A Multidisciplinary Contextualized Analysis of Select Passages From Genesis

A very brief view of cosmology in history

Oct 05, 2024

[This is an excerpt from a new edition I’m writing of a personal study of the book of Genesis, the first edition of which can be found here. The purpose of this exercise is to compare a close reading of the text to our current understanding of language, paleontology, and the physical sciences. Constructive discussion on the elements presented is always encouraged!]

Although science is considered to be a fact-based discipline, progress has always been either driven by or impeded by common beliefs. The examples of ancient people believing the earth to be flat or the absolute center of the universe (geocentric model) are often mentioned. But even the scientific titans of the early 20th century thought the universe to be very different from what we accept as scientific fact today.

For example, throughout history, the majority of people have held the scientific belief that the universe has always existed. Nearly all scientists, philosophers, and theologians around the world supported that view. In 1917, Albert Einstein published Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity which claimed that the universe was temporally infinite. Many of the most influential scientists of the last century believed in a universe with no beginning and no end.

As for religious origin stories, the focus is typically on the origins of Earth or humanity. An exceptional few detail the beginning of fundamental aspects of reality like light or the beginning of time. The book of Genesis is rare among origin legends on that point alone which resulted in criticism of the Bible by non-believers as well as religious scholars throughout history. That the Genesis creation account suggests a finite time universe made it easy to dismiss among the scientific community going back centuries,

It is only within the last 70 years or so that evidence like the Cosmic Microwave Background (or CMB) and deep space observations of galaxies at different evolutionary stages strongly suggests that the universe as we observe it is temporally finite. Due to the growing body of compelling data, only now is a cosmic origin broadly accepted as scientific fact.

Although modern science marginalizes many religious origin stories as wholly incompatible with cosmological reality, it seems the better we understand the beginning of the universe the more closely it mirrors the one that has always been suggested by the Bible. In fact, it was the theoretical physicist and Belgian Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, who was the first to propose what we now call the Big Bang model of the universe which dominates current scientific theory. After thousands of years of being disregarded as fantasy, as our empirical knowledge increases it results in closer parallels to the contents of the Bible.

Although one might claim that such intellectual bridging between the empirical sciences and theism seems contradictory, I am certainly not the first or most notable individual to make such a claim:

"All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter." - Max Planck

"The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you." - Werner Heisenberg

"It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer path to God than religion." - Paul Davies

"This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being." - Sir Isaac Newton

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