Describe the Christian cosmology and the Muslim cosmology.

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Hannah Simpson     FR/JS     Year 11

Science and Religion

Ai) Describe the Christian cosmology and the Muslim cosmology.

        Cosmology is the theory of the origin and structure of the universe. There are two accounts of the creation in the Bible and both are written in Genesis. Genesis 2 is believed to have been written about 400 years after Genesis 1. This means Genesis is the work of an editor rather than an author. According to Genesis 1, God created the whole universe in six days. On day one He created heaven and earth, light and dark. On the second day He separated the earth from the sky. Day three, He created the dry land, plants and trees. On the fourth day, He made the sun, moon and stars. On day five, He created fish and birds and finally, on day six, he made animals and humans. According to Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” Humans were also given authority over the world: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the livestock, over all the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

The sequence of events in Genesis 2 is different. In this chapter, there are no days. First, God created the heavens and the earth. He then “formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”. Thirdly, God made trees grow out of the ground and formed the Garden of Eden. God then placed Adam in the Garden on Eden. Thinking Adam would be lonely, God made birds and animals and “whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” Among all the animals, Adam found no suitable helper, so God put Adam to sleep, removed one of his ribs, and from the rib he created woman. “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20).

        There is no single story of the creation in Islam such as the stories in Genesis, though there are many references to creation. As a result of this, two different Islamic cosmologies have arisen; the traditional view and the modern view. The Qur’an is about why things were created not how. The traditional view is quite similar to the Christian concept. It argues that God created the earth, heaven and life in six days. “Your Guardian-Lord is God, who created the heavens and earth in six days” surah 7:54. In the Qur’an, there are no clear statements about the order of events. There are, however, statements that show they believe God created the universe. These statements say God: created Adam as the khalifah (the representative of Allah on earth) of the earth and made angels bow to Adam because Adam had been given free will (2:30-34); threw Adam and his wife out of the Garden for giving in to the temptation of Satan (2:35-36); created by speaking (2:117); created the sun, moon, stars and planets (7:54); separated night and day (7:54); created birds, fish and animals (16:5-8); sent water to the earth and created vegetation (20:53); created Adam as the first human being, Adam was made out of clay into which God breathed life (23:12-16). All these events are similar to the Christian cosmology and give the idea God created everything and all humans have descended from God’s direct creation, Adam and his wife.

        The modern view, more scientifically possible, is argued clearly in “The Qur’an and Modern Science” by M Bucaille. It claims that the Arabic word that has been translated to English as “days” is more correctly translated as “ages” This view is that the creation actually took six ages, rather than six days. There is no sequence of events in the Qur’an, but the first creation seems to be the heavens and they are referred to in surah 21:33 – “All the celestial bodies swim around, each in its rounded course”. It also says that life was created from the water: “We made from water every living thing” (21:30). From this, came vegetation: “sent down water from the sky with it have we produced diverse pairs of plants” (20:53). God then created man from an embryo from semen. This theory follows a more evolutionary character.

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Science and Religion

Aii) Explain why the scientific cosmology could be seen as contradicting religious beliefs.

        Scientists believe that the world started with the Big Bang. The Big Bang theory is the belief that there was a massive “explosion” that formed all matter in the universe, gradually taking the form of the gases hydrogen and helium. Scientists say that as the gases cooled, they condensed into stars and planets and earth was one of these planets. Scientists can detect background radiation in space that has been left over from the Big Bang ...

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