Reclaiming Genesis (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

PUTTING DOWN PAGANISM

GENESIS 1

Let me introduce Dr Pedant of Secular University. He is a physicist by training and is so absorbed in his subject that everything has to be seen through the lens of his beloved “hard” science. To be frank, this makes Dr Pedant something of a nerd. How so? Let me illustrate how by relating what happened to him one day. He received through the post a rather affectionate letter written by a young lady who had admired Dr Pedant from afar. Her heart had been captured by the young scientist. How handsome he looked in his white laboratory coat. His horn-rimmed glasses sent her into a swoon. The high forehead was obviously a sign of super-intelligence, and she liked that in a man. All these things she set forth in her epistle, wearing her heart on her sleeve in the hope that Dr Pedant might feel the same way about her. You had to hand it to Ethel: she was not backward in coming forward!

How did Dr Pedant respond? He responded as any scientist of his ilk would. He became excited when he opened the letter and noticed the quality of the paper which had been used. He took it along to the laboratory to examine its cellulose and water content. Yes, he was right, this was a most interesting chemical composition indeed: he might write an article on it for the next issue of Scientist’s Weekly. Then there was the ink. He subjected it to chromatographical analysis, separating out the different pigments which composed it. The results were fed into a computer, which produced some very interesting figures. But later on that day a friend said to Dr Pedant, “I see you received a letter today: who was it from and what did it say?” Being the hard-nosed scientist he was, of the old “positivist” school, he replied, “Don’t ask me, I am a scientist. Take it to the linguistics department if you want to ask those sort of questions. As far as I am concerned they are just random marks on a page.”

Our apocryphal scientist is obviously an extreme case, but he does help make the valid point that in a similar way modern-day scientists can offer their views about the origin of the universe, the beginnings of humankind, and the biological nature of human beings by analysing such things in scientific terms, using scientific methods, and still not be able to answer the most vital questions of all, which are to do with the meaning and purpose of humankind: Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? How are we meant to behave? Is there a mind behind this universe? However, when scientists do attempt to answer such questions they can no more give an answer as scientists than Dr Pedant could, with the result that they miss out on the most important thing: in his case, that someone was trying to establish a relationship. If they do speak about such things – as the famous Professor Dawkins has done at length – they are going beyond science and their views are not necessarily any better or worse than anyone else’s. As the distinguished biologist Francisco J. Ayala has said, “The scientific view of the world is hopelessly incomplete,” and there are “matters of value, meaning and purpose that are outside science’s scope”.26

In order to find answers to these more profound questions about the meaning of life, rather than the origin of life, we need another source of knowledge, one which cannot be gained by looking through a microscope or peering through a telescope. In fact we need something akin to a letter, a form of correspondence from the “outside”, coming from the Maker. That is exactly what the Bible claims to be, not least the early chapters of Genesis. (“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” says the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16.) These chapters primarily deal with the “Why?” questions – what is the purpose of this world – rather than the “How?” questions – the means by which it came into being. More to the point, they answer the “Who?” question – who the one is that brought this universe into existence by whatever means he saw fit. How are we to relate to him? What does he expect of us and what can we expect of him?

Turning to the first chapter in Genesis, we hear what God says about himself and the world he has made.

The exclusivity of God

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This verse may not have blown you away on reading it, but it would have caused anyone in the nations surrounding early Israel to have...