer are among others: Where did
the cosmic egg come from? Why did it explode? Although it is secured since Einstein's E=mc² that
mass and energy are transformable into each other, up to this day there is not any physical
phenomenon known which could prove that energy or matter could be formed spontaneously.
And thus also Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant scientific heads of our time, writes in his
book “A Brief History of Time - From the Big Bang to Black Holes” (page 156):
“The entire history of science is characterized by the gradual
knowledge that the events do not take place at will, but that a certain order is inherent in them,
which may be divine in its origin or not. (…) These laws may originally have been enacted by God.
But it seems as if he has let the universe develop according to these laws since that time and does
not intervene now any more.”
This statement shows a little bit the dilemma, which science has got into for some
decades. Since quantum physics has been penetrating larger and larger fields of classical physics,
we have experienced something like a second “Copernican turning point”. The elegant, clearly
defined conceptions of classical physics have gone to pieces. And as science has to realize that
more and more things which seemed to be impossible according to the traditional physical laws
suddenly become possible, at least in the realists among the scientist the suspicion arises that
there is possibly nevertheless a controlling force, a God.
And God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
1Mo 2,1 So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
furniture of them. 2,2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested
on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 2,3 And he blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. 2,4 These
are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created. 1Mo 2, 1- 4;
On the seventh day God ended his work which he had done. Genesis 2,1-4;
Finished were the heaven and the earth, and all their flock. On the seventh day God ended his work which he had done and rested from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God made creating. These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, their being created. |
The fact that now this God lets “the entire universe develop according to these
laws”, is on the one hand a proof of the fact that we are at the moment, according to the biblical
report, for exactly 5760 years in a rest - the seventh day of Creation – but on the other hand it
should not blind us to the fact that since the very beginning of Creation already its end has been
fixed, too. The same God who created this universe, will replace it by a new one, in which every man
will spend an eternal existence according to the decision he took during his earthly life. The
righteous, peacemakers, and faithful will be surrounded by the peace and the love of their God. The
godless, criminal, and selfish people will be – separated from their Creator - tormented by the
eternal fire not least for the reason that they will not have any possibility any more to change
anything about this agonizing situation during their entire further eternal existence.
“The starry sky above me and the moral law within me, they prove that there is a
God above me and within me.” (Immanuel Kant).
Summary: The serious facts science has discovered about the origination of the universe (not about the fictitious evolution of man!) is nothing else but the “hand” of God in the Creation. Those theologians who want to see the Holy Scriptures – the Word of God – as being in contrast to these new findings and think that they have to defend them against science, consequently defend in reality only their own dullness and unwillingness to examine the results and their relation to the statements of the Scriptures. If we trust in the fact that the Creation is the work of God and that the Bible is the Word of God, we do not have to be afraid of results of scientific research which have to be taken seriously. Whatever science will discover – it cannot be anything else but something that God created before. And therefore, this cannot be in contrast to the statements of the Bible either. |
(See also Discourse 50: “The account of Creation
in the Bible.”)
The Creation of the Universe1Mo 1,1 In the beginning God created the heavens |
The Creation of the Earth1,6 Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the |