Bible and science on world creation

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleБиблия и наука о сотворении мира
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Saprykin, Dmitry
5. lemma category Various approaches to the problem of correlation between science and theology
6. Publication date 1999
7. lemma work Father Gleb Kaleda [Author]. Bible and science on world creation (An essay of the Genesis scientific exegesis)
8. lemma manifestations Библия и наука о сотворении мира. Опыт естественно-научного толкования Книги Бытия. Клин, Фонд "Христианская жизнь", 1999 : Bible and science on world creation - Klin: Foundation "Christian life", 1999.
9. Keywords Father Gleb Kaleda - Genesis, Bible - Freedman Alexander - Creationism
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Gleb_Kaleda/biblija-i-nauka-o-sotvorenii-mira/
12. Lemma body

    1. By means of analysis and collation of the Bible texts and contemporary scientific data, the author makes an attempt to prove that the Christian and the modern scientific approach to the world origin are not controversial.

       While tracing historical sources the author detects that the dispute between geocentric and heliocentric positions does not represent a conflict between religion and science, neither contradictions between science and Church. “It has been most likely a contradiction between various scientific conceptions involving some social forces of the epoch”.

       Father Gleb argues that only Sacred Scripture rather than writings of holy fathers who never dogmatized their vision of nature, may reveal the evidence of conflict between scientific and religious conceptions of the world origin and structure, but the Scripture books, except for Genesis, deal mainly with the relations of man and God rather than the outer material world laws and its history.

       Kaleda scrutinizes the Genesis first chapter in comparison with the A.Freedman’s and Hubble’s scientific cosmological model of the Universe origin and constitution, O.Y.Schimdt’s hypothesis of the solar system origin, V.I.Vernadskiy’s works and others. The author believes that the developing science is closer and closer coming to the agreement with the Moses’s narrative. It is nowadays that we can perceive the beginning of the world, appearance of light before Sun and stars, anthropic factor in the nature development and so on. The author considers Israelite prophet providence to exceed not only the ancient people limited beliefs, but the New Age naturalists’ visions as well.

       Meditating upon the Biblical text the author brings out a theological problem of large scientific significance: has God created unchangeable and static world, or may the God’s world develop and change? The author assumes, it is easier from the point of view of the Christian theology confessing the Almighty God to accept the scientific theories of mobile and developing Universe rather than of static one.

       From the Bible story of the world creation we see, as the author writes, that the matter did not merely develop as a consequence of its initial properties, but the God’s will from stage to stage bestowed new abilities to the elements, expressing Itself in the form of natural laws which have maintained their significance by today.

       For Kaleda there is nothing antichristian in hypothesis of man’s descent from a simian being: “As a part of earth that is descending from earth they could have served as the material for his creation”. Most important, the man who had before been “the dust of earth”, an animal, has got the Holy Spirit and through it the capacity of real communion with the Divinity and chance for eternal life.