Genesis and Creation (12) - The First Day

On the first day, God created light and darkness, but light is just a special form of energy. This suggests that God created all the energy in the universe on the first day. I don’t how long he took to create this energy. Humans did not exist and human time had not begun, so God’s action cannot be measured in terms of human concepts. The important thing is that he created all the energy in the universe in one unbroken action (a divine day). He did not need to pause for a break while he regathered his strength. He did not need to recharge his batteries for a second go at the job. He did not need to take a breather. The fact that God achieved this mighty task in one single action demonstrates his omnipotence. Only an infinitely powerful being could accomplish this alone during one divine day.

Darkness is the absence of light. It cannot be created directly, but appears when light is withdrawn. (A room becomes dark when the light is turned off). This implies that light and energy were not spread evenly through space when God created them. He must have gathered the light together into clumps leaving some parts of space in darkness. Genesis does not explain how God did this. He may have spread light though space and then drawn it together to cause darkness to emerge. Or he may have created all the energy at one point of singularity and let it go, just for the fun of it, or so the angels could watch the fireworks. (The microwave radiation that scientist have detected might be the remnant of this event).

We do not know how God created energy and light. We should just be glad that he did. The really important thing is that when he had finished, God said that it was good. I suppose in this context, good really means “Wow! That was fun!”