The first creation narrative

The bible begins with the story of creation. Even a staunch atheist like myself can get moved by the poetic story of Genesis 1. It's a well-known tale, God's creation of the world in six days and resting in the seventh. Santi over at Prometheus Unbound speculates that Genesis 1 might've been written as poetry:

[T]he author clearly structured his creation story in such a way that the “stage elements” were created on the first three days (light, waters above and below, and the land and plants) and the “actors”—the things that move about—on the second three days (sun, moon, stars, birds, fish, animals, man). Put another way: the author poetically structured his narrative around things that “are” and things that “move”—between stage and actors. Shakespeare, if he had ever noticed this element to the first chapter of Genesis, would have liked it...

It's possible, though perhaps they could just as well have used the "poetic" structure as a mnemonic to memorize the passage better, without implying that the end result should not be read literally. But except for creationists, most people do read the creation narrative in Genesis 1 as "poetic". Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote an intriguing exegesis of Genesis 1, using music from Haydn's oratorio The Creation to make his point that the narrative exhibits a common theme in creation myths, "successive differentiation from initial chaos". He points out that the story begins with an undifferentiated chaos:

Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)

This is followed by the first act of differentiation, separating light from darkness:

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning, one day. (Genesis 1:3-5)

And the theme continues with the next few verses, differentiating the Earth from the heavens in day 2, the land from he waters in day 3, and the lesser light from the greater light (as well as day from night) in day 4.

On the sixth day, the pinnacles of creation, man and woman, make their entrance after the creation of animals (Genesis 1:24-31). They were created in the image of the gods (note the plural in 1:26). I actually had a Catholic seminarian teacher in elementary school who said that we are indeed created in physical likeness of God. That’s probably why he never graduated from the seminary. :-)

And God rested.

In the beginning

I am an atheist, and I enjoy studying the bible. I grew up reading bible stories, studied biblical topics in sunday school, and lost my faith when I read too much about it. While I can no longer believe it, I still read it. For good or ill, the bible is the most influential book in the world, East or West, North or South.

I do not pretend to be a scholar or a theologian. I am just another layman trying to learn what he can about the Scriptures. Sometimes I get baffled with the latest topics in biblical studies. I am not an expert in languages, though I try to pick up new words when I can. I'm afraid I will always be a novice.

I hope I can learn more. It is a fascinating subject that deserves any man's respect. I will approach this study from an outsider's perspective. I do not purposefully wish to offend believers, so I'll try to temper my criticisms if possible. But as long as others wield it as a weapon of oppression, I will have no choice but criticize their misuse of it.

"No one who has not read the Bible or the Bard can be considered educated in Western traditions" - Stephen Jay Gould*

(*If so, then consider me 1/5 educated!)