Before looking at Genesis 1 and 2 in some detail we should be clear that it was not the aim of the ancient writer to present the reader with an impersonal, analytical, scientific observation of how the universe came into existence. Modern science is concerned with what it can observe measure and analyze. The science of cosmology is concerned with assessing the observable structure of the universe which we live in, using the knowledge of physicists, mathematicians, chemists, biologists, and many other kinds of scientists. Theoretical cosmology presents theories of how the universe came into existence, but we should notice two points here; the beginning is beyond any human observation and there is considerable disagreement amongst scientists about the various theories presented in this last century. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a period of extraordinary scientific development, an impersonal, agnostic or atheistic outlook has dominated Western scientific thinking. This has led to a tendency to deny that God exists or, if he exists, has little to do with the existence and structure of our universe. We can find reasons for this outlook. The discoveries of modern science have been so exciting that many people began to believe that science had the answers to every question and problem. Too often, the leaders of the Christian Church and other religions misunderstood what scientists were saying and had angry confrontations with them instead of assessing what new knowledge or theories signified, and too often ordinary Christians and ordinary people of other religions did not understand what the arguments were all about. The rapid rise of widespread Marxism accompanied the spread of an atheistic philosophy which had no place for God.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, there has been widespread realization that science does not have all the answers to our problems, however, and in fact the nuclear age has brought us a great many more problems. There is a deep fear in many people of the technologically advanced nations that men will not be able to go on controlling the powers they have discovered. Side by side with the benefits of scientific discovery there are great dangers.

It is against this situation of our own times that we should study Genesis 1 and 2 which puts human beings in a cosmic setting and makes some very important affirmations about the universe in which we live and the significance of the human race.

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