Chapter 10 - Science and the Narrative of Creation

Table of Contents
Chapter 9 - Creation in Genesis - Gradual or Instantaneous
Chapter 11 - Translation and Commentary

Histories have been written about the alleged conflict between the interpretations of the narrative of creation and the opinions of scientists. 'Most of these volumes make melancholy reading today. It is now more generally realised that the conflict is not between the Bible and science, but between some popular interpretations of the Bible and the speculative theories of science. When three quarters of a century ago Dr. Draper wrote The Conflict between Science and Religion he prophesied that religion would be expelled by scientific thought. Yet, within purely scientific limits, the relations between them are more satisfactory now than since scientific research began. There is a clearer understanding that each has a right to be heard in its own sphere. Much of the controversy was due to the clash between the tentative conjectures of science and the speculative interpretations of the creation narrative. On both sides rapid generalisations were advanced only to be as quickly abandoned. It is now realised that the Bible and science are not necessarily alternative methods of explaining origins. It is not that the one must be real and the other false; neither is it rational to reject the one in order to accept the other. Science can render valuable service by discrediting an explanation of the text of the Genesis narrative which is based upon unjustifiable assumptions and consequently not valid; and Scripture can rescue scientists from a false philosophy, which, venturing beyond the bounds of true scientific research, would deny that the universe had a Creator and Sustainer.

Yet it would be foolish to suggest that the point of view recorded in Genesis and that of some scientific writers about origins is one and the same. Often it is contradictory, but this contradiction is sometimes due to science leaving its proper sphere by indulging in philosophic speculations about origins, and asserting either the non-existence of a Creator, or that the process of creation owes nothing to a Creator. If a scientist takes this attitude, then the conflict is absolute and the two views cannot but wage an endless war.

We owe more than is generally acknowledged to scientific research, for there is an element of truth in Sir John Seeley's remark "that the God worshipped by the astronomer and the geologist, dwelling as they do in the immensities of space and time, is greater and more wonderful than the God of the average Christian". Doubtless the scientist who acknowledges God as the Creator, has a more adequate conception of His works of creation; it is however very questionable whether he has a greater knowledge of the Creator than, say, David or Paul. We owe more than can be told to those scientists, who by patient research, discover the methods by which God has been working, and few things are more noticeable in the present day than the acknowledgment by leading scientists that there is a sense of mystery beyond the bounds of any explanation which can be given by physics or biology or chemistry.

It will perhaps be useful to take the Genesis statements about creation and to see what modern science has to say about them.

"In beginning."
Strangely enough there has never been any difference of opinion over these opening words. Science as much as Scripture bases its belief on a beginning (though recently when talking with an eminent scientist, he told me that a few days before his friend, J. B. S. Haldane, had remarked to him, that as he had no belief in God, he had no reason to think that there ever was a beginning). Yet it must have been as difficult to the ancient as to modem man to conceive of a time when no part whatever of the universe existed. A few scientists, because they have denied the existence of God, have also toyed with the idea of 'no beginning', but there has never been any serious controversy about this first statement in the Bible. Scientists generally agree that if they are certain about anything, they are sure of this, that the universe had at a point in time a beginning. Sir James jeans writes of "what we may describe as a 'creation' at a time not infinitely remote ". The alternative is the infinite regress, at which the mind falters. Current theories of modem science confirm this opening statement of Genesis. When the beginning occurred the narrative does not say, but scientists assert that its beginning must be dated an immense time ago.

"God."
It is here that the first possibility of a clash reveals itself, but any disagreement does not come from science as such. Genesis asserts that the universe is not self-existent, that it had a start, and with this science generally agrees. But Genesis goes further and says that it had a Starter, and there are many scientific discoveries which confirm this- Perlin ps the most impressive piece of scientific evidence is that given by the second law of thermo-dynamics, entropy. According to this law, the universe must have been wound up like a clock and it has since been gradually running down. In other words the organisation of the energy of the universe is diminishing. Sir Ambrose Fleming states (Transactions of the Victoria Institute, Vol. LXVIII), "Such effects as the dissipation of energy, the increase of entropy, the transformation of matter into radiation, and the spontaneous change of radio-active matter into non-radio-active matter, all support the truth of the conception that the physical universe had a beginning in Acts of Creation and was not self-produced nor infinite in past duration. Also that, left to itself, it will have an end. Moreover this ,running down' which is thus disclosed is the very opposite of any Evolution in the sense of a spontaneous advance. It gives denial to any assertion that the universe is the result of a set of 'happy accidents' or freaks or casual combinations or any mode of operations which dispenses with the necessity for belief in a creation and therefore in a Creator." Sullivan, in his Limitations of Science writes, "But the fact that the energy of the universe will be more disorganised tomorrow than it Is today implies, of course, the fact that the energy of the universe is more highly organised today than it will be tomorrow, and that it was more highly organised yesterday than it is today. Following the process backwards we find a more and mote highly organised universe. This backward tracing in time cannot be continued indefinitely. Organisation cannot, as it were, mount up and up without limit. There is a definite maximum, and this definite maximum must have been in existence a finite time ago. And it is impossible that this state of perfect organisation could have been evolved from some less perfect state. Nor is it possible that the universe could have persisted for eternity in that state of perfect organisation and then suddenly, a finite time ago, have begun to pursue its present path. Thus the accepted laws of nature lead us to a definite beginning of the universe in time." This is the truth expressed in Hebrews i. io and 12, "And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish; but Thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up and they shall be changed."

We have considerable evidence of purpose and design in the universe and these imply a Person, a Designer. But some Scientists having discovered something of the method by which God has caused things to be, seem to imagine that the discovery of the method eliminates the necessity for a Creator. It will be remembered that Darwin once wrote, "I well remember my conviction that, there is more in man than the' mere breath of his body, but now the grandest scenes would not cause any such convictions in me. It may be truly said that I am like a man who has become colour-blind." Romanes in his Candid Examination, referring to those who held the philosophic theory of Evolution 'which attempted to explain the existence of everything without God, wrote, "I am far from being able to agree with those who affirm that the twilight doctrine of the new faith is a desirable substitute for the waning splendour of the old. I am not ashamed to confess that with this virtual negation of God, the universe to me has lost its soul of loveliness . . . when at times I think, as at times I must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which once was mine and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it-at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is capable."

It is generally assumed by scientists that the universe is purposeful, though Eddington has hinted that it might prove to be irrational, and some atheistically-minded scientists assert that it is purposeless; but if this were so it would be the end not only of Theism but of science. The fact is that science can only give a partial explanation, as Sir Oliver Lodge said, "It is impossible to explain all this fully by the law of mechanics alone." It is now more clearly recognised that the universe cannot be explained by such branches of science as physics, chemistry and biology alone; these can often suggest how things came to be, but not why.

"Created."
How did the stuff of which this universe is made originate? Science is unable to answer this question. That it had an origin, and that it was created, is affirmed in Hebrews xi - 3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Sir James jeans wrote, "Everything points with overwhelming force to a definite event, or series of events, of creation at some time or other, not infinitely remote. The universe cannot have originated by chance out of its present ingredients and neither can it always have been the same as it is now."

"The heaven and the earth."
Heaven is placed before the 'earth', so this narrative does not imply, as some have suggested, that the earth is greater in bulk than the sun or that astronomically it is the centre of the universe. How did the heavens, especially the planets to which the earth is related-the sun and the moon originate? and how came the earth? Science readily admits that any answer it can venture is very speculative. We have already noted that Kant's theory, as developed by Laplace, assumed that a rotating mass of gas, which ultimately became sun, threw off those parts which protruded at the rim, at the rim and these consolidated into the planetary system dependent upon the sun. Modem astronomers and physicists say that this theory is an impossible one, because the rim which could be thrown off in this way would not condense but disperse. The present idea, known as the 'tidal theory', supposes that some 2,000 million years ago a wandering star approaching dangerously near the sun caused a large cigar-shaped filament to be pulled out of it, and, throwing off fragments, these subsequently became the planets now circling round the sun. Sir James Jeans says (Stars Around Us, PP. 45 and 46) that a jet of matter pulled off the sun formed " a long filament of hot filmy gas suspended in space", that this "filament of fiery spray" condensed much as a cloud of steam, condenses into colossal drops of water on an astronomical scale, and "finally, these drops of water begin to move about in space as separate bodies ".

Genesis indicates little of the method by which the heavens and the earth were created, and that little in no way conflicts with the findings of scientists, except where they speculate as to the cause and assert that it was merely 'accidental'. It is almost unnecessary to add that science is not in a position to assert that such an event (if it can be assumed to have occurred in the way they think it did) was an ' accident'. With the exception of the first verse (and what we are told in verses 14-18 about the relation of the sun and the moon to the earth, and the slight reference to 'the stars also') the narrative is mainly concerned with this planet earth, notwithstanding that it is but one of the 30,ooo,ooo,ooo bodies in existence. As however it is the planet on which man lives, it is obviously the one with which he is mainly concerned.

"And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. "
It would be difficult to put into so few and simple words, or to state in a more profound way what scientists believe the earliest stage of this earth to have been, than is done in this verse. Sir Arthur Eddington in his Expanding Universe uses this word 'void' in explaining original "gradual condensation of primordial matter". The description represents earth before it had reached its present form. Scientists believe that its early state was gaseous, and gradually over a considerable period of time it solidified, that the temperature was once great, is shown by the presence of volcanoes which pour out molten rock and hot gases. Some geologists think that the interior is still in a fluid condition. It used to be thought that the time taken for solidifying from the gaseous state was immense, but more recent speculations suggest that the gases became liquid in 5,000 years and solid within 1o,ooo years, but some scientists think that even these figures are excessive. In its early stages the surface of the earth is said to have been densely covered with vapour. It was certainly void, empty of life, as yet without form, no continents, mountains, lakes or rivers, no plants, no trees, no fish, no animals or man. The words used are therefore as descriptive and accurate as they possibly can be.

While in this condition, it is stated that the Spirit of God moved upon "the face of the waters". Modem science asserts the principle of the inertia of matter. Newton's law states that a body (i.e. a piece of matter) removed away from all other bodies would continue in a state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line. It was on this planet earth that the Spirit of God moved, and throughout all the subsequent activities was preparing a home for man. Sir Arthur Eddington calls this planet an "oasis in the desert of space".

The record now moves on from the general to the particular.

THE NARRATIVE OF THE FIRST DAY.
"And God said, Light be and light was.'
Up to the present there has been no complete and satisfactory definition of light. Modem scientists admit that they do not know its ultimate nature, although it has been the subject of continuous research ever since scientific methods have become known. The theory at present in vogue is that it is 'an electro-magnetic phenomena'; but the first theory of importance was that light is a succession of material particles propelled in straight lines. The substance so propelled was thought to be imponderable, and its powers of penetration of different substances variable. Later it was thought to be constituted by the propagation of waves. All radiation may consist of corpuscles of energy. Sir Ambrose Fleming has said (Victoria Institute Transactions, Vol. LXI, p. 23), " It would not be inappropriate to speak of Radiation as disembodied Energy in motion." And Sir James jeans writes, "These concepts reduce the whole universe to a world of light, potential or existent, so that the whole story of creation can be told with perfect accuracy and completeness in the six words, 'And God said, Let there be light'. " In his Expanding Universe Sir Arthur Eddington says, "In its earliest days, when the universe was only just disturbed from its equilibrium and the rate of expansion was slow, light and other radiation went round the universe until it was absorbed. In the course of the expansion there is a definite moment after which circum-ambulation ceases to be possible. It seems certain that we are well past this moment, so that a ray of light emitted now will never get round to its starting-point again. On the other hand, light, which we now see, was emitted in the past. " Sullivan, in his Limitations of Science, says, "About thirty years ago an exceedingly penetrating kind of radiation was discovered traversing the atmosphere. This radiation does not come from the earth, for balloon expeditions showed that it is more penetrating at great heights than at sea-level Also, it does not come from the sun, for it is less abundant at day-time than at night-time. The sun is quite an average, typical star, and therefore, as the radiation does not come from the sun, there is no reason to suppose that it comes from the stars. It must come from outer space. What is its origin? " There appears to be no scientific answer to the last question.

Ordinary yellow light has a wavelength of nearly one fiftythousandth part of an inch with a frequency of about six hundred billion vibrations a second and a speed of rather more than i86,ooo miles a second. We need to realise how restricted is the range constituted by visible light. The wavelengths and range of visible light are so small that scientists have to use a unit known as the Angstrom unit, which is one hundred-millionth of a centimetre.

This narrative says that light was originated by the volition of God. Sir James jeans says, "the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine," and commenting on the words "let there be light", says, "If the universe is a universe of thought then its creation must have been an act of thought". Oersted, referring to the laws of nature, says these are "only the thoughts of God".

THE NARRATIVE OF THE SECOND DAY.
0n the second day 'God said' in a sufficiently simple way so that man could understand how He had made the 'firmament' or atmosphere to divide the waters below from the waters above. This word translated 'firmament' means 'expanse' Sir James jeans commences his The Stars in their Courses with these words, "We inhabitants of the earth enjoy a piece of good fortune to which we give very little thought, which, indeed, we take almost as much for granted as the air we breathe-I mean the fact that we have a transparent atmosphere; some of the other planets, for instance Venus and Jupiter have atmospheres which are so thick with clouds as to be, totally opaque. If we had been born on Venus or Jupiter, we should have lived our lives without seeing through the clouds, and so should have known nothing of the beauty and poetry of the night sky."

Science can now explain the effect and importance of the 'atmosphere' around our planet, for it is this which has so much to do with the temperature at surface level. The atmosphere surrounding this earth has a remarkable 'glasshouse' effect. If it is sufficiently dense it will raise the temperature Were it not for this atmosphere and its glasshouse effect, life, as we know it, would not be possible. The heat available would produce an average temperature of minus 26 degrees C.; instead, the average temperature is 14 degrees C. or 57 degrees F. The value of this firmament or atmosphere may be seen when we consider the moon which has none, and because of this it has no water on its surface. Consequently it must become intensely hot by day and bitterly cold by night, and the days and nights of the moon are fourteen times as long as ours. In such conditions life as we know it could riot exist. jeans (Mysterious Universe) says, "For the most part empty space is so cold that all life in it would be frozen; most of the matter in space is so hot as to make life on it impossible."

Life is only possible within an extremely narrow range of temperature, yet the range in the universe is immense -so high in some instances that metals are in fluid state and in others as low as 270 degrees C. below zero. All life ceases at 56 degrees C. Yet within the very limited range of temperature on the earth variation is essential to life, as well as for the fall of rain and dew on plants, and these variations are delicately and intricately balanced. The ultra violet rays are filtered by the upper layer of the atmosphere so that plant, animal, and man receive precisely the amount required. In his Fitness of the Environment Henderson writes, "There is, in truth, not one chance in countless millions of millions that the many unique properties of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and especially their stable compounds, water and carbonic acid, which chiefly make up the atmosphere of a new planet, should simultaneously occur in the three elements otherwise than through the operation of a natural law which somehow connects them together. There is no greater probability that these unique properties should be without due cause uniquely favourable to the organic mechanism. These are no mere accidents." So the simple words of the second day's narrative is of the separation of the 'waters above' from the 'waters below'. Simple? It is calculated that over 50,000,000,000,000 tons of aqueous vapour is suspended in the air above the earth.

THE NARRATIVE OF THE THIRD DAY.
On the next day God said how the waters were made to recede so that dry land appeared.

Water now covers seventy-two per cent of the surface of the earth and fills depressions greater than the land above sea-level. The average depth of the sea is now two and a half miles. Were these waters evenly distributed over the surface of the earth (supposing the surface to be without mountains and valleys, but quite even) the water would cover the earth to a depth of about one and a half miles.

Genesis does not concern itself with geological terms, for there are no details or explanations; it does not relate how and when the great sedimentary rocks were deposited, or when the subsidences or 'foldings' occurred. That much of the land has been under the sea for enormous periods of time is quite evident, the chalk deposits alone show this. Presumably it was during this process when the waters were receding that the well-known geologic strata, caused by the action of water, were formed. Moreover water moderates and regulates climatic conditions; it prevents excess temperatures and distributes the heat of the sun.

There was a second 'and God said' on this day, for that day's narration included an account of the introduction of plant life on the earth.

The greatest mystery of science is the mystery of the origin of life. During the nineteenth and the earlier part of this century scientists were hopeful, some were even confident, that they would be able to bridge the gulf between the living and non-living. But life still baffles explanation. Before the days of scientific investigation, it seemed easier to imagine the emergence of the living from the non-living, for then it was supposed that decaying meat bred maggots and that mud produced worms. Francesco Redi in 1668 clearly demonstrated that larva were not originated by decomposing meat, for when it was protected from the eggs of flies, no worms appeared. Pasteur spent years of patient labour and at length proved in a decisive scientific way that current ideas about spontaneous generation of life were mythical.

When men were convinced that life could not arise spontaneously they hazarded some guesses; for instance it was suggested that life may have been carried to this planet by a meteorite. Of course this idea could not solve the problem of the origin of life, it only pushed the problem further away and made its solution even more difficult.

On this subject of the origin of life, there can be no disagreement between this narrative and science, for the simple reason that science can know nothing with certainty about its origination, though conjectures concerning it have been voluminous. Darwin in his Origin of Species (Chap XV) wrote, "Science as yet throws no light on the essence and origin of life", and nothing that has happened since has modified that statement. Professor Sir D'Arcy Thompson, the eminent Biologist, says, "Matter as such produces nothing, changes nothing, does nothing." And Sir James jeans wrote in his The Mysterious Universe, "In course of time, we know not how, when, or why, one of these cooling fragments (from the sun) gave birth to life." Sir Oliver Lodge wrote (Man and the Universe, p. 24), "Science, in chagrin, has to confess that hitherto in this direction it has failed. It has not yet witnessed the origin of the smallest trace of life from dead matter." Dr. J. B. S. Haldane has said that "he could not imagine anything happening in the laboratory according to our present knowledge which would bring us any nearer to life ". And Sir D'Arcy Thompson writes, " How species are actually produced remains an unsolved riddle. It is a great mystery. Here at least is a conclusion which few men of our time will venture to dispute."

Scientists agree that plant life was the commencement of the food chain and say that mosses and liverworts, club mosses and ferns were probably the earliest representatives of plant life. In his Origin and Nature of Life Professor Moore has a chapter entitled "Building materials for Living Matter" in which he explains the processes by which molecules are built Up, first he places the necessity and effect of light (first day's narrative), then of the requirement of atmosphere (second day's narrative), next of the necessity of rain and water (third day's narrative although he does not attempt to relate it to the Genesis narrative). Dr. Barnes says (Scientific Theory and Religion, P. 435), "The plants, probably when they were still in the unicellular stage, acquired the power to make chlorophyll, the substance which gives its green colour to foliage. Thus they were able to make direct use of the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere and thereby to build up in their tissues carbohydrates and still more complex organic compounds. In this way they still convert a simple inorganic substance into living tissue: in fact, they have gained power by the aid of sunshine to use carbondioxide as food."

So far the narrative has spoken of light, atmosphere, water, and green vegetation; just the essentials and order of appearance that science in modern days has by laborious research discovered to be necessary and therefore confirms the accuracy of the Genesis account.

Although considerable interest is shown in the geologic ages in which living things appeared on the earth, Professor Boxall in the March, of Science, 1931-5, Says, "Geological research has in recent times thrown little or no new light on the origin of life on the earth. We are still faced by the problem of the sudden appearance in the oldest Cambrian rocks of representatives of many of the present-day forms of life." One of the most outstanding facts relating to the history of life is the recent discovery that land-plants are more ancient than has hitherto been thought.

Chapter 10 - Part II