One of the best ways of spending one’s free time is to have a hobby.  This may involve making something – maybe doing woodwork or making models or cooking delicious meals. 

Creation out of nothing

Whatever we make, we make it out of something else and that something else in the beginning came from the earth.  Take for example, a garden spade: the wooden handle comes from a tree, and the steel blade from iron ore dug out of the ground.  So when we make anything, what we really do is take something, such as wood, and turn into something else, a chair or a table.

When, however, we say that God is the Maker or Creator of Heaven and Earth, we mean that he made things where before there was just empty space.  So the first words of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, are “In the beginning when God created (our emphasis) the heavens and the earth…” (NRSV, 1:1).

What Genesis teaches

It is very important to remember that the first two chapters of Genesis were written in order to teach us who made the world rather than exactly how it was made.  Scientists can tell us how and when the world was made and they know more about it than the people did at the time Genesis was written.  Everyone, for example, in those days thought that the world was flat like a plate and that the sky was hard and solid like a huge dish-cover.

There is one much more important question, however, that the scientists cannot answer and that is, “Who made the world?” which is just the thing that these old writers did know.  So the Bible tells us what science cannot tell us, that God made the world. 

We can think of these chapters of Genesis which describe the Creation as a chest full of treasure.  A treasure-chest may be very beautiful, but the really valuable thing is the gold inside.  In the same way these stories of the Creation are very beautiful, but the really valuable thing is the great truth they contain – that all things were created by God.  So we will not be worried if we find they are not quite right in what they say about the way he made things.

How God made the world

The Bible tells us that heaven and earth were made in six days; God did not make everything all at once but bit by bit.  Science helps us to understand how and when the world was made.

The Big Bang theory

According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe began as a ball of light 13.7 billion years ago.  When the Universe was only one second old, tiny particles called protons and neutrons appeared.  After a few minutes these particles began to evolve into slightly more complex matter.  Between approximately 240,000 and 310,000 years after the Big Bang the Universe had cooled from its very hot beginnings and the first atoms of hydrogen and helium had appeared.  Almost all the matter in the Universe is in the form of these two elements.  Out of clouds of hydrogen and helium gas, stars were formed.  In the Universe there are between 30 and 50 billion trillion stars grouped into 80 to 140 billion galaxies. (1)

Our galaxy is the Milky Way.  The Earth’s immediate place in space is the solar system which is dominated by the sun, a star with a diameter 109 times that of Earth. (2)

Stars that are several times bigger than the sun are likely to end in an explosion.  In the course of these massive explosions other elements in nature that are needed for life (e.g. oxygen and iron) are manufactured, as well as molecules such as water and carbon dioxide.  It is thought that life as we know it required about nine billion years of star making to produce the right conditions for life. (3)

Some stars, such as the sun, have planets.  They are formed from material left over from the formation of the star.  This material increases in size over time to form rocks of all sizes, including huge planet-sized rocks, like the Earth. (4)

Goldilocks earth

Do you remember the story of Goldilocks?  The temperature of her porridge had to be just right – not too hot and not too cold!  The term ‘Goldilocks earth’ has been used to describe a planet where the conditions for life are just right.  Science gives us some fascinating examples of how the Earth came to be a Goldilocks planet.  For example, early in its life the Earth was hit by an object the size of Mars.  Most of the Earth’s crust was knocked off and it is thought that in time these bits of rocky material were brought together by gravity to form the moon.  The moon plays a key role in ensuring moderate seasonal changes that support complex life.  Furthermore, if most of the Earth’s crust had not been knocked off, it would have been too thick to allow for tectonic movement to occur i.e. the movements of the Earth’s crust that cause, for example, the formation of mountains. (5) 

These movements have speeded up the processes of evolution on Earth to the extent that human beings have appeared while the sun is still shining.  If evolution had progressed at only half the rate, human beings would have appeared millions of years later, by which time the sun would have been dying. (6)

Life on Earth

Life on Earth began in the form of single-cell organisms, such as bacteria.  Two billion years ago all life was single-celled and only lived in the oceans.  Gradually organisms developed that were made of many cells.  Then, from fossils that have been found, scientists know that hard-bodied creatures appeared.  Eventually primitive fish appeared – the first creatures with a backbone.  Then air-breathing animals and plants appeared on land, as well as insects and in time, the dinosaurs. 

By around 5.3 million years ago, the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees had appeared, and around 50,000 years ago our human ancestors left Africa.  Gradually humans spread across the Earth. (7)

Accounts of the creation in Genesis

There are two accounts of the creation of human beings in Genesis.  One is the well-known story of Adam and Eve who stand for the first men and women on the earth.  The other account says, “God created humankind in his image…male and female he created them” (NRSV, 1:27).

We have, therefore, God to thank, not only for the wonderful world in which we live with all the beauties of Nature, but also for our own lives and the lives of our relations and friends.  So we can make one of the songs of Heaven our own song:

“You are our Lord and our God, you are worthy of glory and honour and power, because you made all the universe and it was only by your will that everything was made and exists” (Jerusalem Bible, Revelation 4:11).

SUMMARY

 1. The Bible teaches us the truth that God made the Universe.  God made things where before there was nothing.

2. The Bible teaches us that living things were not all made at once.  Science tells us that human life gradually developed from a single living cell over a very long time.

References

1. Potter, C. (2009) You are here. A portable history of the universe, London: Hutchinson.

2. Potter, C. (2009) op cit.

3. Potter, C. (2009) op cit.

4. Potter, C. (2009) op cit.

5. Potter, C. (2009) op cit.

6. Henbest, N. and Couper, H. (1982) The restless universe, London: George Philip.

7. Potter, C. (2009) op cit.