S2 E9 TRANSCRIPT
NATURALISM AND BIBLICAL CREATION COMPARED—PART 1
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:
NATURALISM AND BIBLICAL CREATION COMPARED—PART 1
If this is your first-time joining Spirit-Led Hope, this episode is part of a larger teaching. Feel free to listen if you wish, but you will get the most out of this episode if you begin with Season 2, Episode 1 and listen to the Season in order.
In the last episode we read the account of Creation found in the first chapter of Genesis. We are now in a position where we can begin to compare the Biblical account of our beginnings to that presented by naturalism.
THE SOURCE MATERIAL
I find it very interesting to look at the background of the material we have discussed so far this Season. I mentioned in the last episode that the Genesis account was written about 3500 years ago and describes events which happened long before then. It is a very ancient text that has not changed for thousands of years.
This contrasts with the scientific information used by naturalism. Most of what we have talked about for naturalism in this Season dates to the 1800’s and later. Much of what we have talked about is less than 100 years old.
Not only are theories like Darwinism and the Big Bang young, but they are also constantly updated as new information comes in. There is nothing wrong with this because this is how science works. But we should keep this in mind as we are comparing the beginnings of everything through the lens of the Bible and naturalism.
In the last episode, when I read the Genesis account, I was struck by how poetic it is. There is a very clear pattern to the way the first chapter of Genesis is written. In successive days we see God speaking, doing what he speaks, and declaring it good. This would have been very easy for ancient people to remember. And even though it was written thousands of years ago, it is still a beautiful piece of literature for us today…whether you believe it is inspired or not.
COMPARING THE BEGINNINGS
There are many ways we could go about comparing the Biblical account of beginnings to the naturalistic perspective. The difficulty is that not all Christians agree on how to interpret Genesis chapter 1. And not all naturalists agree on the Big Bang theory, or how life began, or even on the finer points of Darwinian evolution.
In this episode, I am going to try and remain somewhat neutral and not get carried away with critiquing any one viewpoint. Here is what we are going to do…we are going to take what we learned in the prior five episodes and lay out the sequence of events from the beginning of the universe to the presence of humans. And we are going to do this by creating a parallel account of naturalism alongside Biblical creation.
Our goal here is mainly to focus on the order of events. Yes, we understand that the Biblical account speaks of God, but let us not let that overshadow the order of events. We also understand that the Biblical account breaks up Creation into days, but do not let that be the center of the presentation.
If you have firm beliefs about how to interpret Genesis, or you adamantly subscribe to certain naturalistic beliefs, I hope you will bear with me. We cannot include every nuance of every belief system, but I believe we can learn something valuable from this exercise.
I believe that what we will see, is that there is an amazing similarity between the scientific account of our beginnings and the account presented in the Bible. The similarity is so great, that you may wonder why the Creation account in the Bible is so heavily criticized by naturalists. We will eventually talk about that too.
Here are the steps we are going to follow…we are going to use the Genesis account to establish the framework for our comparison. Genesis starts at the beginning of everything, and then discusses six days of Creation. We are going to summarize each of these Biblical sections, and then match it with the naturalistic account.
By listing the corresponding sequential events as described by naturalism, we can quickly compare how it matches or deviates from the Bible’s Creation account. Here we are not going to interpret the Creation account or go into scientific depth but keep it simple and list the events in order of their occurrence. If this sounds confusing, it will make more sense as we move forward.
THE BEGINNING
All right, let us start at the beginning of the universe. The Bible begins with two sentences that are loaded with implications. These two sentences set the stage for the rest of the chapter. Here is how Genesis famously starts:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2
When we look at the Hebrew words used in these verses, and the totality of the Bible, we understand that God is eternal and created the universe from nothing. Before God’s act of Creation there was no pre-existing material for the universe, no stars or planets, no laws of physics, and no time. According to Genesis, the laws of physics, the material in the universe, energy, and time, everything we see today, all had a beginning when God created them. I know the verses do not say there were no laws of physics, but laws of physics began when the physical universe started.
The traditional way of sayings this is that God created the universe, ex nihilo, which means from nothing. The term “ex nihilo” is not in the Bible, but it is inferred from many scriptures. As one example, here is what is written in Hebrews:
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:3
That is just one example, and when you put all the verses together you get a clear picture of what God did.
Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, cover a lot of ground. Basically, the verses say that God created everything, and then the scene switches to a formless, empty, and dark Earth that is covered with water. And verse 2 makes it clear that God is present over the waters of the earth.
What I find interesting is that there is no mention of time in these two verses. Did God create the heavens and the earth instantly? Or was it stretched out over eons? The verses do not say. All we know is that time started the moment the physical universe came into existence. We know today that space and time are linked, and there is nothing in Scripture to indicate we should expect anything different from the moment of Creation.
With this background, we can now describe how the Biblical account of beginnings compares to the naturalistic account. Let us imagine making a chart with what the Bible presents on one side, and the naturalistic account on the other. For the naturalistic side of the chart, I am summarizing what we talked about in prior episodes. If you have not listened to the previous episodes of this series and something is unclear to you, then you will need to go back and listen to them.
The section title for this part of the chart will be “In the Beginning.”
On the left side of our imaginary chart, we have the Biblical account. Here are some summary statements. This is what would be in the chart:
- At first, there was nothing.
- From nothing, God created the heavens and the earth.
- The Earth started without form.
- The Earth was dark.
- The Earth was covered with water.
- The Holy Spirit was present over the water.
That is the Bible side. Now, let us look at the right side of our imaginary chart, and summarize the naturalistic viewpoint. Here we go:
- At first, there was an infinitely small, dense, extremely hot, single point.
- About 13.8 billion years ago, for some unknown reason, this point began rapidly expanding into the material which made up the first stars.
- Over time, stars were born and stars died…the dying stars produced heavier elements. The heavier elements allowed the development of rocky planets.
- About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system started to form.
- When the Earth began to coalesce, the earth was starting to take shape, and it was dark because the early atmosphere was full of debris.
- The early Earth was covered with water.
- Shortly after the formation of the Earth, a large body collided with it. Most of the material was captured by the Earth, the rest became the moon as we know it.
- The remaining Earth was still dark from the debris in the atmosphere, it was formless and empty (there was no land yet), and evidence indicates it was still covered with water.
AN AMAZING COMPARISON
When we consider our imaginary chart and compare the beginnings of our universe and the early Earth, the agreement between the two sides is staggeringly good. It is true that I listed many more details for the naturalistic side, but that is because we are trying to summarize thousands and thousands of scientific articles and textbooks. The Bible covers the critical essential points in two verses.
But even though there is a disparity in the number of lines in our chart, the Genesis verses are uncanny in how they could easily be used to summarize the naturalistic side. The main difference is that the Bible verses mention God, which is, by definition, not allowed in the naturalistic description.
This is made even more remarkable by the extreme age of the Biblical account. It does not seem statistically reasonable to believe that such an ancient text could summarize modern scientific discovery so astutely. Especially when we consider that before the Big Bang theory, the predominant scientific theories did not support a universe with a beginning. Yet, the Bible boldly declared this was the case and presented God as the Creator thousands of years ago.
This strong agreement between the Biblical and naturalistic accounts created all sorts of emotional responses. As the Big Bang theory became more solidified, Christian theologians felt vindicated in their beliefs. Many Christians applauded the work of the scientific community because it seemed to offer tangible proof for the veracity of the Bible. Naturalists were not so happy and there are reports of some scientists being upset and disgusted with the accuracy of Genesis.
There is a very famous quote by Robert Jastrow in his 1978 book, “God and the Astronomers.” Robert Jastrow was an agnostic and at one time headed the theoretical division at NASA. As the data for the Big Bang theory became more solidified, Jastrow found himself in a predicament. On one side he wished to maintain his agnosticism. As far as I know, he died an agnostic. But at the same time, he acknowledged the dilemma the Bible created for naturalism.
This is what Robert Jastrow said in his book:
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
I am very impressed by what Jastrow said. Even though his personal preference seems to be not in favor of a beginning, he presented the case fairly. He did not shy away from saying that Genesis posed a problem for the naturalist. That is what a good scientist should do. It is also what a good Christian should do. We should never be afraid of pursuing truth, even if it humbles us.
In an earlier episode we talked about how the astronomer Fred Hoyle coined the phrase “Big Bang” to make fun of Lemaitre’s work. To be fair to Hoyle, he did later deny that he meant any harm with the expression. But because the Big Bang theory provided respectability for the Biblical account, Fred Hoyle did all he could to poke holes in it…he just could not stand how well Genesis was supported by the Big Bang theory. He even tried to discount the Genesis progression of life. Hoyle presented theories showing that life did not start on Earth but began outside the solar system. In the end, Hoyle’s theories did not receive wide acceptance.
CLOSING
So far in this episode we have only looked at the very beginning. Now we move on to what Genesis presents as the six days of Creation. Will we see the same close relationship between Genesis and naturalism? Unfortunately, we do not have time in this episode to answer that question.
In our next episode, we will continue comparing the Biblical account of Creation to the naturalistic account.
As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please email me at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritledhope.com.
I hope you are finding this Season both informative and challenging. I know it has forced me to look very candidly at both the materialistic and Biblical accounts. I believe God always wants us to be seekers of the truth, and this is a topic ripe for investigation.
As we end this episode:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Until next episode, take care.
