CREATION ACCOUNT AT THE AGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) I. Introduction One of the greatest and continuing problems of Christian belief in God is presented by the difficulty of relating the concept of God to the world of nature and history as understood by the modern scientific mind. The first chapter of Genesis is a rhythmic composition with its repetitions and its liturgical form, which serves as a preface and opening up the entire Bible. We need an effort to understand the really origin of the universe. It has been much discussion for a long time on this issue between religion and science. Until today, the way this problem is resolved do not share our curiosity to know the origin of the universe. Either religion or science still unconfutable because each one stands on its position and believes it to be true. Therefore, if we admit those two truth as they are advanced, it may finish later by missing the point at all. If we look at creation account religious perspective, we can see how the author talks about the experience of God, then how faith in that God gives meaning or sense to human life, to history and to the whole universe. The account of creation in Genesis is the most important of those who speak the order established in the universe by the Creator. Because we do not read the text as if it were there in the beginning, we need to clarify two points. We have to know that: Firstly, Genesis do not talk much about the long history of the earth. It seems to stress more about human origin in religious significance for Israel s view of life. Secondly, creation account in Genesis do not give us the scientific knowledge to the origin of all thinks but the Christian understanding of the universe and its origin. However, the author of Genesis wanted to show that God is infinitely beyond the creation. The contemporary scientific mode of interpreting the universe is a great challenge for present Christian culture. Furthermore, we can say that the scientific theories may have discredited the first creation account in Genesis. So how can we still maintain belief today in a creator God? That is the challenge facing us in this research paper. 1
II. The ultimate origin of the universe II. 1. Theological Approach and Dogmatic cosmology In Genesis there are two accounts of creation: (Gen 1:1-2:4a and Gen 2:4b-3:24).Two distinct narratives on creation written in different centuries. Both of these are of relatively late composition. Chronologically, the second is the earliest one. The older Yahwist account (10 th or 9 th century B.C., maybe from the time of Solomon, and, therefore, pre-exilic) is in chapter 2 (Gen 2:4b-25) taking its name from the fact that Yahweh is the name it uses most to designate God. The considerably later, Priestly account (6 th or 5 th century B.C., around the time of the Babylonian Exile [586-536] or after it) opens the book of Genesis in the Bible (Gen 1:1-2:4a). Each narrative had a long pre-history: the writers of these accounts received a tradition and shaped what they received into a new form. Our preoccupation is the first account (Gen 1:1-2:4a), conferring to the biblical order which is different to the chronological one. It is in this account where God of Israel established an orderly cosmos out of chaos in seven days. According to Lawrence Boadt, a biblical scholar, the creation itself unfolds in six days is balanced into three days. On the first three days, God created the physical world and separated each part into its place. First day God created light; the second day: heaven and water; then, land and vegetation. On the three last days, God populated this world with living creatures and assigned them with their proper roles. The climax of the creative process is the human being, whom God appointed as his deputy to have dominion over his new creation. 1 The general succession of events is this: chaos at the beginning, then creation of the firmament, of dry land, and of human beings. Thomas Aquinas Like all theologians, Thomas Aquinas believe that God is absolute and infinite creator of the universe. The only problem for him is to demonstrate this truth. However, being a theologian he was also a philosopher. It means he had right to investigate the question of being of God. To prove the absolute and infinite of God, tried to see in sensible things the starting point of human way to God. His proof brings two distinct elements into play: the existence of a sensible reality whose existence requires a cause then, the demonstration of the fact that its existence requires a 1 Lawrence Boadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 114. 2
finite series of cause, and consequently a Prime Cause, which is what we call God. 2 Therefore, since God is absolute and infinite, he has within himself virtually the being and perfections of all creatures. Creation is the way in which finite being emanates from the universe s cause, which is God. To say that creation is the emanation, is to say that to create is an act which apart from creator himself. It presupposes nothing. Therefore, for Thomas Aquinas, creation is done by God and ex nihilo. 3 The connection between creatures and creator is called participation. This expresses both the bond uniting the creature to the creator, which makes creation intelligible. To participate in the pure act or the perfection of God is to possess a perfection, which was pre- existent in God, but it is not to be a part of. It is to derive and to receive being from another being, and the fact of receiving being from God is the best proof that its receiver is not God. 4 Creation becomes intelligible because the creator (God) is an infinite Intelligence, and his intelligence is his very being. God knows all his effects before producing them because he was willed them. 5 With his intelligence, God shared his perfection to the created beings this is why, all creatures are ordered according to a hierarchical scale of perfection, going from perfect, to the last perfect. In this perspective, God remain the primary cause of all things! Therefore, having understood that creation account in Genesis is historical, we realize with the passage of time, that the people of Israel came to see that the one who freed them from slavery in Egypt through the Exodus is also the one who created the whole universe. However, with the theologico-philosophical reflection of Thomas Aquinas we have seen how we can go beyond our ourselves in order to respond the question how and why the universe was created. However, creation should not be totally over-shadowed by soteriology. Reflection on the creation of the universe was also always very much a part of ancient Israel s concerns. While Bible is convincing that God is the one who brought everything into existence, science is claiming for having discovered a really origin of universe out of that soteriological system by responding to the question how, which is not the case for biblical statement. 2 Etienne Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. ( London: Sheed and Ward, 1980), 370. 3 Etienne Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages, 372-373. 4 Etienne Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages, 373. 5 Ibid. 3
II. 2. Scientific and Philosophic cosmology The rise of modern science argued that the universe existed in the beginning. Georges Lemaitre argue, If the universe is expanding today, it is because in the past has been condensed into a primeval atom. All the variety and complexity of the universe has arisen since its origin in rapid outburst of that atom. It is this explosion, which is called the big bang. 6 Therefore, creation of universe started in an outright featureless state, and then progressing step by step. When Georges Lemaitre talk about the explosion of an atom, other Scientists like Albert Einstein introduce what is known as Inflationary scenario. According to this theory, the universe came to existence with a reaction between matter and energy. The pioneers of Inflationary scenario says that during this phase of an atom (a matter), a great deal of energy was produced, but this energy was invisible. When inflation ended, the enormous quantity of energy was liberated from matter. Thereafter the universe came out with the Big bang. They say that during inflationary phase, the universe was symmetric. It had being but no becoming. The end of inflation was the first great symmetry break: Featureless empty space suddenly and became occupied by multitudes particles. 7 Philosophically speaking we can remember how Parmenides, (1500 B.C.) who taught that: Nothing comes from nothing. 8 This leads many especially philosophers followers of Parmenides to believe that the universe was eternal. Moreover, of course, if matter was everlasting then it was co-eternal with God! Aristotle and other Parmenides followers do not accept that universe came into existence spontaneously. It must either always existed or else have been created by a supernatural power. 9 II. 3. Biblical cosmology One of the most central creation doctrines for Christianity is the belief that creation by God is ex nihilo, a statement that articulates faith in the transcendence of God and in the agency of God in creation. It has commonly been thought that the doctrine creatio ex nihilo is contained in the opening lines of Genesis. However, recent scholars suggest that this theological idea is not really 6 Paul Davies, The Cosmic Bleuprint: New Discoveries in Nature s Creative Ability to Order the Universe. (New York: Touchstone, 1989), 4. 7 Paul Davies, The Cosmic Bleuprint: New Discoveries in Nature s Creative Ability to Order the Universe, 128-129. 8 Parmenide, quoted in Paul Davies, The Cosmic Bleuprint: New Discoveries in Nature s Creative Ability to Order the Universe, 4. 9 Paul Davies, The Cosmic Bleuprint: New Discoveries in Nature s Creative Ability to Order the Universe, 4. 4
the point of the Priestly tradition, by which the order of creation is very similar to the Babylonian account of creation, known as Enuma Elish. In this story, the universe begins from the gods of fresh and salt water, Apsu and Tiamat. With Enuma Elish the Babylonians held about the origin of the universe from a primeval chaos, which was the war of gods against Tiamat, the sea and for Priestly authors, the universe begins with darkness overs the deep. 10 To support creation account, the main Scriptural basis is not taken from the first verses of the Book of Genesis. It is from the Second Book of Maccabees. Where the mother of the Maccabees is encouraging her son in the face of his impending death at the hand of the foreign king. She says: I beg you, child, look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence. 11 III. Traditional Teaching of the Church on creation Account. III. 1. The first Vatican council In the main, the actual topic of creation was neglected in Christian theology being viewed as a pre-christian topic or else simply as a philosophical truth. To get a taste of the tone of classical teaching let us simply listen to what First Vatican Council had to say about creation. There is one true and living God, creator and Lord of heaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible and infinite in will, understanding and in every perfection. Everything that God has brought into being he protects and governs by his providence. 12 The first Vatican council added five canons, which explicitly condemn as heretical any views, which contradict the above claims: 1. If anyone denies the one true God, Creator and Lord of things visible and invisible, anathema sit. 2. If anyone is not ashamed to assert that nothing exists besides matter, anathema sit. 3. If anyone says that the substance and essence of God and of all things is one and the same, anathema sit. 10 Lawrence Boadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction, 116-117. 11 2 Macc 7:28 12 J. Neuner and J. Dupuis, eds. The Christian Faith: In the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church, rev. ed. (London: Collins, 1986), 412. 5
4. If anyone says that finite things, the corporeal as well as the spiritual, or at least the spiritual ones, have emanated from the divine substance; or that the divine essence becomes all things by self-manifestation or self-evolution; or lastly that God is the universal or indefinite being which, by self-determination, constitutes the universality of beings differentiated into genera, species and individuals, anathema sit. 5. If anyone refuses to confess that the world and all things contained in it, the spiritual as well as the material, were in their whole substance product by God out of nothing; or says that God created not by an act of will free from all necessity, but with the same necessity by which He necessarily loves Himself; or denies that the world was made for the glory of God, anathema sit. 13 III. 2. Humani Generis (Pope Pius XII) In this Encyclical letter, the preoccupation of Pope Pius XII is to make clear the origin of human being. It was a kind of response to the theory of evolution, which seems to criticize the belief in God as Creator of human being. It is because the human intelligence sometimes experiences difficulties in forming a judgment about the credibility of Catholic faith. 14 For this, the Pope treated two questions regarding the origin of human being in order to promote divine revelation. He mentioned the theory of evolution saying that it is irrefutable even if it is proved by science without prudence and discernment. About the theory of evolution, the Pope explains that: Tenets of evolution, which repudiate all that is absolute, firm and immutable, have paved the way for the new erroneous philosophy which, rivaling idealism, immanentism and pragmatism, has assumed the name of existentialism, since it concerns itself only with existence of individual things and neglects all consideration of their immutable essences. 15 13 J. Neuner and J. Dupuis, eds. The Christian Faith: In the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church, 414-418. 14 Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis (hereafter HG), The human Race, 1950, 4. Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Available online http://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius12/p12human.htm (Accessed: 5 October 2015) 15 Ibid., 6. 6
This makes a confusion, which needs to be clarified by the arguments convincing both scientists and theologians. The main objective of this Encyclical letter seems to be a clarification for this issue. With the thirty-sixth chapter, no confusion anymore. Here we know the position of the Pope, which is at the same time of the Church. The Pope says: In conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God. [.]Some however, rashly transgress this liberty of discussion, when they act as if the origin of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already completely certain and proved by the facts which have been discovered up to now and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there were nothing in the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and caution in this question. 16 This is why man s origin through evolution from other living beings was rejected because it is irreconcilable with the biblical account of man s creation. For the question whether the human race must be conceived as descending from a single couple or can be considered to originate from several couples; polygenism is rejected because it is irreconcilable with the doctrine of original sin inherited by all from Adam. 17 III. 3. Laudato si (Pope Francis) In reflecting on the mystery of the universe, the Pope Francis reminds that the human intelligence can participate to the positive evolution of the universe. It is because this universe is constituted by an intercommunicating system, which is composed by countless forms of relationship and participation. To avoid the consequences, which can arise from the limit of human intelligence, he said in the same line of idea that: people can apply their intelligence towards positive evolution of universe but it can be also a source of new ills. 18 It means that, when this participation is not accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience, 16 Ibid., 36. 17 Ibid., 37. 18 Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter: Laudato Si. (Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 2015), 79. 7
it can read towards decadence and mutual destruction. For the Pope nothing ensures that science will be used wisely, if we consider how it is currently being used. 19 The role of human being is to cooperate with God in the work of Creation because the ultimate destiny of the universe is in the fullness of God. o Hypothesis of the Church teaching The whole of creation depends for its existence entirely on the activity of God the Creator. This holds that there is nothing, which does not come from God. It excludes immediately any idea that there could be some other principle or source of existence independent of God. If any reality exists, it can only be because of the creative activity of God. Moreover, since creation depends for its existence on God, then it means that our world is radically non-self-sufficient as regards keeping itself in being. If it depends for its on-going existence on God s creative power that means that the world is essentially contingent. Everything issues from God who does not create using any kind of pre-existing material. God in fact creates out of nothing and with nothing ex nihilo. God is very free in creating the universe. This has no necessary existence in itself. It is contingent. It is the fruit of God s free choice to bring into being. The universe had a beginning and will have an end. The evolutionism theory, which supposes that the human being descent from the animal is an hypothesis, which has not been established with certainly 20 as it is described in Human Generis by Pope Pius XII. God principally created the existing and living matter. Therefore, the ultimate goal of creation is to share in the goodness of God and thus give God glory. The ultimate reason for our existence then is to share in the very goodness of God. IV. Conclusion The age of science and technology, theology did not stop to stipulate that God, the infinite intelligence, is the creator of the universe. For theology and philosophy, God possesses all perfections in him. This is how Thomas Aquinas talk about God as a prima causa. According to the Science and technology, the universe comes from the Big bang. Each side remains in its original position and gives solid arguments for remaining there. Nevertheless, the two points of view require to be brought into reconciliation. Father Pierre 19 Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 104. 20 Michael Schmaus, Dogma 2: God and creation. (London: Sheed and Ward, 1969), 126. 8
Teilhard de Chardin proposes the way of unification starting by three statements: things have their within; their reserve, one might say;[ ] If there is one thing that has been clearly brought out by the latest advances in physics, it is that in our experience there are different orders of sphere or level in the unity of nature. 21 He would like to say that scientific theories are limited somehow because they are fruits of our experience only. The existence of the universe is radically contingent in relation to infinite intelligence what Thomas Aquinas call God. Being an infinite intelligence is also perfect. As creator, he shared his perfection as we have seen especially to the human being as it is said: God created man in his image. 22 Therefore, the root of this scientific knowledge can be in this human perfection in the Image of God who if the infinite intelligence. Therefore, science and Theology should conclude perhaps with Thomas Aquinas saying that God is a Prima Causa of the universe. From the consideration of created things, the human mind ascend to a knowledge of the Divine Nature as the creative principle of the universe. Nevertheless, it cannot arrive at a knowledge of the Divine person with reason only. This can be completed by faith. This is how human being can cooperate in the work of creation. 21 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man. (London: Collins, 1959), 54. 22 Gen 1: 27 9
V. Bibliography Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. Davies, Paul. The Cosmic Bleuprint: New Discoveries in Nature s Creative Ability to Order the Universe. New York: Touchstone, 1989. Gilson, Etienne. History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. London: Sheed and Ward, 1980. Neuner, J. and Dupuis, J., eds. The Christian Faith: In the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church, rev. ed. London: Collins, 1986. Pope Francis. Encyclical Letter: Laudato Si. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 2015. Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, The human Race, 1950. Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. [Available online at: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius12/p12human.htm] (Accessed: 5 October 2015). Schmaus, Michael. Dogma 2: God and creation. London: Sheed and Ward, 1969. Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man. London: Collins, 1959. Zinkuratire, Victor et al. eds. The African Bible: Biblical Text of the New American Bible. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 1999. By MBARUSHIMANA Sylvestre, SAC Hekima University College A Constituent College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa Nairobi - Kenya 10