The account of Day One in Genesis gives two fundamental principles essential for an ordered universe capable of sustaining life.
The first is the basis of mathematics the equation.
Genesis demonstrates how one substance can be converted into another substance without losing its value. The original matter and space
the heaven and the earth" (verse 1) are first re-described as
the waters" (verse 2) symbolizing their latent life-giving properties.
Then
the waters" are converted into
light" (verse 3) before then being
divided" from
the darkness" (verse 4). The
darkness" clearly symbolizes the matter that remained after the mass annihilation of particles and antiparticles which filled the early universe with billions of photons of light.
This understanding of the meaning of Genesis is not new.
The Jewish scholar Nahmanides (1194 1270) said this in his Commentary on Genesis 1:
The heavens and all that is in them are one material and the earth and all that is within it is another material; and the Holy One blessed be He created both of them from nothing - and the two of them alone were created and everything was made from them. … He brought out a very fine element from complete nothingness; it has no substance but it is the energy that can create that is able to accept a form and to go from the potential to the actual"
1
And we find a similar statement from Martin Rees:
Weve realized ever since Einstein that empty space can have a structure such that it can be warped and distorted. Even if shrunk to a point it is LATENT with particles and forces."
2
The conversion of one substance into another while retaining its intrinsic value is the basis of E = mc
2 and indeed all mathematics. And as Rees says
Mathematical laws underpin the fabric of the universe not just atoms but galaxies stars and people."
3
Regarding the second principle the matter and fields that were compressed into a tiny point before the Big Bang were governed by quantum laws of physics. That means that the uncertainty principle applied which leaves the particles and fields free to choose between an infinite number of probabilities. That makes freedom the governing principle. Genesis tells us that law was then imposed on these otherwise free particles and fields which compelled them to adopt those initial structures that were a prerequisite to establishing a universe that could sustain life.
Science does not deviate from the basic account in Genesis save only in respect of how it happened.
That establishes the basis of the principle of freedom under law the principle which is the objective of justice and government.
This video presentation addresses these issues:
youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjifpydkHag/youtube
For the article on which the video is based
click here.
1 Nahmanides Commentary on Genesis 1: 1: http://www.sefaria.org/Ramban_on_Genesis.1.1.3?lang=en&layout=lines&sidebarLang=all
2 Rees Martin
Just Six Numbers (paperback) page 145.
3 Rees ibid page 1.
