Overview of chapter
Genesis 1 is an attempt to explain how the world came to be. God starts existing in an infinite plane of water, nips down to where he wants the earth to be, and then gets creating. This chapter contains the traditional creation myth that creationists and Christian fundamentalists believe to be true.
Additional Thoughts
This chapter alone contains many old and dis-proven ideas about how the world is structured. Coming from a bible that is supposed to be 100% accurate, this is a blow. For example, there are multiple references to outdated models of how the earth is structured (glass dome/firmament with stars/moon on it), complete ignorance of other planets, ignorance of the sun being a star, ignorance on what stars actually are, ignorance of the earth as a spheroid, and many many more.
Also damaging is the explanation of animals all being created at once, even if the “days” here are longer than a single day as apologists like to claim. The fossil record shown a slow and gradual speciation from a common ancestor to be a good explanation for how species came to be. If creation were true as creationists would like it to be, the fossil record would be a horrible mess.
Additionally, the order in which the planets and stars are created is directly counter to what science has shown to have happened. Stars came first, then planets. Not planets then stars.
The Scientific/logic/sequence mistakes in this chapter
- Is the universe empty, or made out of water? (Genesis 1:1)
- Light without a light source (Genesis 1:3)
- Darkness considered it’s own form of “matter” (Genesis 1:4)
- Just because it’s light doesn’t mean it’s day (Genesis 1:5)
- The sun does not exist yet. What constitutes a day? (Genesis 1:5)
- Iron age view of a flat world (table/glass dome/firmament model) (Genesis 1:6-9)
- Firmament created 2 times (Genesis 1:6, Genesis 1:7)
- That water requires somewhere to go (Genesis 1:9)
- Plants require sunlight to survive. There is no sun. (Genesis 1:11)
- Unscientific classification system (Genesis 1:12, 1:21)
- Endorses disproven Pseudoscience (Astrology) (Genesis 1:14)
- Contradicts later books (Genesis 1:14, Deuteronomy 18:10-14)
- Claims stars are merely small points of light on a dome (Genesis 1:14)
- Expressly geocentric (Genesis 1:15)
- The sun is not created with all the other stars (Genesis 1:16)
- Sometimes god creates with words, other times cannot
- No explanation for why is ever provided
- Humans are animals and should already be created in 1:21 (Genesis 1:26)
- Anthropocentric bias (Genesis 1:26-28)
- Claims ALL animals are vegans (Genesis 1:30)
- Order of animal creation does not match fossil record
- Magic/Mythology (Genesis 1:1-31)
For bonus confusion, try read chapter 2 and then tell me whether man was made before or after the beasts were.
Explanations of selected mistakes
A consistency error: Genesis 11:14 expressly endorses astrology. Interpreting the signs which these lights are supposed to give is forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:10-14. So which should we follow?
Chapter 1: God does stuff
- In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
- And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
- And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
- And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
- And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
- And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
- And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
- And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
- And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
- And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
- And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
- And the evening and the morning were the third day.
- And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
- And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
- And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
- And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
- And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
- And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
- And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
- And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
- And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
- And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
- And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
- And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
- And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
- So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
- And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
- And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
- And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
- And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
- Takes a God as a given… always begs the question “Where did god come from?”
- The writers of this myth think that everything not earth is an infinite plane of water. Where did this water (that doesn’t exist) come from?
- Light requires a source. The sun/stars weren’t made until day 4
- Darkness is the absence of light, not it’s own thing that can be moved around like this.
- If I have a lamp on, is it day? If I hide in a closet with the door closed, is it night? Also, saying this is a “day” here is ridiculous.
- Where did this water come from? This firmament model is an ancient, glass dome, flat earth model.
- So, this firmament thing…. that wasn’t created last verse when god said “let there be a firmament”? The light was created immediately, why make this twice?
- Christians used to think the Firmament was a glass dome covering a flat earth. Look it up!
- How? If I have a bottle that’s full of water and put a little divider in it, how would I get less water in the bottom to make “land” appear?
- If we believe this, then there’s some magical way to make less water in an infinite plane of water.
- Plants require sunlight to survive. Light may have been “made” first, but light still requires a source. The sun isn’t made till later. These plants should be dead pretty soon.
- The ancient authors have no clue how to classify things. These “kinds” are not categories. According to this, blueberries and apples are the same “kinds”, which is nonsense.
- This better be a literal day, those plants need sun!
- The stars are literally nothing but little points of light placed on the firmament?These “lights on the firmament” are also for signs which implies astrology is real.
- So the ONLY purpose everything in the sky has is to give light to the earth. Really? Other galaxies would like a word.
- I thought stars were made in 1:14. At least the poor plants have sunlight to keep them from dying.
- Just repeats the information from 11:15, although a little clearer.
- Despite god having already divided light and dark (1:4), he brings in a sun and a moon to do it again.
- Day 4 completed, time for a bathroom break!
- Why are the birds created from the water? Are they sea creatures? Does this also imply that birds can literally fly into heaven (above the firmament)?
- The authors again show that they do not know how to classify the immense diversity of life on this planet. A “Kind” is not a valid classification. Christians need to stop pretending that it is.
- In short: Animals should have sex and have it often so you can have lots of little babies. Does this apply to humans?
- Day 5 completed. Apparently a pretty short workday.
- Birds and sea creatures: Made of water. Land animals: Made of land. Again, even though it’s in the bible, a “kind” is not a valid classification of an animal.
- God seems to create things by speaking about them at the beginning. Here it seems like he actually has to make them. Why? What makes animals so immensely complex?
- I thought all land based animals were already made? Also, see rationalwiki’s annotated bible for a great explanation of the “us” in this verse. Briefly, there was some polytheistic leaning in the early phase of Judaism.
- Ah, so humans are special. Both male AND female were created, no bone stealing required. Implies many humans too.
- Humans having sex a lot are just fulfilling genesis 1:28. Given how many people are on the planet, I think it’s time religious fundamentalists stop trying to follow this one. Also, claims we’re better than everything else
- Not entirely sure why a tree would be yielding meat from a fruit. Sounds kinda disgusting. I know, it really means the meat of the fruit, but a literal reading required pointing that out.
- Animals only eat green herbs? What about predators who require the flesh of other animals in order to survive? Humans can’t get enough vitamin B12 on a vegan diet either.
- End of day 6. Apparently everything is good. Did god not know that he’d regret making the world in just a few chapters from now?
Additional notes on chapter 1
Everything in this seems to be as accurate as someone making wild guesses about what things are really like would be. For a “divinely inspired” work, I’d expect some actual truths about what things are like. For example, why not mention a heliocentric solar system model that would have predated any current knowledge of how the solar system works? That would be enough to add some authenticity to this. Alternatively, why not explicitly mention that life arose through a process that took millions and millions of years? Why not have amphibians, reptiles, and land mammals created before birds in order to match the fossil record?
There are many points that show this is limited to old understandings about how the universe works. Here are a few of them.
- The firmament, from Latin “Firmamentum” meaning “something which strengthens or supports”, references an outdated astronomical model. The firmament is a solid structure on which all the stars, the sun, and the moon are placed. For more information, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament
- The writers of genesis did not think the sun was a star. Otherwise, the sun would have been made right along side the stars with everything else.
- Thanks to the fossil record, we know that amphibians, reptiles, and land mammals predate birds and marine mammals. In this account, everything is brought in at once.