We are stardust, we are golden...
Bainwen's post on her Theology Blog got me thinking. I figured, I know a different angle of attack, so maybe I can meld science and theology together. :-)
Earth.
A marble in an ocean of darkness, a tiny blue-green dot going around an insignificant star, in a low-level solar system and a backwater galaxy. Yet, there is life. Why?
Water. The very liquid that carbon-based life comes from, made it to Earth about 2 billion years ago. Before that, the Earth was a searing-hot ball of molten iron, silicon and carbon, totally inhospitable to life in any form. Giant icy snowballs called comets smacked into the Earth like torpedoes into the sides of a great ship, and simultaneously cooled and shaped the Earth's crust to their will.
Cooling, the Earth made use of the greenhouse gases that had been building up since the beginning from volcanoes and such, and there was rain.
But, there is one other bit making it even strager. Amino acids. Looking at the fossil records, oceanic life shows up very quickly after the seas. Far, far too quickly for random chance to create them from the primordial soup.
Give them a starter. Give them a seed crystal known as an amino acid, and the rest can fall into place. The skies gave life on Earth a gift- a start point.
A different account...
01:001:001 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
01:001:002 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.
01:001:003 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
01:001:004 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the
light from the darkness.
01:001:005 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
01:001:006 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
01:001:007 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.
01:001:008 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day.
01:001:009 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.
01:001:010 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together
of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
01:001:011 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.
01:001:012 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.
01:001:013 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
01:001:014 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:
01:001:015 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to
give light upon the earth: and it was so.
01:001:016 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.
01:001:017 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth,
01:001:018 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.
01:001:019 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
01:001:020 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.
01:001:021 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.
01:001:022 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
earth.
01:001:023 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
01:001:024 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.
01:001:025 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.
01:001:026 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.
Sound familiar?
Earth.
A marble in an ocean of darkness, a tiny blue-green dot going around an insignificant star, in a low-level solar system and a backwater galaxy. Yet, there is life. Why?
Water. The very liquid that carbon-based life comes from, made it to Earth about 2 billion years ago. Before that, the Earth was a searing-hot ball of molten iron, silicon and carbon, totally inhospitable to life in any form. Giant icy snowballs called comets smacked into the Earth like torpedoes into the sides of a great ship, and simultaneously cooled and shaped the Earth's crust to their will.
Cooling, the Earth made use of the greenhouse gases that had been building up since the beginning from volcanoes and such, and there was rain.
But, there is one other bit making it even strager. Amino acids. Looking at the fossil records, oceanic life shows up very quickly after the seas. Far, far too quickly for random chance to create them from the primordial soup.
Give them a starter. Give them a seed crystal known as an amino acid, and the rest can fall into place. The skies gave life on Earth a gift- a start point.
A different account...
01:001:001 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
01:001:002 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.
01:001:003 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
01:001:004 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the
light from the darkness.
01:001:005 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
01:001:006 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
01:001:007 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.
01:001:008 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day.
01:001:009 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.
01:001:010 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together
of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
01:001:011 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.
01:001:012 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.
01:001:013 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
01:001:014 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:
01:001:015 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to
give light upon the earth: and it was so.
01:001:016 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.
01:001:017 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth,
01:001:018 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.
01:001:019 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
01:001:020 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.
01:001:021 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.
01:001:022 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
earth.
01:001:023 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
01:001:024 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.
01:001:025 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.
01:001:026 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.
Sound familiar?
posted by Tirithien at 11:32 AM
3 Comments:
I am partial to the second version! But both are interesting and gives one cause for thought!
But the two could be different ways of telling the same story. There's nothing in Genesis that says how God caused the earth to bring forth life, and God-time must certainly be different from earth-time.
I'd say they're largely the same, actually. It's odd, how the ancient Jews that first wrote the legends down had the order correct.
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