Georgios J. Gounaris

In this article I present the Biblical description of the Creation of the Cosmos in parallel with the descrip- tion of contemporary science. The first part deals with the events that started the whole Universe. These are the events that took place during the first day of the Bible and the night that followed it. The first day begins with darkness, which is subsequently dissolved by a bright light that initially shines like in a hot summer noon. In the sequel, this light evolves and eventually disappears through an impressive evening, after about twenty million years. Then comes the first night that ends after about nine billion years, with the emergence of the primitive Earth. The second part of Creation describes how an earth observer would have viewed the formation of the Earth and its waters and the appearance of the living beings and man. The second to the sixth days appear to be merely long periods of time. They do not have a day-night structure like the first day.

The scientific understanding of Creation perceptions I am presenting here is based on the assumption that the forces we see today in Nature were created at the very beginning and have remained unchanged ever since. If we do not make this assumption, we cannot say anything. The few measurements we can make agree with this assumption.

For measuring time, we use the clock of General Relativity and what is known from astrophysical measurements. Before Creation began, time as we know it did not yet exist. Space did not yet exist either, and the Universe was just ‘nothing’.¹ From this nothing therefore began the creation of space (the heavens of the Bible) and the emergence of the primitive matter in it.

Before moving on, however, I will mention that until the early twentieth century, the common scientific belief was that the Universe had no beginning. Space was believed to be eternal, as well as matter. It was not until after 1920 that it was discov- ered that the Universe indeed had a beginning.

Let us start with the Biblical description of the first day.²

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and invisible and darkness covered the face of the deep. And the