Genesis 1:6-13 - God saw that it was good

1:6-8

“Let there be a vault” (NIV), of “Let there be an expanse” (ESV), “between the waters to separate water from water”. The two waters are the waters of the earth, and the waters in the clouds. A common theme in Genesis 1 is distinction and separation. In v6 we have “God said, let there be ...” and then in v7 “So God made”. The twenty four thing really isn’t the point of all this, rather it is the order and purpose. This went against the myths of the time, and goes against the myths of our day. The “God said” and “God made” could imply that when God says something, there can be a process after this through which God enacts the thing that He has decreed. This is actually the pattern we see repeated again and again in the Bible.

1:9-13

Next we have the water and the land being separated, so that there were land masses, and seas. The land masses are not accidents. Then we move onto the production of life, in the first instance plant life. So plants are made, and fruit bearing trees are made. Each plant or tree produced seed according to its kind. So again we see that there is an order to everything. Let me just say something about chance and creation. There are some who say “God would not use chance”, statements such as this demonstrate a lack of understanding. Purposeful processes can involve a significant element of randomness, yet they will still produce a directed outcome. In mathematics there are two main types of optimisation methods. One class is gradient methods, these are what we think of as directed.  Newton- Raphson methods, which some of you may have heard of, are of this type. In some instances these work extremely well, but in others they do not.  The second class of methods include genetic algorithms. These include a significant amount of randomness. However, there is also structure in the methods, and in some problems where they are far superior to gradient methods, and they will achieve a desired outcome. So randomness can be included as part of a purposeful process. Then there is quantum mechanics, where randomness is inherent. So we need to be careful in saying things like “God would not use chance”, such a statement is not necessarily true.

“And there was evening and there was morning”. There is an ordered pattern to creation, and to life.