It is a generally accepted myth that all creation stories are myths.And it is a myth eagerly exploited by those who seek to replace the notion of God with their own doctrines and delusions.This short series of articles will demonstrate that irrespective of what other creation stories may reveal in just three chapters Genesis provides a detailed scientific explanation of the origins of the universe and life; it provides a detailed anatomy of the formation and functioning of the human brain; and it provides a concise exposition of the neurological mechanisms that give rise to human consciousness and human conscience. In short in just three chapters Genesis explains our cosmic origins and our cosmic destiny.For those of an open mind whether believer or unbeliever the insights revealed by Genesis can only instill a sense of awe. Verse by verse even word by word Genesis unveils the mysteries of the universe.And that is how we will approach the task line by line and word by word.In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1: 1So before anything gets started we have the material were going to work with: matter the earth" and where that matter is the heaven".Scientists or more properly cosmologists attribute the beginning in scientific terms to what is called inflation which they believe led to the Big Bang.But the initial inflationary burst" that set the universe in motion did not actually create the universe. According to the physicist Brian Greene it occurred in an already PREEXISTING universe."1 And as Greene says the initial inflationary burst originated from a tiny speck of order in the EARLY UNIVERSE."2Sir Martin Rees previously Astronomer Royal in Britain says that the world we see about us and life itself is the outcome of a chain of events that cosmologists can trace back to an ultra-dense primal medium that was almost STRUCTURELESS."3 According to Rees scientific measurements prove that all the matter and energy in the universe was once a compressed gas hotter than the suns core."4And the popular television physicist Michio Kaku when describing the initial sudden inflation says that a mysterious antigravity force caused the universe to expand." 5 It should be noted that Kaku does not say that inflation created the universe but that it caused the universe to expand." The universe already existed.And on heaven" Brain Greene says this about space" in the preexisting" universe: But if the universe is spatially infinite there was already an infinite spatial expanse at the moment of the big bang."6What we see from these references is that the universe as we now know it existed in a different form before something happened which caused it to transform into the present universe.Genesis ascribes the existence of this matter in a preexisting universe to God. Scientists acknowledge that they can at best speculate as to where it came from.But Rees warns scientists against claiming that the universe can arise from nothing". He says that Einstein showed that even what we think of as empty space has a structure such that it can be warped and distorted. Even if shrunk to a point it is LATENT with particles and forces."7So until scientists can come up with some explanation as to where the ingredients that gave rise to the universe came from we can at best leave the issue where it is. Either we dont know or it has always been there or God created it in the beginning". And we should remember what Max Planck said - Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of Nature. And it is because in the last analysis we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve."8So the next step is to consider what this dense matter the earth" in the preexisting universe looked like.And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Genesis 1: 2The first thing we should note about this verse is that when Genesis describes the earth" as being without form and void" obviously it is not talking about the earth" as a reference to planet Earth. This verse makes clear that the earth" refers to the pre-inflationary matter which is described as being without form and void."We get a clue of the scientific perspective of what the pre-inflationary universe looked like from some of the above references a compressed gas" or ultra-dense primal medium that was almost structureless."Brian Greene describes it as … a wild and energetic realm of primordial chaos; with extremes of heat and colossal density"9 in which gravity was by far the dominant force."10Referring to theories of the physicist Boltzmann Greene also says this: Everything we see may have resulted from a chance fluctuation out of a highly DISORDERED state of primeval CHAOS."11So from these quotes we can make sense of the description in Genesis that the earth" was without form" and void" and that darkness was upon the face of the deep."There was matter but it was highly disordered" structureless" and a primordial chaos" which is almost identical to saying that it was without form" and void". And since it was ultra-dense" and of colossal density" even light could not escape its immense gravity" darkness was upon the face of the deep."What a beautiful way to describe what scientists today imagine this pre-inflationary universe must have looked like.We havent even got to the end of the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis and already we have a perfect description of what thousands of years of scientific experimentation and theorizing are beginning to conclude must have been the state of things in the beginning."But theres still a lot more to Day One.And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Genesis 1: 2What we see here is the condensed pre-inflationary universe of matter and space referred to in verses 1 and 2 of Genesis as the heaven and the earth" being re-described collectively as the waters". Now water has long been associated with life life giving and life supporting. In that respect we should recall what Rees said Even if shrunk to a point it matter in the pre-inflationary universe is LATENT with particles and forces."12 What may appear to be empty space or a primordial plasma has the latent" materials to build the universe as we know it and thus life.According to Genesis the latent" potential of the pre-inflationary matter symbolized by the the waters" was released when the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."So far as physicists are concerned the general belief is that a sort of anti-gravity force referred to as an inflaton field (also called a Higgs field) exerted a powerful repulsive force which overwhelmed gravity causing a gigantic gravitational repulsion that drove every region of space to rush away from every other."13However Greene admits to the scientific establishments continuing ignorance of fundamental origin: specifically if inflationary cosmology is right our ignorance of why there is an inflaton field why its potential energy bowl has the right shape for inflation to have occurred why there are space and time within which the whole discussion can take place and … why there is something rather than nothing."14Likewise Michio Kaku asks What set off this antigravity force that inflated the universe?" And his answer is that there are over fifty proposals explaining what turned on inflation and what eventually terminated it." But he says although all physicists dont agree on how it all happened most now subscribe to the core idea of a rapid inflationary period."15 We should store in the back of our minds the words turned on" and terminated" because they are relevant to Day Two.So what physicists can agree on is that inflation set the process in motion leading to the Big Bang and the universe as we know it; a universe that has spawned life including human life.So perhaps describing the pre-inflationary universe as the waters" is not that inaccurate. And the description of the spirit of God moving across the face of the waters" uncannily describes what physicists now believe happened latent … particles and forces" submerged so to speak in a dense primordial chaos strangled by gravity were released when an inflaton field or some other force was somehow activated to act as a repulsive gravitational force releasing the life creating potential of those latent … particles and forces."Greene describes the immediate aftermath of the inflationary burst like this: As the burst of expansion drew to a close … the inflaton released its pent-up energy to the production of ordinary matter and radiation."16Genesis ascribes this initial activation of latent" matter that was without form and void" to the spirit of God" whereas physicists have no idea how or why it happened. So again the only difference is in the explanation of how the event happened not that it did.Even these few verses of Genesis suggest that its author/s must have been aware of what scientists today describe as Inflationary Cosmology which led to what we call expansion.And the writings of the Jewish Scholar Nahmanides (1194 1270) tend to confirm this. Nahmanides described the symbolism of Genesis as follows: ... At the briefest instant following creation all the matter of the universe was concentrated in a very small place no larger than a grain of mustard. The matter at this time was very thin so intangible that it did not have real substance. It did have however a potential to gain substance and form and to become tangible matter. From the initial concentration of this intangible substance in its minute location the substance expanded expanding the universe as it did so. As the expansion progressed a change in the substance occurred. This initially thin noncorporeal substance took on the tangible aspects of matter as we know it. From this initial act of creation from this etherieally thin pseudosubstance everything that has existed or will ever exist was is and will be formed."17So nearly one thousand years before modern science proposed the theory of cosmic expansion a Jewish Scholar studying the Torah concluded that the first chapter of Genesis was saying just that. And as we shall see when we look at Day Two there is a very good reason for such a conclusion.On that point we should mention an important aspect of the methodology applied in Genesis. As the statement by Nahmanides suggests Genesis records a consistent pattern of transition of the material it starts with the heaven and the earth" through various stages. At each stage the material of the previous stage is invariably re-described before it undergoes its next transition until the process is complete. And the completed process gives us insight into the purpose of the undertaking.With that in mind we can move on to the next stage of the process.The next events described by Genesis are so profound in terms of physics and quantum mechanics that it is best to take the next two verses together.And God said Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness." Genesis 1: 3 & 4Lets start with the easy part of these verses light" and darkness" - before moving on to the quantum aspects (although they do overlap).The first thing to note here is that what was previously described as the waters" which was itself a collective description of the heaven and the earth" now undergoes a transition to become light". But then there is the curious mention of the darkness". It hasnt been mentioned before and neither is it said to have been created. God is only recorded as creating light". But as we shall see there is good reason for this.In scientific terms much of what happened in the beginning" is speculative but certain assumptions can be drawn by working backwards so to speak and deducing what must have happened in order to have created what we see around us.Rees says that the universe evolved from a primordial fireball uniformly hot into a structured state containing very hot stars radiating into very cold space … which … set the stage for increasingly intricate cosmic evolution and the emergence of life."18And that fireball" created or released light. But light in what sense?Well that is where antimatter comes in and Einsteins famous equation of E=mc2. Light is made up of photons which have no mass. They ended up that way because of antimatter: when an electron and an antielectron (called a positron which is antimatter) bang into each other they release two photons. That is two sub-atomic particles with mass destroy each other and in the process convert their joint mass to energy in the form of two photons (mass-less particles of pure energy).According to physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw Processes like this played a very important role in the early history of the universe when matter and antimatter almost completely cancelled themselves out by just such interactions. Today we see the remnant of that cancellation."19But Cox and Forshaw note that astronomical observation shows that for every 100 billion matter particles made just after the big bang only one survived. The rest took the opportunity available to them … to divest themselves of their mass and become photons."20So just after the Big Bang only one of approximately every 100 billion particles chose not to transform itself into light.Cox and Forshaw say this as to what was left of the particles: In a very real sense the stuff of the universe that makes up stars planets and people is only a tiny residue left over after the grand annihilation that took place early on in the universes history. It is very fortunate and almost miraculous that anything was left at all. To this day we are not sure why that happened. The question why is the universe not just filled with light and nothing else? is still open-ended …"21Martin Rees suggests a reason for this. Citing work by the Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov he suggests that there was a slight asymmetry between particles and antiparticles during the cooling immediately after the big bang." Accordingly this would create a slight excess of quarks over antiquarks (which would later translate into an excess of protons over antiprotons)."22And explains Rees studies by American physicists James Cronin and Val Finch into the rate of decay of an unstable particle called K˚" provides evidence for this. They found that this particle and its antiparticle werent perfect mirror images of each other but decayed at slightly different rates; some slight asymmetry was built into the laws governing the decays."23But for every billion quarks that were annihilated with antiquarks one would survive because it couldnt find a partner to annihilate with… So all the atoms in the universe could result from a tiny bias in favour of matter over antimatter."24However the most important point in respect of this excess of matter over antimatter is that it created the material with which life would be built. As Sakharov points out our very existence depends on an IRREVERSIBLE effect that established an excess of matter over antimatter … Had that not occurred all the matter would have been annihilated with an equal amount of antimatter leaving a universe containing no atoms at all."25As we shall see the establishment of an irreversible effect" at certain points in the creation process is crucially important to both the Scriptural and scientific accounts of the origins of the universe.As these scientific explanations demonstrate the direct consequence of the initial inflationary burst and subsequent Big Bang was the creation of light. The fact that other matter important as it may be to our very existence was left-over from the creation of light appears to scientists to have been entirely coincidental. But it also perfectly explains why there is no mention in Genesis of God creating the darkness". That is because the darkness" refers to the matter that was left over after all the antimatter had been annihilated with matter of which there was a very slight excess.But it was crucial to our very existence that the creation of light took place at the precise time when there was a very slight excess of matter over antimatter; an excess that created the perfect proportion of matter to energy in the universe to facilitate and sustain life. Dark matter and dark energy are also relevant to the reference to darkness" but for the sake of brevity I will not deal with them here although I do in the book (see below).So it is not surprising that it is at precisely this crucial moment that we find the curious words And God said" followed by And God saw."Quantum PhysicsWith the exception of Day 2 which only has And God said …" all the other Days have the two stage process of creation involving And God said …" followed by And God saw …"We should also note that following each And God saw …" appear the words that it was good." The only exception is verse 31 where they are followed by the words … it was very good."26So why all this detail about the words And God said …" and And God saw …"?Well lets start with a quote from the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg: We really do need to understand quantum mechanics better in quantum cosmology the application of quantum mechanics to the whole universe WHERE NO OUTSIDE OBSERVER is even imaginable."27The reference to an outside observer" is the crucial part of that quote because it brings together quantum mechanics (physics) with those curious words in Genesis which refer to God speaking and seeing.To better comprehend the importance of this connection we need to briefly consider the concept of quantum physics.Quantum physics relates to the behavior of sub-atomic particles like electrons photons and quarks. These particles make up everything we know as ordinary matter and energy and as Weinberg says scientists study these fundamental particles because they believe that by doing so they will learn something about the PRINCIPLES that govern everything."28 That is scientists believe that the behavior of fundamental particles may lead them to a final theory of everything.Quantum physics tells us that fundamental particles are not like tiny grains of sand. They are more like waves. Scientists call this property of a particle its wavefunction. The wavefunction determines that a particle can adopt any one of all probable states. But as Brian Greene says only when the particle is looked at (measured or observed) does it randomly commit to one definite property or another."29There is a two-stage process that determines how fundamental particles transform from the quantum state to a state capable of establishing the physical universe.First particles are free to choose from all probable states. Second only when a particle is observed will it choose one specific state.Many physicists believe that this is the basis for what we describe as free will." The popular television physicist Michio Kaku describes the effect of quantum physics by saying that in a quantum play the actors suddenly throw away the script and act on their own. The puppets cut their strings. Free will has been established."30But Kaku says that physicists realize that if they could somehow control these probabilities one could perform feats indistinguishable from magic."31 And this is an important element of the Genesis account of creation.There are also two other aspects of particle behavior we ought to note.The first relates to what are described as delayed-choice experiments. In these experiments particles are fired through a beam splitter at a detector. When the detector is switched off the particles show an interference pattern demonstrating that they are in a wave-like mode. However when the detector is switched on the particles pass through one or other slit on the splitter and appear as a dot. That means they are in a particle-like mode because they have assumed a specific state after being measured (observed) by the detector.But if the detector is switched off after the particle has been emitted the particle appears to know that the detector will be switched off before it is fired and adopts a wave-like state. If the detector is programmed to randomly switch on and off as particles are fired at it the particles always guess correctly whether the detector will be switched on or off when they arrive.Brian Greene notes that its as if the photons adjust their behaviour in the past according to the future choice of whether the ... detector is switched on; its as though the photons have a premonition" of the experimental situation they will encounter farther downstream and act accordingly. Its as if a consistent and definite history becomes manifest only after the future to which it leads has been fully settled."32That conclusion is reinforced by further modifications to the experiments in which an erasing device is placed just in front of the detector which causes the particles to revert to a different mode. But it also suggests that whatever state a particle adopts by perceiving what the future environment may be can be undone at any time before the actual observation is made. And that is an important aspect of these experiments as we shall see.The second aspect of particle behavior we should note relates to what are called Feynmans sum over paths" equations. Richard Feynman another Nobel Prize-winning physicist demonstrated that although particles are free to choose from all probable paths the path that leads to the Classical laws of physics is the most probable path. But as Kaku notes Feynman showed that the Newtonian (Classical) path is simply the most probable path not the only path."33 Particles are still free to adopt any of the other paths.There remains only one further thing to note about quantum physics and that is the question of how the quantum laws morph into the Classical laws. Scientists still dont know the answer to that question which prompted Weinberg to suggest that what is needed is a quantum-mechanical model" that shows how as a result of repeated interactions of a conscious outside observer with individual systems the wave function of the combined system evolves with certainty to a final wave function in which the conscious outside observer has become convinced that the probabilitiesof the individual measurements are what are prescribed by the Copenhagen interpretation."34Now that may all sound like gobbledygook to non-scientists but all it really means is that we need an explanation of how the uncertainty inherent in the quantum laws that apply to fundamental particles have brought about the predictable deterministic physical world we see all around us. And that explanation has to include an explanation for the necessity for a conscious outside observer in order to ensure that particles adopt a particle-like state; but not just any particle-like state but the state that brought about the universe and life as we know it.So we can now consider the relationship between quantum physics and Genesis.The first relates to the words And God said ..." followed by And God saw ..." The former are like the laser or electron gun which fires the particles towards the detector. The particles are programmed so to speak by the intention expressed in the words which follow the words And God said ..." thus enabling them to predict which state they should assume in the expectation that the measurement signified by the words And God saw ..." will be realized.However that final state is only locked in once the measurement is in fact made. That is why we see at each stage of the two stage process a repeat of the action. First in stage one God is said to direct what action is to take place (And God said let there be light"); the action then takes place (and there was light"); and finally in stage two the action is locked in by a measurement (And God saw the light").It is fundamentally important that this second stage take place in order to create the irreversible effect" referred to by Rees.35 The reason for the need to ensure the process causes an irreversible effect" is because other variations of the experiments show that where an erasure device is inserted just in front of the detection screen .... it has the effect of ... undoing the past even undoing the ancient past."36But it should be noted that future measurements dont actually change what happened in the past they only really indicate whether or not the initial instruction has been realised or fully settled". Greene says this: The future measurements do not change anything at all about things that took place in your experiment in the past … but … they do influence the kinds of details you can invoke when you subsequently describe what happened in the past."37He goes on to explain that we thus see that the future helps shape the story you tell of the past."38And that brings us to verse 5. And we shall consider this verse in reverse order dealing with the latter part first.And the evening and the morning were the first day." Genesis 1: 5It seems odd that a day would not be described as morning to evening but rather that both the evening" and the morning" constitute a period of time. But it begins to make sense in the light of Greenes assessment of the delayed-choice experiments and particularly the further modification in which an erasure device" is inserted in front of the detector thus undoing the past".Genesis emphasizes the importance of the measurement element of the two-stage process which creates the irreversible effect" by defining the whole process as the evening and the morning were the first day." These words signify that the measurement made at the conclusion of the process (And God saw …") created aconsistent and definite history" which manifested itself only after the future to which the initial instruction led had been fully settled."The initial instruction or intention signified by the words And God said …" could have been undone at any time before the measurement was made. That is what the modified delayed-choiceexperiments demonstrate when an erasure device" is inserted in front of the detector. As Greene says this can have the effect of undoing the past even undoing the ancient past."So the words And God saw …" are crucial to create an irreversible effect" otherwise the initial intention could be undone at any time thereafter. It has the effect of settling … a consistent and definite history" which is signified by defining the process as the evening and the morning were the first day." The final measurement sets the whole process in stone so to speak.Although this may all seem a little perplexing at first it is in fact what we do on a daily basis in our own lives. For example when you make a decision to go to university to get a degree you give yourself a kind of instruction as to how you want the immediate future of your life to progress. You then apply are offered a place and start your course. At this stage your objective of getting a degree is not at all settled. It is only fullysettled" or achieved when you sit your final exams they are marked (measured) and you pass and are awarded the degree. The awarding of the degree creates a consistent and definite history" because the future to which your initial decision leads has been fully settled." Conversely at any time before you sit your final exams and pass your objective of getting a degree is not fully settled; any number of things could intervene to prevent that happening. And if that happens you revert to the original position of having to make a decision on what to do next. Your past decision is undone." Like the particle in a wave-like mode an interference pattern"39 again appears in your life.However as Greene also points out this does not change the fact that you originally made a decision to go to university it only tells a different story of what happened in relation to that initial decision. As Greene says the future that did not result in a degree helps shape the story you tell of your past decision to get a degree."Our lives are generally segmented into just such a set of objectives that we work to achieve. Each segment is like the days" described in Genesis including the seventh day" when God is said to have rested from all His work. We humans retire.Human life simply imitates the behaviour of fundamental particles.And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night." Genesis 1: 5This naming of what God is said to have created clearly symbolizes how the fundamental laws of quantum physics morph into the classical laws that are so successful at explaining common experience in essence it demonstrates … how the atomic and subatomic shed their magical weirdness when they combine to form macroscopic objects."40 It demonstrates how the phenomena of the micro-world combine to form the objects that make up our every-day reality.It should be noted that this naming uses capital letters Day" and Night". And this naming only occurs on two other occasions in the Genesis account of creation at Verses 8 and 10. As we shall see in subsequent articles these instances also relate to the transition of matter from one form to another.So this naming is clearly to emphasize that a transition has occurred from the quantum state of affairs to a Classical state of affairs which gives the foundation for the deterministic predictable world we see all around us and which was a pre-requisite for the emergence of sustainable life.In effect these words give us Weinbergs quantum mechanical model … that describes not only various systems under study but also something representing a CONSCIOUS OBSERVER." It is a model which shows how the wave function of the combined system evolves with certainty to a final wave function" because of repeated interactions of the OBSERVER with INDIVIDUAL SYSTEMS." 41This naming of the new state of matter indicates that the first transition of the matter we started with on Day One into the matter that would underpin the physical world as we know it had been completed. And that speaks to us of order which brings us to the final matter for consideration in respect of the first day" the words that it was good."And God saw the light that it was good." Genesis 1: 4We have already seen that the words And God saw the light" was the first step in creating the kind of universe that our very existence depends on" by ensuring anirreversible effectthat established an excess of matter over antimatter." It established the firm basis on which to build the remaining elements of a universe that could sustain life. It transformed the chaotic world of quantum physics into the predictable ordered world of Classical physics.So we can see that locking in the light" at just the right moment to ensure that there would be enough matter left over to create a life-sustaining universe was good". Establishing order over chaos is good" in the physical world just as it is in human affairs.But this was only the first step in establishing a system of law that leads to order; a system of law that in the end manifests itself as a human organism endowed with a capacity for moral judgment.The next article charts the next step in that process as we consider Day Two.Joseph BH McMillan. This article is an abridged extract of Chapter 2 of A Final Theory of God which is available from Amazon.com
