Genesis

I often see people trying to pass off the books of Genesis, from the bible, as being close enough to scientific knowledge that it's worthy of being considered true advice from some god or other which got a bit mixed up in the reading.

First of all, the christian myth of Genesis is but a carbon copy of one of many earlier religions. Like pretty much all of christianity, it's been borrowed from somewhere else, twisted a little to make it look original, bound up in one complete bit - with the inconsistent bits left out - and handed out at schools and missions throughout the world.

Both christianity's and judaism's bibles start like this:

1:1 In the beginning God created heaven and earth.
1:2 The earth was without form and empty, with darkness on the face of the depths, but God's spirit moved on the water's surface.
1:3 God said, 'There shall be light,' and light came into existence.
1:4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness.
1:5 God named the light 'Day,' and the darkness He named 'Night.' It was evening and it was morning, one day.

Ok, a god created it all. You could start out and say that's the big bang. Everything has to start somewhere, so there's no real trick involved here. Every religion and tribal story ever has a starting point, so let's see how we go from there.

The first issue for biblical accuracy is at 1.2.

Being without form and empty is a great start, because that could easily describe the dust cloud which earth is presumed to have formed from.

However, the waters didn't form until much, much later, and the light predated the earth by some billions of years, so, not even close. The dividing of light into darkness is the first real clue that the story is made up and not of divine origin.

There is division between light and dark, the earth just rotates on its axis. This is obviously a naive effort to use what little human knowledge existed to give some kind of rational explanation - and it's so wrong that it cannot be considered as having any outside knowledge.

Biblical astrophysics = fail

 
The Second Day
 
1:6 God said, 'There shall be a sky in the middle of the water, and it shall divide between water and water.'
1:7 God [thus] made the sky, and it separated the water below the sky from the water above the sky. It remained that way.
1:8 God named the sky 'Heaven.' It was evening and it was morning, a second day.

A sky in the middle of the water?

So the water and sky were mixed up? Did gravity not exist then? Very strange, and if someone's able to advise me how that is anything like any kind of reality, I'd love an explanation. Rain clouds won't work as they are not in any way "above the sky".

Biblical meteorology = fail

 
The Third Day
 
1:9 God said, 'The waters under the heaven shall be gathered to one place, and dry land shall be seen.' It happened.
1:10 God named the dry land 'Earth,' and the gatherings of water, He named 'Seas.' God saw that it was good.
1:11 God said, 'The earth shall send forth vegetation. Seed bearing plants and fruit trees that produce their own kinds of fruits with seeds shall be on the earth.' It happened.
1:12 The earth sent forth vegetation, plants bearing their own kinds of seeds, and trees producing fruits containing their own kinds of seeds. God saw that it was good.
1:13 It was evening and it was morning, a third day.

The land and water separating is not too bad, but there's some awful chronology on the way!

Seed bearing plants didn't appear until after all forms of animals aside from mammals had arisen.

Again, the bible's explanation is clearly a naive attempt to explain something rationally - animals are far more complicated than plants, so plants must have arisen first. Alas, scientific evidence is complete and shows that the first flowering plants did not arrive until well after the dinosaurs.

Even if you want to be pedantic and claim "seed-bearing" plants such as conifers, you'd better be ready to eat one to show that point. And even they originated only ~340 mya, far less time than many different animal types.

Biblical botany = fail.

 
The Fourth Day
 
1:14 God said, 'There shall be lights in the heavenly sky to divide between day and night. They shall serve as omens [and define] festivals, days and years.
1:15 They shall be lights in the heavenly sky, to shine on the earth.' It happened.
1:16 God [thus] made the two large lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the smaller light to rule the night. [He also made] the stars.
1:17 God placed them in the heavenly sky to shine on the earth,
1:18 to rule by day and by night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. God saw that it was good.
1:19 It was evening and it was morning, a fourth day.

Again, we see a clear miss by the biblical scholars.

It shows that those biblical scholars had been smart enough to figure that the stars conformed to patterns, and that within the patterns there were daily and annual movements, in accordance with the seasons. Then, they confirm it for us by again placing the earth at the centre.

Biblical astronomy = fail

 
The Fifth Day
 
1:20 God said, 'The water shall teem with swarms of living creatures. Flying creatures shall fly over the land, on the face of the heavenly sky.'
1:21 God [thus] created the great sea monsters, along with every particular species of living thing that crawls, with which the waters teem, and every particular species of winged flying creature. God saw that it was good.
1:22 God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and become many, and fill the waters of the seas. Let the flying creatures multiply on the land.'
1:23 It was evening and it was morning, a fifth day.

Another naive and obvious attempt to categorise animals and plants.

Mammals are smarter than everything else, so must have been created last.

Alas, mammals pre-date birds by many millions of years.

Biblical palaeontology = fail

 
The Sixth Day
 
1:24 God said, 'The earth shall bring forth particular species of living creatures, particular species of livestock, land animals, and beasts of the earth.' It happened.
1:25 God [thus] made particular species of beasts of the earth, particular species of livestock, and particular species of animals that walk the land. God saw that it was good.
1:26 God said, 'Let us make man with our image and likeness. Let him dominate the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock animals, and all the earth - and every land animal that walks the earth.'
1:27 God [thus] created man with His image. In the image of God, He created him, male and female He created them.
1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, 'Be fertile and become many. Fill the land and conquer it. Dominate the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every beast that walks the land.
1:29 God said, 'Behold, I have given you every seed bearing plant on the face of the earth, and every tree that has seed bearing fruit. It shall be to you for food.
1:30 For every beast of the field, every bird of the sky, and everything that walks the land, that has in it a living soul, all plant vegetation shall be food.' It remained that way.
1:31 God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. It was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.

Biblical empathy = fail