According to the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Hebrew Bible, the universe was created by Divine Utterance of God. And God said, "Let There Be Light", and there was Light. Thus, begins the history of the Adamic Religion, the precursor to three major religious institutions in the world today; the modern Judaic, Islamic and Christian faiths. The central idea common to these three religions is a single, all-powerful and all-knowing God, who is at once, Savior and Judge, Benefactor and Executioner, Creator and Destroyer of all things good and evil. Although they are not the only religions practiced today, a majority of Earth's people subscribe to one of these three belief systems. And yet, the idea of "God, The Creator", seems to be wholly incompatible with another great religion of our day, one to which each and every one of us gives credence, at least to some degree. That religion is Science. But, are these systems so incompatible? Personally, I am not so sure that they are.
The Bible does not tell us, for example, when or how this Creation occurred, only that it did. The first chapter of Genesis concerns itself primarily with three events: Verse 1. That, In the beginning, a supreme being called God, created the Heavens and the Earth, after which an unstated amount of time elapses, followed by, Verse 2. That the Earth was void and without form, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and Verses 3-31. God accomplished the rest of creation, including the creation of mankind. Even a cursory investigation of the Hebrew (found by clicking on the highlighted words, above), should serve to encourage further research on the part of serious students into the actual meanings intended, in their own languages, by the authors of the Bible.
For many scientific thinkers, who are either, unaware of the nuances of the Hebrew language used in the Biblical creation story or, who are unwilling to accept the possibility of a Creator God in the first place, this view of the earth's origin is patently implausible. To these scientific thinkers, fossils, bones and artifacts discovered over the past centuries (mostly in the last hundred years -- since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species), unequivocally prove the theory of evolution. That this conclusion is based upon evidence which is, at best, circumstantial, seems to be entirely lost on the majority of believers in this scenario. And, that their commitment to Darwin's theory, or its newest form, Neo-Darwinism, indicates the same type of determination on their part that is usually associated with religious zealotry, manages to elude them, as well.
Considering the advanced state of science today, it may surprise some of you to know that no one yet knows exactly how or even when the universe came to be. Nor does anyone really know how the universe, the earth, and mankind have become what we are today, although, there is certainly no lack of learned opinion on the subject.
If we are not very observant, however, we might mistake these conjectures and opinions for actual knowledge, because nearly everybody today, from elementary school teachers to evening news anchors, acts and speaks as though they knew the origin of everything. And this "knowledge" they blithely impart to our youth in classrooms and, likewise, to our parents who sit before their television sets, as if the last word on the subject had been carved right into their foreheads by the irrefutable fact of their own existence.
The truth is, that even among the most erudite of our scientific scholars, there is not one of them who is able to state with any certainty by what exact means and at what exact time the planet earth was created, much less when and how man came into existence.
Unfortunately, the reasoning of most arguments I've heard in favor of the Biblical creation scenario is just as ill-considered as the pseudo-scientific redundancy described above. How can the Bible be truthful if its account of the physical world contradicts the material facts at hand. If the sixteenth century astronomer, Galileo, had not opposed the Church's interpretation of the Bible, even at the risk of his life, he never would have discovered the properties of our solar system which have contributed profoundly to the advances in technology that we so easily take for granted today. Who, among religious believers born in the twentieth century, would prefer that Galileo had not stated the fact that the planets revolve around the Sun, rather than around the Earth? And what harm have Galileo's discoveries brought to the efficacy of the Bible? The answer is that they have enriched, not threatened, our understanding of Scripture, as the truth must always do, if that Scripture is itself, the truth.
The fact is that believers, themselves, wreak havoc on their own position by failing to understand the extent to which the Scripture they defend supports the position they take to defend it. They are rather like the Inquisitors of the sixteenth century, who sought to abolish any scientific work, thought, or expression which contradicted the accepted religious doctrine of their day.
