Issuu

What! No Dinosaurs? A

look at

the story of creation in the Book of Genesis

There are many people today, if they consider the Bible at all, dismiss it as a collection of ‘folk-tales’, having about as much credibility, and relevance to present-day living, as the tale of Red Riding Hood. In particular, the accounts of creation in the Book of Genesis (Gen 1: 1 - 31: and 2: 4-25) are derided as complete nonsense. The Christian response to these criticisms is not helped by those fundamentalists, who insist on the literal truth of everything in the Bible. They assert the ‘falsehood’ of evolutionary theory, even going so far as to claim that dinosaurs never existed and that their fossils were put in the earth by God to test our faith, or by the devil to deceive us! Until the modern era the Catholic Church, like everyone else, has accepted the Biblical accounts as factually accurate,

but it has always been more concerned with their spiritual meaning. Now that we know that these stories do not match the scientific evidence, the Church takes the position that it recognises that the idea of the evolutionary development of species does not necessarily conflict with the Church’s teaching, provided that God is acknowledged as the sole creator of all material things. It does not comment on the truth, or otherwise, of any theory of evolution (that is a scientific judgement, outside the remit of the Church’s teaching).

But where does this leave the stories of creation in Genesis? Do we just dismiss them as ‘folktales’? What is the point of telling stories of the creation of the world that are not factually correct? The answer is that the authors of Genesis were not reflecting on the nature of the world out of scientific curiosity, but seeking some understanding of the human encounter with God. The language of religion is the language of parable and poetry, of images and symbols, not the precise idiom of scientific discourse. The stories are not explanations, but more in the nature of parables attempting to convey deep religious insight, just as Jesus used parables to convey insights into the Kingdom of God. This deepest level of truth, truth concerning our existence and the relationship between God and humanity, is not the realm of science, it is the realm of faith.

So, how can we understand the Genesis creation stories? They put before us fundamental theological insights which are still valid in the present day. For example, they tell us that all things were created by the one God who is distinct from created things; that this creation brought order out of chaos; that the universe operates according to ‘rules’; that the ‘pinnacle’ of God’s creation is the human race, made in the ‘image’ of God; that all creation is ‘very good’ –and much, much more. It lays before us God’s plan, that there was to be a right relationship between the humans and God, a right relationship between members of the human race and between humans and the created order. But we know that these relationships are broken, or non-existent. There is discord, selfishness, greed, cruelty, etc. God is rejected and the path of virtue discarded. Humans seek to go their own way, attempting to assert their independence from God, rejecting his plan for their future.

But all is not lost! It is also part of God’s plan to rescue us from this distorted state. This is the story of the Bible. It depicts the gradual unrolling of God’s plan to save the human race from its

own folly. The first chapters of the Book of Genesis form a kind of prologue in which this plan is sketched out in a prophetic way (1). The creation accounts, therefore form an introduction to ‘salvation history’.

The writers of the stories of creation were not so much trying to account for how the world came to be and how it came to be as it is, but why the world came to be and why

it came to be as it is. Their stories are set in the remote past (the ‘beginning’). But it may help us, who have a different, scientific, creation narrative, to see them as a vision of hope pointing to the future; to the ultimate human destiny. In this view Genesis shows us not so much what God has done but what he intends to do for us. Just as an architect, before ever a workman begins to build, will prepare drawings to show what the finished building

will be like, so here, in the Book of Genesis, God’s plan is laid before us, showing us from the very beginning the final destiny that awaits us, despite our ‘fall’ from grace, if only we will accept it. In Genesis it is described as a garden of delight where there is no suffering or death, a theme taken up by the prophets.

Isaiah (for example) puts the story in his own way,

“The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together.

The lion eats straw like the ox.

The infant plays over the cobra's hole; into the viper's lair the young child puts his hand. They do no hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain.” [Is. 11: 1 - 9]

And, in another metaphor,

“On this mountain, the Lord of

hosts will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food. On this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, he will destroy Death for ever.” [Is 25: 6-9]

In the Book of Revelation, John’s great vision of the ‘end times’, our final destiny is given the image of a great city: God walks with his people in a beautiful city – the ‘new

Jerusalem’:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his

peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." [Rev 21: 3,4]

So, from the beginning, this was God’s intention: that the whole universe should exist in complete harmony with itself and with God (symbolised in Genesis by a beautiful garden), and that the human race will live in a state of perfect happiness without suffering or death. This is God’s great plan, and in order to bring this plan to completion God initiated the ‘rescue’ or ‘redemption’ of the human race, beginning with series of covenants established between God and his people, and culminating in the redemption of the Cross.

The story of how that grace is restored to us in the Redemption is contained in the whole body of

Christian teaching and especially in the Scriptures.

Genesis is an invitation to us to read on … David Clifton

1. A literary device deliberately imitated by John at the beginning of his gospel.