Essential Christian Beliefs

Creation of the Cosmos

by Douglas Miller

Today is the first of several Sundays when I will speak about basic Christian beliefs, and what they mean. Why do we believe what we believe? Today I am speaking about our fundamental belief that “God created the the heavens and the earth”.

The basic awesome contradiction

We begin with the basic awesome contradiction that confronts every person who thinks about God and the world.

The basic awesome contradiction is this:

On the one hand, we look at the complex structure of any living being: from a virus to a human being, and it is awesomely complex. The structure of the molecules of single cell is very complex. The manner in which the DNA is able to encode the structure of a particular living animal, and so form the cells of an animal of the next generation is complex and awesome.

We look at that complexity, and we say, “is it seriously possible for such a structure to arise by unguided accident; by certain molecules accidentally coming together”. Is it seriously possible? I know that many thinking people think it is, but I just do not believe them. I think the belief that life on earth arose by a process of unguided accident is profoundly irrational. Which mean I believe there is God who chose to create life on earth.

That is on the one hand.

On the other hand, we look at the actual world around us, and did God really make it to be like this? We think of some very destructive bacteria, of the people killed in earthquakes or bushfires, to say nothing of human violence. So people ask, Is that really how God made it? Could God not have made a better world than this one? Did God make the tiger and the mosquito? And if so, why?

So that is the basic awesome contradiction that confronts every person who thinks about God and the world.

On the one hand the world contains such complexity, especially in the structure of living beings, that it seems irrational to suggest that such order exists by unguided accident.

On the other hand, did God make earthquakes and bushfires? Did God make the bacteria, tigers and mosquitos?

And we think about it further, and we realise that the good and the bad are so intricately wrapped together.

Could we have a world without earthquakes and tsunamis? Maybe, but it would be a world without the forces that raise the mountains to where they are, and formed the land masses of the earth.

Could we have a world without bushfire? Maybe, but it would be a world without fire, and fire has been so useful to human beings for cooking and for heating.

Could we have a world without bacteria? Bacteria perform such vital roles in for instance, the composting of plant material and recycling the nutrients for ongoing life on earth. And we could go on, but the point is there. The good and the bad are so intricately woven together in the way that the cosmos is made.

Genesis 1, and what it means

In the Bible, the classic statement of creation is Genesis, chapter 1. We should not look to this chapter of for a scientific type accounts of the origin of life on earth. Genesis 1 is a statement about the relationship between God and the world.

Genesis 1 basically says that God created the world, the land and the sea, and the plan and animal life in it. Everything came into existence because God decided they would. God could have decided to make something else. This is the cosmos that God did make, or at least the part of it we know about. So you read Genesis 1, and what does it say? It says that God created by word, “let there be light” and there was light. God chose that certain creatures would exist, and it happened.

Now to understand Genesis 1, you need to realise that most people of that time believed that a whole series of spiritual powers influenced events on earth. There was the major gods working together, overseeing the earth. More locally, there were all kinds of demons, good and bad, that caused sicknesses, and all sorts of random events, and every tree or spring of water had a spirit or fairy associated with it. And people would give small gifts to the fairy in the tree to keep on good terms with it.

That was what most religions of the ancient world involved. And in some place, that is what many people still believe.

And most people reading Genesis 1, would say, “so when did God create the demons? When did God create the spirits or the fairies? You didn't mention them”. And the writer was saying “what demons? What spirits? What fairies? There is God, and there is the world God made. There is no fairy living in that tree, and you don't need to give it gifts.

So we read, Day 4. God put lights in the sky. People thought of the sun, the moon and the stars as living beings, who looked down and influenced events on the earth. The writer was saying, these are not living beings. These are lights that God put there to give light on the earth. They are not living beings, just as a candle or an electric light are not living beings. They are lights.

And similarly, God put plants on the earth, fish in the sea, birds in the sky, and all kinds of animals and creeping things on the earth.

And God saw that it was good. It does not say that the world is perfect, but this world is a wonderful place, able to support life, and full of amazing variety and beauty. We can never tire of seeking to know the world around us more.

Often scientists get frustrated by this chapter, because it leads to arguments with creationists about six days of creation versus evolution and the great age of the earth. The same scientists fail to see how much science owes to this chapter. By interpreting the world as a world without demons or fairies, European culture would in time be able to investigate and understand its normal processes. It helped to make science possible.

The Cosmos in Hindu thought

And from this chapter, the doctrine of creation became a core belief in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. The doctrine of creation is that God made the world, and God made living things. You and I are not God. We are creatures that live for a time in a small corner of this earth, and then we die and others take our place.

Now I said this is a core belief in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. It is important to realise that much of the Hindu tradition of thought has moved down a very different path.

In the Hindu tradition, the Divine did not make the Cosmos; the Divine is the Cosmos. For Hindus, God and the Cosmos are like the soul and the body; different aspects of the one reality. And for Hindus, every human soul participates in the Divine, so that God is within all of us.

Such a view leads very quickly to the view that all serious thoughtful people and all religious traditions are fundamentally saying the same thing, and the differences of wording are superficial. That view says that we all partake in the one soul of the Cosmos, and so we must all be saying fundamentally the same underlying truth.

Now I said that is typical in Hindu thinking. In Roman times similar views became normal in Greek philosophy. Today it comes back in much New Age thinking.

Now I suggest that we stand back from that view. We may greatly respect many good people who hold it, but it is not what we believe. A person formed in classic Hindu thought finds it almost impossible to understand the words, “I don't agree with what you said”. How can we not agree if our minds all participate in the one truth? And yet it is a reality of everyday experience that our our opinions differ from each other, and often we are not saying the same thing, and there is no point in pretending that we are.

If we believe, with the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, that God made the world, and God made human beings. Then we clearly see that we are not Divine. We are not God. We are beings made by God.

And God made us with the freedom to study and know the world around us, and form our views about it; and sometimes our views are good, and sometimes they are quite mistaken. There is no necessary connection between our deep thoughts and the truth. Our thoughts are whatever they are. We partly know some things, and we largely so not know many things. Our opinions can be completely mistaken, and need to be rigorously checked. That's because we are human, we are not God.

Summary

So to sum up. We have touched briefly on three important questions:

We have named the tension in the doctrine of creation: that the complexity of living beings demands belief in a creator, but the bacteria, earthquakes and bushfires can be very destructive. We have seen that the fundamental point of Genesis 1, is that God created a world of good things, not regulated by demons and fairies.

And we have seen the reasons why we do not accept the Hindu alternative, which sees God and the Cosmos as different aspects of the one reality.

That is why it is so important that the Apostles' Creed begins:
“We believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.”

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