In the Beginning: Science Faces God in the Book of Genesis

In the Beginning: Science Faces God in the Book of Genesis

Language: English

Pages: 226

ISBN: B00KQZY532

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


In the Beginning: Science Faces God in the Book of Genesis. The beginning of time. The origin of life. In our Western civilization, there are two influential accounts of beginnings. One is the biblical account, compiled more than two thousand years ago by Judean writers who based much of their thinking on the Babylonian astronomical lore of the day. The other is the account of modern science, which, in the last century, has slowly built up a coherent picture of how it all began. Both represent the best thinking of their times, and in this line-by-line annotation of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, Isaac Asimov carefully and evenhandedly compares the two accounts, pointing out where they are similar and where they are different.
 
“There is no version of primeval history, preceding the discoveries of modern science, that is as rational and as inspiriting as that of the Book of Genesis,” Asimov says. However, human knowledge does increase, and if the biblical writers “had written those early chapters of Genesis knowing what we know today, we can be certain that they would have written it completely differently.” Isaac Asimov brings to this fascinating subject his wide-ranging knowledge of science and history—and his award-winning ability to explain the complex with accuracy, clarity, and wit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning… object” and which is, in turn, a translation of the Hebrew rakia, meaning a thin metal plate. From the scientific view, however, there is no firmament; no sky to be viewed as a material dome. What seems to be such to our eyes is merely space stretching out indefinitely. There is, to be sure, an “end” to space. As our telescopes and other instruments penetrate farther and farther out into space, we can detect objects as far as twelve billion light-years away. Since the light from such

about one hundred eighty million years ago did the first mammals appear; they were small and 72 In the Beginning… primitive varieties resembling the opossum more than any other present-day mammals. Mammals didn’t really come into their own till the giant reptiles became extinct seventy million years ago, and they didn’t become the recognizable mammals of today till about thirty-five million years ago. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and

translated “the Lord God.” The Hebrew language in its written form consists of Isaac Asimov 99 consonants only. The vowels are not included, but to people who know the language, that does not matter. As Hebrew became less familiar to the Jews, however, and as the common language of everyday use became Aramaic in Persian times, it became customary to make the vowel sounds in Hebrew by diacritical marks under the letters so that those unfamiliar with Hebrew could pronounce the words correctly.

of the food upward to where the gods were thought to live, and in grateful exchange the gods would grant a good harvest or victory over one’s enemies. In later times, of course, the reasons for sacrifice were made more lofty, but the practice was eventually abandoned just the same. 4 And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.143 And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. 143. Presumably Abel killed the firstborn lambs (“first lings”) for the

Kenite war song. 24 If Cain shall be avenged seven fold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.165 165. Lamech seems jubilant over his victory, indicating that he considers his killing to be superior to that of Cain. Perhaps (the Bible doesn’t say, of course) he was thinking that Cain slew an unprepared and unarmed man, while he himself may have killed an armed man in a duel. Certainly, this would seem to be an indication that in the course of the eight generations from Adam, human conflict had

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