Saturday, March 8, 2014

If the creation account in Genesis 1 were written today

Lately, I've been thinking about the relationship between religion and science as part of a Sunday morning adult class I'm teaching and in preparation for an article that's due next Thursday. (There's nothing like a deadline to get the adrenalin flowing!) I ran across this piece in my file from a woman named Pat Schroeder from Overland Park, Kansas. She was on a mission trip with some members of her church near the Rift Valley in Tanzania and was asked to lead a devotion on Genesis 1:24-25: "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.'  And it was so.  God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind.  And God saw that it was good."  This is what she wrote:


If the first chapter of Genesis was written today, using our most current scientific understanding, it might sound something like this:


In the beginning, God created.


From one very small dot, all forces and all matter started to expand. The universe began.

And a second passed as the universe started to cool. The basic forces emerged: gravity, weak and strong nuclear forces, electromagnetic force. Fundamental particles formed: quarks, electrons, photons, neutrinos. Soon protons and neutrons began to form.

And three minutes passed as simple nuclei formed, and they became hydrogen and helium. And for 500,000 years the universe expanded and cooled. Photons from this period are still observed as cosmic microwave background radiation.

And through one billion years, pockets of gas attracted by gravity grew more dense, becoming stars when nuclear fusion reactions ignited.

And through three billion years galaxies formed, spirals and spheres, and stars collapsed to form black holes.

And through six billion years some stars died when they exploded as supernovas, scattering heavier elements — oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, iron, even gold, silver, lead, uranium — into interstellar space.

In this time our solar system and its planets formed.

And through a billion years, Earth cooled.

And on Earth, single-celled organisms appeared.

And over three billion years, algae, bacteria, jellyfish, amoebas, worms, and sponges developed.

Then through 100 million more years, trilobites, clams, snails, corals, then starfish and sea urchins grew.

And during 50 million years, land plants, ferns, sharks, boney fish, scorpions, and insects flourished.
And through 40 million years, reptiles, spiders, and then conifers developed.

And in 100 million years, turtles, lizards, dinosaurs, and mammals appeared.

And in another 100 million years, squid, frogs, birds, flowering plants, snakes, modern fish, and a variety of dinosaurs flourished.

Many times extinctions happened, and much of life perished.

And through 40 million years, many more mammals appeared, and grasses, and apes.

And during 20 million years, hominids appeared.

And through one million years, mammoths, mastodons, and Neanderthals flourished, and disappeared.

And through 200,000 years, Homo sapiens developed and still flourish.

These are the generations of the creatures on Earth, their story.


The first reading at the Great Vigil of Easter is traditionally the creation account from Genesis 1. I'm thinking of using Pat Schroeder's version this year. A blessed Lent to all of you. jpr