Genesis, Enuma elish and Science - Origins of humanity and the world

[Gloria]

One would not find modern day scientific explanations for the origins of humanity and the world in the texts of Genesis because unlike the modern day science, the Bible did not follow any scientific principle. The Bible did not state hypothesis neither did the Bible drew conclusions from observations.
The Bible is the revelation of God and since our limited minds cannot understand all about God, God revealed the Bible according to the understandings of the People of those days so that they could understand what He God meant.

Genesis for example makes very good use of symbolism. Every generation and every culture however have their own symbols and their meanings. God for example revealed to Moses in such a way that the children of Israel could understand the meaning of the symbols and hence the meaning of the proverbs and the parables. Genesis for example begins with a “pre-conceived” notion. “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, light and darkness, day and night”.. It was a known fact in those days that a supernatural being(s) existed long before the creation of the world. Since this notion was a known fact in those days, Genesis began the creation account with the idea that everybody knows there was a God before creation of the world and mankind.

The opening chapters of Genesis show two different creation stories each with something to say about the meaning of creation and creatureliness. The first is part of the Priestly tradition (from the sixth century B.C.E) and the second is from the earlier Yahwist tradition (tenth century B.C.E). According to the priestly account, creation is understood to be the work of the spirit or the word of God. God’s spirit moves over the deep and God’s mighty Word goes forth to create. The Yahwist describes the creator as one who planted a garden in Eden and brought forth human creatures to care for it. Eventhough there are two views of creation in the Genesis account, the very facts of creation still remains. The divine power(God) forms, orders and sustains life.

The Enuma Elish is often compared to the creation account in Genesis. For example, the Babylonian god finished his work within the span of 6 tablets of stone and Genesis reports six days of creation. In the Enuma, the last and 7th stone exalted the handiwork and greatness of the deity's work while Genesis reports the seventh day as resting day of God. Mankind formed on tablet 6 of the Enuma Elish and Adam and Eve are formed on day 6 in the Genesis account. The Earth and the sky are formed on tablet four in Enuma Elish and where as they are separated on day two of Genesis account. The sun and moon and stars are created in the sky to mark seasons on tablet 5 of Enuma Elish and on day four of Genesis account. “Marduk” after slaying “Tiamat” caught her body into two halves. With one half he formed the sky and with the other he formed the earth. Marduk also placed the luminaries in the sky to establish days and months. “Kingu” the husband of “Tiamat” was also slain and from his blood Marduk formed mankind who were assigned to perform menial tasks for the gods. Unlike the one God in the Genesis account of creation, there seems to be more than one distinct god in the Enuma Elish’s account of creation and there is some sort of rivalry(cosmic battle) between these gods. Unlike the Genesis God of creation who creates from nothing else, Marduk for example created the earth and the sky from something else. He created the earth from one half of Tiamat’s body and the sky from the other half.

Mankind in the creation account of genesis was created in the image and likeness of God and mankind has the power to choose whether to obey or disobey the creator in the Genesis account. However, mankind was created specifically to perform menial tasks for the gods in the Enuma Elish of the ancient Babylonian creation account. Humans were created in the image and likeness of God.

The term likeness refers more specifically to an internal relationship and similarity. Human beings are radically different from God but uniquely and intimately related to God and can have personal relationship with God. The Babylonian creation account somehow limits mankind to specific tasks and the only relationship Humans can have with the gods of creation in the Enuma Elish is through their services to the gods but nothing personal or deep as in the relationship between God and man in the creation account of Genesis.

[DaughterUK]

On Genesis, it is true that it is not a scientific textbook, nor was it meant to be such. This said, the order of creation is... in the right order. When reading some translations of Genesis, it seems almost like a vague account of the Big Bang and the creation of our solar system, followed by evolution. I find it amazing that so many Christians cannot see that, or appreciate that such an old book would have to have been divinely inspired in order to get the order of creation correct.

Our knowledge of the physical universe has expanded dramatically within the last couple of centuries. For many people this has produced a crisis of faith because they view science and religion as not only seperate entities, but actively opposing doctrines. This is why Christianity is labeled an unscientific religion by many.

The problem is that most people who make such assertions never get to know God, and therefore know what he meant when telling the prophets to write certain things down. Genesis is a brief description of creation itself, followed by a moral story of Adam and Eve. There is more emphasis in the Bible on WHY God does things, rather than HOW. God knew that humans would eventually have the scientific knowledge to know all about the material aspect of the world we inhabit (he is after all not stuck at one point in the space-time continuum like we are), but the spiritual side he needed prophets to explain. Knowing the how things work is important, knowing WHY things work is even more important.

Let's give a very simplistic example. You know why your television works, the purpose for it's work... but you probably don't know how it works. It's purpose is to put you in touch with what's going on in the world, a news provider. If you really wanted to learn how your TV works... well you could do, there is certainly no harm in that. Yet you would not want to know how it worked if you did not understand the purpose for it's work.

Same with Christianity and Science. We know how we got here, via evolution, we know how the universe was created, via the Big Bang. We originally knew why we were here, to form a friendship with our creator. Yet somewhere along the line we got ourselves sidetracked, the how and the why became seperate when they should never have been separated. By losing sight of the why we are here, and trying to use the how we got here to explain everything, we made a mistake. Trying to make the how explain everything is like trying to show how a TV works and expecting it to be a complete explanation.

In short, Science needs Christianity, and Christianity needs Science. Having one without the other would for me be near impossible.

DaughterUK

Think about that for a minute, and ask yourself which is more plausible:

Current scientific observations, which have required the sum of thousands of years of scientific progress, were metaphorically alluded to in the ancient scrolls that comprise the bible.

or

You are projecting what you know about modern science onto a heavily metaphorical ancient text.

What about "God made the earth and animals for man to rule over" and all that even comes close to evolutionary theory or the big bang? You are really reaching, the bible is not proof of anything and the only science in it is from the first century.