v
@/
O
-
’I’
i0
!
~J
1r,
«Am—«fl, ~«-->\ it”
~
»
‘
3.
‘
200*;
(,h‘:’_7_7
"7"“(5g, \D‘F-
'
Story of fhe Creation
V‘I‘he
the story of the Cre tion
with which the Bible opens is
of fundamenta} importance to our faith.
It also presents certain
difficulties to it, or has been thought to
(16
so.
For both reasons
it is important that we should not read it in public Without
ALN
L
mflrexplanation
of its meaning and significance.
In ancient times evury people seems
a.
faifiy
what—is,
to have possessed certain
traditions about the origin of its own ancestors and of the universe
generally.
I
It was naturallfi to ask such questions, ané thnse popular
stories were re9dily available to supply the answers.
tell them their chilaren,
mgirls
liofhers would
would rupea’c them to each othef
as they chatted by the well, guests and téavellers would exchange £hem
at the village feastg, and wise old men would narrate them with an
air of authority found the camp-fires.
generation to generation.
So they were passea on from
For the meet part these stories were
.
primitive, crude and grotesque, coming, as they did, from a very
remote past.
But, conscious of their antiquity, narrators wduld
hesitate to alter them.
most of the listeners would accept them
at Vtheir face-value anyhow, boing: too ignorant to doubt them; and
those who did question their literal truth woulfl prefer to give them
I)"
_ 2 _
‘1!
a more elevated interpretation in their own minds, but pass them
on unaltered, with their tongues in their cheeks. As a matter- of
fact, we too are conServatiVe in our story-telling.
As haé recently
been pointed gut in the press, many of the fairyfiales ’and nursery—
rhymes which we cheerfully bequeath
’00
min children are based upon
moral standards which should have become out-of—date many centuries
ago.
The Babylonééns Were especially foné of telling such stories
about the origin of the world and of the human race.
.
And since
»
Babylonia was, for the greater part of the Biblical period, the
dominént cultural influence invthe Middle East, the ancient Hebrews
were naturally familiar with them.
But the crudity and grotésnue-
ness of the Babirlonianzstories clashed. too fiégrantly with the lofty
monotheism which the Hebrews were evolving.
They could thereforg
accept thnm into their sacred liter ture only after considerable
purification and modification;
One such modified story is found
in the second Chapter of Genesis, beginning with verse
adapted for Jewish use
by"
a writer of the 9th century.
strikes us as cru_de, though it was
a.
5.
It was
It still
great advance on the original.
But we must remmber that it was composed before Xhé Amos, Hosea,
Isaiah and the other prophets had done their great work of yurifying,
ennobling and consolidating the mono theism of the Isralites. It also
'Seems that the author had a special liking; for aramatic simplicity
'
_ 3 _
and concrete imagery which [unwanted him frommodifying overmuch
fihe primitiVe material on which he worked.
In comfarison, the creation story in the first chapter pf
Genesis, which re héve just read, is on a much higher '1eve'
also based on
a.
.
It is
Babylonian érigrinal, but the aflaptation ras carried
out by a Jewish priest of sensitive religious feelings who lived
during
01"
after thé Exile, three centuries later than the authgar‘
of the other creation story.
between the original
it.
arid
here theré is an enormous contrast
what the
Jewish ‘author has made of
fhe Babyi \nian story speaks of two deities ruling over a primeval
chaos.
merge
According to one ‘account they produce an egg out of which
the heavenly bodies and, later ,
“the
animals. According to
“
another account they giVe bmrfh to a whole multitude of gods.
There follows a bitter war between the higher. gods and fhe lower
gods.
becomes
The former are led to'victory by the god fiarduk who later‘
as Bel.
liarduk slays
:hirfiloirifig$3:filowuj
splits her into two halves and uses one half to cover
thr:
heavgnsl.
These are only som“ of the fea’mres of the primitiva matvrialc, out‘
or wnicb the author of the first chaptar of Genesié constructed the
dignified and majestic account which we naVe heard}.
Here there is
Lno‘multiplicity of déities, but one all—powerfueod who creates
everything that is
-
not by some ingenious device, but by the mere
authority of his word of coumand.
(we
Crude details are suppressed or modified, and the who1e story
is brought into accord
with the monotheistic faith which, by the
6th century during which the present Version of the story was
comPOSed, had become mofe or less firmly establishea among the
Jews.
Yes, but did the authon bring the story into accord with
scientific knowledge?
Yes, he yrobably dia that tgo.
That is to
say he brought it into ascerfl with the best scientific knowledge
of his fiime.
fhe world-picture of the story, with its peculiar
concéption of thc relation between earth, heaven and stars, XX is
the
worlq-picture which dominated the scientific tnougnt of the
fime and for many centuries afterwards.
Néturally, that world-picture is now out—of—date.
that invalidate the story?
But does
No, because the interest of the story
was not for the author, and is not for us, a sciuntific interést.
The author simply used Popular tradition and contempora y science
is a framework within wnich to convey a religious lesson.
If we were
to re—write the story, we snould use the framework of modern cosmolngy,
geology and biology. the story might thereby lose much or its poetic
charm, but it coula still communicate
he same religious message.
The religious message dees not depend on the manner in ~hich the
-5world came to be as it is to-day, but on the significance of that
process.
That §ignificance can be place& just as well on modern
as on ancient accounts of‘the origin of the present
womd.
Indeed,
it has often been claimed that the ‘modern scientific account makes
that process seem much granaer in its scale and much more intricate
in its details.
The theory of evo1ution describes a purposive design-
of astbnishing intricacy and awe—inspi; ing magnitude which is more,
not less, impressive than {he "creation_all at once out of nothing"
which was formerly assumea.
It is thereforc
best; for
‘
.
us to look upon the ovation-story
as a poem, just as the 104th‘Psalmhwhi-dh has also been read to us,
is a poem on the same theme. And poetic truth is something very
diffnrent from scientific truth.
The truth of a peem does not
lie in tne imagery which it uses but in the thought wpich the
imagery in intended. to convey.
We therefore come to
the-
all—important question: what is the
NW 4L
“
"religious truth which tne kcreation-story seeks to impart M: us?’
7
This is a very big que$tion and a very deep question, arm it would
be quite impossible to do justice f0 it in tne space
minutes.
‘
howexrer roughly and inadequately, of
fSeVeI‘aJ.
h
{k MA Leanna
But it is importanfi thét we snouldAremind
oi‘
o
a}
a few
W.
sélvas,
aspects - of Lne Peligluuo truth uni llfrag
-6...
I think wn
may divide the answer into
parts. In the first
t—hlwe:
ylace the cruation—story asserts the absolute sovereignty of one God
over the whole of Reality. That statement alone is so vast and profound
thafi it would ‘require a long expos‘ition by an accomplished philosopher
and theologian. And its meaning aan never be made abso‘utely clear,
beqause our limited human minds are not euua]. to the task. NeVer‘cheless if is a basic conviction of the religious person that in some
mysterious way the whole universe owes its existence and continuance
to God, conforms to a divine plan, and behaves accoraing to natural
laws instituted by a divine Master-Hind. mhis conviction is not
refutablc‘by science: it is of a generality
*‘zhich
fundamental nature
ans}.
lies altogether outside the scoye of science. Its truth is
.
guaranteed, however, by our whole conception of God which,in its
turn, ‘derives fr om a whole complex
e;perience and
‘of
approaches: refilation, direct
phiIOSophicalflhis
of the universe has
30111:;
belief in God’s rule
irfiportant implications.
It implies the
unity of the universe, denying the existence of indppendent and
hostile powers “313% all priniitive religions saw in the forces
nature and deified.
It therefore opened the
(1901'
of‘
to the develr'pmen‘t
in man‘s thought which has culminated in modern sciunce‘.
Sciehce is
the Search for unity in the pnenognena of nature, and the fruitfulness
of the metfiod may be taken as a validation of the religious-philoso-
phical principle Y‘hich
started it off. (Without the
“
-7Jewish monotheistic conception of the unity of the .uniVerse
woufi
science
certainly have been much slower in coming.
That
historic fact is worth pondering, although of course it does not
imply tnai science at the preSent time is in any direct way dependent
on religion
‘L‘nerv
i‘or
its further progressA
is an even moru important implieation of the belief in
God’s sovereignty
owr
the whole universe.
that not
It‘ri‘s
ofiy
all natural law but all morfil law i‘ssues from one sfipreme‘source.
This recognition has been of incalculable importance in the whble
devalmment of civilisation.
It has given meaning anfl purpose to
‘
the life of the inclividfial and to the life of humanity; it has
énabled men, and it will enable nations, to live together harmoniously,
comparatively and creatively.
The Second religious message to be gleaned from the creation-
story is that man is the
crozjin
uwkuu.‘ “1.44M EAL.
written from that stanfiipoint,i
'Lfl
“.4.
is
nowadays hesitate
“to
accept.
W
W» km!The
of cr ation.
(Lu-wk“
uncle ,story is
L. Gut!
f.’
It is a stanfipoint which some people
0n the'one hand they hesitate because
of man's kinship with the animals, bpcause they know that he evolved
from the anthropoid ape.
its origin.
But it is a mistake to judge a thing by
To do so is to commit the smelled. genetic fallacy
to which some scientists are very prone.
The fact is that in the
courso of his wolution man has ac Tuirefi charaétrristics whicn‘raise
_ 8 _
him far, far above all other animals.
Q:
point of View the diffvrences are vast.
M,
Lian has 'the
psycnélogical
lhe late Dr, J.H. Hertz
up admirably when he said, "it is not so much the
summe!‘ tn;— matter
descent, as the
behaviouris’cic-
from a
of man, which is accisive." (Genesis, p.55)
KW
powar to make maéhines and to create works of
pomr
art, he has the
and
1110151
of reaéonir'lg and calculating, he has free will
disaprnment, he
spiritual values
8.113.
experiences
God, and he has the power of speech and writing which enable him to
transmit. and perpetuate his expnriences and his achievmpnts. These
and other Gistinctions add up to a total which makes it necessary to
place man in a completely different category from the beasts, fowls
and fishes.
But people also hesitate for another reason to think of
man as the climax of the creafiiVe process: because they are impressed
by the vastness of the universe
Our earth is
a.
oi‘
vhich our ancestors had no inkling.
minutr. part of our solar system, anfi our solar system
is only
one of innumerable s01 ar systems.
Is it then
conceivable that man is the most important element in such a universe?
~
fiw
v
Fred Hoyle, in a broadcast lecture two
confessed that
another.
m
Luz
h
.
“at
~~
“
("44
'
“" I?“
~
r thee years ago, openly
“1"”
@W’Sc'fi
But
size is one thing and value is
'
_9_
.
What is insignificant in the physical scale may be trémendous in
the moral scale.
And in the moral scale, man certainly seems to be
by far the greatest thing in creation.
Of course, it ia possible
tnat £here may be something akin to numan life, or eVen greater than
human life, in sbme other corner of this.vast universe.
But we do
not know that there is, and bfi the known universe man retains his
flistinction as the most advanced product of the creative process.
As a matter of fact, although the universe of the ancient Isralites
was so much smaller than ours, they were neverthe'ess impressefi by
its vastness, and the consequent dilemma of according to man a
supremu position in it.
Yet their awareness of man's moral great-
ness forced on tnem the conclusion that thc two facts were not
irreconcileable.
Thus the Psalmist exlaims: "When.I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon afid thu stars, which thou.
hast ordained, what is rwn.that tfiou art mindful 6r nim? and the son
of man tnat thou Visitest him? For thou hast made him a littIe lower
tnan the angels, and hast crowned him wi‘h glory and honour." QPsalm
8:3-5)
The samP thought is expressed by WorflSvorth in Egg Breludé:
we have loved,
tt
Others wiLl love, and We will teach thum how;
Instruct them how the mind 01 man becomes
A tnousana times morn beautiful than the earth
On which.hu dwells, above this frame of things....
In beauty exalted, as it is itSelf
Of quality and fabric more divine.
\
-16 _
God is the sovereign
o
oi‘
lmaster-piece of His creation.
the Whole universe and man the
.
These are the two chief thoughts
uhdcrlying the ancient poem about the creation of the world,
pre‘SeI’Ved tn us
in the Book of Genesis.
stones of our Jewish faith.
They are also the come r;
And the acceptance. of them is what
our mosern werld above all needs.
Only by recognisihg a supreme
being to Whom all owe allegiance ana whom all must
same can man
rise above the feverish self-seeking which L's—now threatenhs'g
destroy him.
R
And only
be]
recognising his own dignity will man
recogniSe and accept his regponsibility
- to
work with God for
the completion of the’creative procesé in the perfection of
humani ty .
130