All
civilisation has their unique creation story which is about the birth
of their tribe or race. Here we look at the creation stories of the
three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, solely
from their scriptures. Whether they should be taken as mythology or
historical accounts, is up to one’s persuasion.
GENESIS:
Chap
1 (KJV)
(1) In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. (2) 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. (3) And God
said, Let there be light: and there was light. (4) And God saw the
light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
(5) And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day. (6) And God said,
Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it
divide the waters from the waters. (7) 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. (8) And God called the
firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second
day. (9) 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.
(10) And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of
the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (11) 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. (12) 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. (13) And the evening and the morning were the third
day. (14) 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: (15) And let them be for
lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth:
and it was so. (16) 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. (17) And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to
give light upon the earth, (18) 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. (19) And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
(20) 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. (21) 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. (22) And God blessed them, saying, Be
fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl
multiply in the earth. (23) And the evening and the morning were the
fifth day. (24) 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. (25) 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. (26) 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.
(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created
he him; male and female created he them. (28) 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. (29) 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. (30) 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. (31) 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.
Chap 2.1-2 (KJV)
(1) Thus the
heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2)
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
In
1976 Zachariah Sitchin wrote “The 12th
Planet” which is basically an embellishment of the idea that gods
were extraterrestrials. An advanced alien race called Anunaki lived
in an undiscovered planet called Nibiru. A task force arrived on
Earth where they mined for gold. A revolt broke out as the workers
could not take the demands of working in mines. So they
bio-engineered homo sapiens to work as slaves in the mines.
Sitchin
claimed to have based his book on years of studying the cuneiform
tablets of the ancient Sumerians. This was the earliest recorded
civilisation of humans found in Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq). The
Sumerians appeared some time in 4,500 BC. Sumerian is called a
language isolate which means it is one of it’s kind, not related to
any known language. Which means expertise is rare. The Sumerians
wrote on clay tablets in the form called cuneiform. These were first
discovered in the 16th century AD and
deciphering took a long time from 19th to
mid-20th century AD.
Sitchin’s
work has been totally discredited for amateurishness with respect to
the primacy of the Sumerian language, he had a Mesopotamia-centric
world view and wholly misunderstood Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian
literature, his scientific, archaeological, astrological, geological and biological
knowledge as relates to Sumeria have been found wanting. Mainstream
academia considers his works pseudo-history and pseudo-science.
Yet
Sitchin’s books sold by the millions. The genre of alien-being
astronaut gods has a ready market of atheists, liberals, agnostics and conspiracy theory enthusiasts who cannot get enough ‘proof’ for their anti-God
anti-Christianity polemic.
Aside from the astronaut gods belief, many hold the view that Sumerian culture and religion influenced the Jews who where guilty of plagiarism.
Non-believers push the narrative Christianity evolved from pagan
worship of Sumerian Sun God via Sol Invictus of the Romans brought by
Constantine when he converted to Christianity. Islam to them is also
a pagan religion based on Nanna the Sumerian Moon God, represented by
the moon icon on every mosque. What seems most interesting is the
Sumerians have a few stories as told in the Epic Of Gilgamesh, also appear in the Old Testament, such
as the flood story. Supporting this view is the fact Abraham came
from Ur, a city in Mesopotamia. He would have continued Sumerian
pagan practices after God took him out of Ur into Canaan.
The
counter arguments are many. Judaism is monotheism, Sumerians were
pagans. There were Semitic people living in Sumeria as well as the
region north west of Mesopotamia. It could well be the Semites
influenced the Sumerians. When stories similar to the Bible are
studied in detail, there are major differences. For example, in the
flood story, Noah was adrift 40 days and nights and the flood was universal.
Sumerian flood was localised and lasted only 6 days and nights. Flood stories
are also to be found in many other cultures far away from, and had
nothing to do with, Mesopotamia, such as South Americas and Polynesia.
Noah’s universal flood explains it.
QURAN:
Allah created
everything in 6 days, the same as the Bible. Details are different
but that of course does not mean Quran is wrong. Quran is adamant the task took 6 days as it repeats this many times, for example :
Surah
10.3:
Surely your Lord is Allah Who created
the heavens and the earth in six Days, then established
Himself on the Throne, conducting every affair. None can intercede
except by His permission. That is Allah—your Lord, so worship Him
˹alone˺. Will you not then be mindful?
Surah 11.7:
And it is He who
created the heavens and the earth in six days -
and His Throne had been upon water - that He might test you as to
which of you is best in deed. But if you say, "Indeed, you are
resurrected after death," those who disbelieve will surely say,
"This is not but obvious magic."
There
are many other
verses where same is mentioned,
eg surahs
7.54, 25.59, 32.4, and 50:38.
So did Allah really
take 6 days to complete His creation? There is a problem counting
the number of days and inconsistencies in the sequence of events.
Let’s work through this.
Surah 2.29:
He it
is who created for you all that is in the earth, then
He went up to heaven and proportioned it as seven heavens, and He is
knower of everything.
هُوَ
ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ
جَمِيعًۭا ثُمَّ
ٱسْتَوَىٰٓ إِلَى ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَسَوَّىٰهُنَّ
سَبْعَ سَمَـٰوَٰتٍۢ ۚ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ
شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌۭ ٢٩
The
keyword is ثُمَّ (thumm
pronounced as thoumba) which means ‘then’, something that comes
after. So Earth was created first then heaven. Back then, there was
no Arabic for ‘space’. Heaven here means space. Quran has a huge
problem with science in this sequence. Earth does not exist in a
void, it exists in space. Earth has to come into being at the same
time as space or after. It is scientifically impossible for Earth to
come first, for where will it be placed as there was no heaven or
space yet? According to The Big Bang Theory, the universe was created
in one big explosion of energy. Is Quran saying Earth was created
first and then comes the Big Bang.
This error in sequence
is seen again in the creation verses Surah 49.9 to 49.12.
Surah
49.9 to 49.12:
(49.9) Ask ˹them, O Prophet˺, “How can
you disbelieve in the One Who created the earth in two Days? And how
can you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of all
worlds.
(49.10) He placed on the earth firm mountains, standing
high, showered His blessings upon it, and ordained ˹all˺ its means
of sustenance—totaling four Days exactly—for all who ask.
(49.11) Then He
turned towards the heaven when it was ˹still like˺ smoke, saying to
it and to the earth, ‘Submit, willingly or unwillingly.’ They
both responded, ‘We submit willingly.’
(49.12) So He formed
the heaven into seven heavens in two Days, assigning to each its
mandate. And We adorned the lowest heaven with ˹stars like˺ lamps
˹for beauty˺ and for protection. That is the design of the
Almighty, All-Knowing.”
First
a diversion. A Facebook friend likes to promote his religion online.
Nothing wrong in that. A few days back he posted regarding (49.11)
the time when heaven was still like smoke. He attributed this to the
greatness of Allah to see what James Webb telescope is now showing
us, that primeval space indeed looks somewhat like smoke. I don’t
know if he realised the error of Quran’s sequence of creation and
the number of days.
These verses reinforce surah 2.29.
Earth was formed first (49.9) and then space or heaven (49.11).
The
Earth and its sustenance was already formed (49.9 and 49.10) when
Allah then (recall thoumba) turned to heaven, aka space
aka universe, which at that time was ‘still like’ smoke. He then
got Earth and Heaven to willingly come together. So before Allah put
Earth into the universe, shouldn’t one ask where did he place
it?
If that was bad, try counting the number of days.
Now
look at the sequence and number of days. First Earth was created in 2
days. The mountains and it’s sustenance, ie the waters, rivers,
vegetation, rees, etc. took 4 days. Finally, He formed the heaven, or
space, or universe which took another 2 days. The math clearly shows
8 days for creation, not 6.
It gets worse.
Surah
79.27-33:
(27) Are you a more difficult creation
or is the heaven? Allah constructed it.
(28) He
raised its ceiling and proportioned it.
(29) And
He darkened its night and extracted its brightness.
(30)
And after that He spread the earth.
(31) He
extracted from it its water and its pasture,
(32) And the
mountains He set firmly
(33) As provision
for you and your grazing livestock.
Notice
the sequence is now Heaven, Earth, and sustenance. The Quran changed
the sequence of creation?
Notice also Adam and Eve do not
appear in these creation verses.
Typo,
scripting, or printing errors are understandable. But for Quran, it is an
important issue because it claims for itself to be the true words of
God. Word for word, it is without error and immutable. Allah is
all-knowing, a statement repeated over and over again in the Holy
Book. What can explain for the inconsistencies in number of days, sequence of creation and the scientific impossibility of placing Earth outside the Universe.
Quran is a simple narration of creation. It dwells not on the philosophical issue of Time.
The Bible presents an organised view, encapsulated in Genesis chap 1. More significantly, the Bible establishes two Truths that science has no alternative explanation. First, according to the Bible, in the beginning, there was VOID, or nothingness. Second, there was a beginning of time, ie when God created the Universe. This idea of a beginning of time so scared non-theological scientists that has them hesitating accepting The Big Bang Theory. For recognition of Big Bang means accepting there was a beginning of time, thus God.
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