Let there be light

Today, we start reading Genesis, the first book of the Bible, though it was not the first book to be written. It was simply put there because it talks about the origin of nearly everything created by God. I said "nearly everything" because it does not mention where angels have come from. They are just there. We cannot expect chapter one of Genesis to be a scientific account of creation because its structure clearly shows that Genesis 1 is a hymn. The refrain "God saw that so-and-so was good ... And there was evening and there was morning, N day." repeats itself after each stanza sings the creative act of Elohim.
Yet, theories in modern cosmology, such as the Big Bang model, find their inspiration from the first day of creation, and evolution theory from day 5 and 6. Every culture has its own creation account. Where did we come from? How did the world as we know it come into existence? These are perennial questions asked by intelligent beings endowed with self-consciousness. I always fancy what if the creation account in Genesis were replaced by the 盤古 story, would cosmologists come up with the Big Bang model we have today? I am sure it would be a totally different version.
In 1929, Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer, discovered that the visible universe was still expanding. Reverse the timeline, we had a smaller universe a day, a year, a billion years ago. There must be a time when all the materials of the universe were concentrated within a very tiny space, as tiny as an atom. This, the scientists call the Super Atom. But where did it come from? How did it come into existence? Scientists cannot tell. This Super Atom is a given. If you like, it can be the primordial egg in the 盤古 story. Its gravity was unimaginably greater than any dark holes. All physical laws known nowadays would be broken down. Scientists call it a "singularity". There was not yet time! Some unknown process disturbed the symmetry of this Super Atom. It underwent an inflation stage. When space expanded, time came into existence. Changes and decays crept in. When more symmetry was disturbed, the four basic forces of the known universe were released. This was the moment when photons were able to escape from the gravity of this Super Atom.
And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light (Genesis 1:3).
Scientists calculated that this took place within the first one thousandth of a second of the existence of the Super Atom. The estimated age of this universe is about 13.7 billion years. Day has no meaning in this early stage of evolution because the sun and the earth did not exist yet. On the other hand, the primordial egg in which 盤古 resided went through a similar expansion process. But it took many eons, not days to finish. No light was emitted.
Nobody coexisted with Elohim to witness the creation process. Genesis 1 was an artistic master piece inspired by God. It carries a message that the world was created by Elohim. We are free to accept this or reject it. It only serves to answer the perennial question. We are free to come up with more acceptable hypothesis. Judaism and Christianity take this as their starting point. God created this universe for us.

Dear Lord, I thank You for creating this universe suitable for the evolution of self-conscious beings. You have left us the Bible as well as this wonderful universe to explore our destiny. May we make good use of them to foster a better and closer relationship with You. Amen.