Genesis as True Myth
Why You Can Rely on the Biblical Account of Creation
The creation account of Genesis has faced and continues to face incredible levels of scrutiny. No doubt about it.
Saying it is the most debated portion of Scripture is no understatement. It is spoken with authority and demands you pay it the dues it deserves as a contender for explaining the origins of the universe.
But is it true? Thatโs the enduring question.
A recent commenter thinks not. He said, โWhat about the part where the earth is made before the sun?โ
Surely the writer of Genesis was mistaken when he made that claim. Everyone knows without a doubt the sun came before the earth, right? So, Genesis has to be unreliable. False, even.
Wrong.
Genesis is the true myth, and more reliable than you can possibly imagine.
Making Best Guesses
Big Bang cosmologists have a problem with Genesis because they dispute the ordering of the universe, without solid evidence. Not because they dispute matter originating from nothing.
They look at how the universe is now and extrapolate (speculate) back to before humanity existed, imagining an alternative history.
But thatโs not science. Their models are โbest guesses,โ not fact, and deal with onetime events. So they arenโt empirical. Thatโs why the Big Bang is labeled a theory.
Since Genesis is a historical myth, they sometimes find it conflicting with their models in terms of how matter was arranged.
The only way to confirm without a shred of doubt which history is reality, we would have to go back to the moment of creation and watch God create. Until then, the models are just interpretations of gathered observations being weighed against each other. And the most reasonable one that best matches reality takes the cake.
So, the assumption that the sun was made first is moot.
What matters is whether or not the ancient source of Genesis is trustworthy. And it is.
It reliably articulates the movement of God from nothing to something with purpose and order.
Creation Liturgy
The creation narrative is written as a liturgy, meaning it was made for worship. The original writer crafted it to be used like a song when celebrating God.
Because their purpose was to unite with and orient human focus on the convergence of material and divine, liturgies historically included a lot of truth.
Whenever the Israelites heard the creation myth of Genesis 1-3 read, they werenโt thinking, โHey, this is a great story.โ The prevailing conviction of its truth kept them rooted in the worldview that God made the universe for us and human disobedience broke it.
A worldview they could see matched reality wherever they went.
Their conviction kept them aware of how desperately they needed Yahweh and his mercy to survive, much less thrive.
Through the creation liturgy, they understood not just how the world was made, but the balance and order God intended for the cosmos. A time for productive work and a time for enjoying the fruits of oneโs labor.
The something God made from nothing was carefully devised with purpose and direction.
No other ancient creation myth addresses origins that way. They start with eternal chaos (depicted as water, in most cases) that somehow becomes tamed by accident through a war between gods or via a god who wants to make humans as slaves.
Whichever one picks, there is no meaning to existence. Or no good meaning.
But in Genesis, creation is designed from scratch out of nothing for humanity to become co-rulers with God over the cosmos. Every other society had a liturgy of random death and suffering, while Israel (and later Christianity) has a liturgy of life corrupted. The only liturgy of its kind.
First Comes Making, Then Comes Order
When you pay close attention to the formatting of Israelโs creation liturgy, you realize it doesnโt conflict at all with Big Bang cosmology. It is artfully divided between creation and order.
Genesis 1:1 tells us of the moment when God made the heavens and the earth. And Genesis 1:2 picks up with the earth already existing. We are told that it is formless and void and the Spirit of God โhoveredโ over it.
Picture an artist with a canvas.
Most painters donโt make their own canvases, but God did. That was Genesis 1:1. And considering his power and might and ability to speak things into being, the canvas very much โbangedโ into existence. All the materials were nothing one second, something the next.
Then, he drew, positioned, painted, and shaded in the beautiful image he wanted to manifest over the six days. And brought some of it to actual life.
So, when someone says Genesis is wrong because โthe sun was made after the earth,โ they arenโt treating the text fairly. Based on the creation-then-order format, the sun and earth came into existence together with everything else, and then God moved them where he wanted them.
And according to Genesis, the movement of the sun came after the earth. Thereโs no way to refute that ordering.
Molecules to Man toโฆMadness
Theologians who say there is a problem between Genesis and the Big Bang, then, are making much ado about nothing.
And many of them, in the name of nothing, even go so far as to accept the theory of evolution (which they see as intimately paired with the Big Bang), and say we cannot accept the making and ordering of life according to Genesis.
Yet, that judgment runs into the same fatal flaws.
The โtheoryโ of evolution is another alternative history. A speculation based on the variety of species of life we observe in the world. And a terrible one at that.
The presumption is that a single unintelligent cell in the primordial goo somehow evolved through slows changes into a variety of cells in a continuing unguided process which eventually amassed into every lifeform known to humankind. Including humankind. And no creature is special.
In other words, we went from chaos to order, death to life, without any rational causal links explaining how or where the chaos came from or how life could come from death. Evolutionism is the most ancient myths Israel faced, but without the gods.
The same person who question the making of the sun before the earth also made this astute comment:
โDarwin didnโt know anything about the inner workings of a cell. He thought inside a cell was bunch of goo. The very complexity of the cell and DNA have overthrown the Darwinian, random mutation brand of evolution.โ
Heโs absolutely right, of course. Slow and steady beneficial mutations have never been observed because mutations only take away information. They donโt create new information. And to this day, no transitions from one kind of animal to completely different kind of animal has ever been observed in action or in the fossil record.
The missing links are still missing because they are inexistent.
Not to mention, creatures are so vastly complex they cannot live or even function well unless they have all the required parts that make up their bodies.
Darwinian macro-evolution isnโt the only thing extinguished by these findings. The entire history of evolution theorized by its advocates has also been extinguished.
Which begs the question: Why canโt we trust the Genesis account of how life was made, then?
We can.
God Made Each Kind
Not only does empirical evidence show that the universe originated from a single point and exploded into existence from nothing. It also shows that each animal reproduces according to its kind and, while capable of changing functions, colors, shape, and form, never veers from its designated species group.
Just as the Bible says.
Made and programmed from birth by the coded blueprint of their DNA.
And since humanity is the only sentient set of creatures among all other animals, they are indeed special. Aligning with their creation in the image of God as his co-rulers in Genesis.
We didnโt come from monkeys. We were made with a purpose. A purpose we shirked in the Garden of Eden and ended up cursing ourselves and the cosmos with sin and death. With a reversion into chaos.
Which God has been saving us from ever since.
An example of this at the quantum level are particles popping in and out of existence.
Multiversalists speculate (thereโs that pesky word again) that said particles are jumping between alleged universes no one has ever observed. Butโฆsuch particles are more consistent with what the Bible says about God holding the cosmos together with his bare hands.
In our disobedience, we broke the universe so badly it is constantly on the brink of collapsing, and without God, we would be dead.
The True Myth
Genesis is mytho-history. The Big Bang is mytho-history. Evolution is mytho-history.
Despite their popularity, the latter two fall short.
Genesis is the only one that offers a full, rational, and coherent explanation for the origins of the universe and of life. It has stood the test of time and proven itself reliable in every way.
Not only should it be trusted. It should be embraced everywhere for what it is: the true myth.
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Great read! I appreciate the calm, reasoning tone.
Much food for thought here. Thank you for writing.