(02-04-2022, 04:30 AM)Mark A Becker Wrote: The Order of Things
First light, and above the formless Earth
an opaque sky; below, a primordial water world.
The sun and moon then appeared through clouds,
and once dry land had formed, plants that signaled life.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of fish and fowl,
then, on land, multitudes of mammals. And finally, us.
The order of things, as science has shown,
how were they known, 40 centuiries ago?
Each of the first six lines in this piece condense, and paraphrase the six "days" described in Genesis. Although the Genesis account was written 3-4 thousand years ago, it is remarkable that modern science can (sorta) corroborate the Genesis depiction with how events on Earth unfolded over 4+ billion years. One big discrepancy is that life in the oceans almost certainly began before plant life on land. The fact that light appears on the first "day" is not out of line with big bang theory: an "explosion" of particles (including photons). Regarding "day" 3, it is understood now that the sky was opaque before any type of observation from Earth would have revealed the sun, moon , and stars; the sky as we now see it (and well before any creature was alive and able to see it). Most remarkable is that Genesis fairly accurately describes the Cambrian period, when the oceans suddenly began teeming with life (though birds actually do not appear in the sequence that Genesis recounts). Genesis, rather astoundingly, accurately places that period as occurring before life appears on land. Of course, humans do appear last. It really is uncanny that the writers of Genesis, in a time when almost everybody was illiterate, could create a story that can (sorta) be corroborated by science today.
Hey Mark. Did you add the spoiler later? I didn't catch it on first read. Critwise, "signaled" and "suddenly" might be improved.
Always been fascinated by the interplay between Gen 1:1 and John 1:1
