Reading Genesis was an interesting experience. That’s not to say it wasn’t frustrating to the nth degree at times, especially in areas of padded read time, but at least I had some views I had about Genesis challenged. Here are the main issues I have with Genesis as a whole.
Problems Encountered While Reading Genesis
- No Scientific Basis
- No Cohesive Story
- Lack of Consistency
- Lack of Single Authorship
- Lack of Verifiable Evidence
- God Not Displayed As Christians Portray
Problem 1: No Scientific Basis
Genesis displays no scientific understanding or profound insights into reality. Rather than godly insight into the nature of reality, we are treated to an iron age view of how the world works. These views include
- Flat Earth beliefs
- Stars are fixed on a hard dome shell that covers the earth
- Stars can give signs and be used to predict the future
- Believing a large flood wouldn’t annihilate all life (plants included) on the planet
- Believing all animals on earth could fit on a small boat
- Geocentric universe model
I’m sure there are more that I’ve forgotten since I read the chapters, but suffice it to say that this book does not read like a divine being telling people how the universe came to be. It instead reads like an author’s attempt to explain the world around him as best he can with the best tools available at the time. I don’t fault the author for this, rather, I fault the people who go on believing this nonsense in a day where correct information (or at least, a more accurate model) is literally a google search away.
Problem 2: No Cohesive Story
If you were to ask me what the main story of genesis was before I read it, I would have answered “It’s a creation myth and an origin story”. Instead, I was treated to 2 chapters of creation myth, about another chapter or two of origin story, and then a random detour to follow a randomly selected dude by the name of Abram because he is “god’s chosen” (no reason given). We then follow an arbitrarily selected lineage from Abram all the way to Joseph, sometimes with stories from previous chapters being repeated in almost the exact same way. By the time the book ends, the only real thing of note is that the last person we were following died under the age of 120, and even that’s a stretch.
Problem 3: Consistency (or the Lack Therof)
If Genesis was written by a single source, especially a divinely inspired one, I would expect to find a good deal of consistency throughout the book. This is absolutely not what I found while reading through the book.
For starters, the first 2 chapters of Genesis disagree with each other. The order in which things were made is different, man is given different emphasis in each one, differing amounts of people are made in each chapter, the garden isn’t mentioned in the first chapter, but makes a cameo in the second, etc. And that’s just in the first 2 chapters.
Later on, we also have continuity errors when Abram is kicked out of Egypt and randomly rich, only to pull the exact same stunt later and be paid to just GTFO. And then his son does the exact same thing later. As demonstrated in the early parts of genesis, god is powerful. Why don’t they just trust in god to protect them? This seems somewhat inconsistent with how Noah was treated for believing in god.
The bible also puts some ages of people down. While there are problems with the ages that I’m sure I don’t know, the big one that stuck out to me was the hard cap on an age of 120 for humans post-flood. Despite this being introduced early on in genesis, time and time again we see people live to be older than it. The only person of note who actually dies under the age of 120 is Joseph in the last few verses of the book.
I’m sure there are many many other issues I’ve left out. These are simply the ones that stuck out to me the most after finishing the book.
Problem 4: Lack of Single Authorship
I began reading this book with the assumption that it was written by a single author. By chapter 2, I had already revised my assumption to be at least 2 authors. If I remember correctly, by chapter 15, It seemed apparent that there must be at least 3 authors. If we’re to believe that this book is the divinely inspired word of literal single god, then why would we have multiple authors adding to the narrative? In fact, if you take away some of the additions that I noticed, the narrative becomes far easier to follow, which would lower how big of a problem I find the lack of cohesion in the story.
A quick search online shows that I am not the only one to draw the conclusion that multiple people authored the book of genesis. For an excellent breakdown of how the first 5 books of the bible were authored, added to, and otherwise changed throughout history, check out a book titled A History of God, the 4000 year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong. Suffice it to say, a lot changed in how god, gods, religion, and more were viewed through the early years. The alterations because of these changes are shown throughout the bible (more than just genesis) very clearly.
Problem 5: Lack of Verifiable Evidence
Putting aside the impossibilities of some things, such as Noah’s ark, there is no verifiable evidence for the events of genesis having occurred. For example, Egyptologists tell us that no evidence for a number of slaves as great in the bible exists, Geologists tell us that no evidence for a worldwide flood exists, and Evolutionists tell us that no evidence for a huge bottleneck in a species exists. While lack of evidence for something is not a clear indicator that something did not happen, it’s absence is certainly notable.
In some cases, there is clear evidence contrary to what genesis has stated. For example, astronomers can show a progression from gas nebula formation to star formation to planetary system formation while the bible claims the planet came first. Some have even used the bible to argue that the earth must be 6000-ish years old when radiometric dating of zircon shows that the earth is at least 4 billion years old.
To once again be clear, I don’t blame the author(s) for their claims, they might have been doing the best with what they knew. I take issue with the people who can’t, or perhaps won’t, fact check this book.
Problem 6: God Not Portrayed as Christians Portray
I’ve asked Christians how they view the Christian god, and their answers do not line up with how god is portrayed in genesis. This is a problem because we have people claiming god is one thing when he is canonically shown not to be that way. Here are a few common things I’ve heard them say.
- God is loving/kind/merciful
- God is all powerful (Omnipotent)
- God is the only god
- God is all-knowing
Rather than any of these, genesis shows god to be a petty, fickle, prone to wanton acts of destruction, limited in power, limited knowledge, limited in wisdom, willing to set people up to fail, genocidal maniac. For example, god can be seen as limited in wisdom and knowledge when he places the tree in the garden of eden. If he is truly all knowing, then he would know that some time later, they will eat it due to a talking snake convincing them to. Other examples exist, such as
- The great flood (That was REALLY the only option? I can think of several others.)
- Destroying Sodom and Gomorrah (Again… this was the only option?)
- Being unsure where Adam and Eve are in the garden post fruit munchy time.
- Mandating incest or familial relations (Abram, Isaac, etc)
- Punishes “sinners” at random (For example, punishes Pharaoh, but not Abram)
This portrait of god makes sense if one realizes that Yahweh was a god of war from among many other deities worshiped at the time. Again, read A History of God, the 4000 year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong, it’s an excellent book on the subject.
Conclusion
Genesis, while full of interesting tales, does not meet the criteria of a reliable book. Drawing on it for knowledge is going to give you iron age methodologies and ideas that do not have a basis in reality.
To recap the 3 points I started reading this book with, it is not wonderfully consistent (contradicts itself by chapter 2), it does not give accurate information about how the world works, and it does not show any prophecies. Point 3 will vary from book to book though.