First Day: The Light

Genesis conveys a cyclical story of creation, alliance, consciousness, failure, true repentance, and spiritual baptism of responsibility. In the first part of God’s Testament, we see in figures and examples of personalities the evolution of the Spirit until they reach the State of Christ.

The Creator

As we go further on in our discussion about God’s creation narrated in the book of Genesis we realize that it is inherent in us to naturally try to find a Way, a Truth, and a Life of the origin of things, of the representation of Everything and Nothing: God.

One thing I may add is that the book of Genesis is a beautiful and even poetic narrative that brings forth an idea and a concept of how everything was created and that later on would be a topic in scientific discussions. Funny enough, science and art are closer than we think. Musicians could argue about it.

As for the endless debate between science and religion in attempting to keep them separated from each other as endless enemies. Here, we are prone to the thought of the rabbi and theologian, Eliezer Berkovitz, in his book “God, Man and History”:

“We are not concerned here with the critique of the scientific validity of the evolutionary hypothesis as such. Our interest is, rather, limited to the connection that may exist between this theory and the idea of creation. Now, whatever evolution may explain, it does not explain the beginning. For the evolutionary principle to be effective, one must assume the existence of some material which is subject to its sway. Natural selection may perhaps bring about the survival of the fittest, but only if there has previously been in existence a whole display of variations from among which the fittest may be selected. No matter how far back we pursue the rise of the variations over which natural selection exerts its control, we must still start somewhere with something that did not come into being as the result of evolution. Nothing will not evolve into anything.

Even in its most radical form, the evolutionary theory must begin with the premise that prior to all evolution, there was something in existence from which, as the result of the evolutionary principle, the rest followed.”

Now, let's go further in our study, to understand the symbols behind the First Day.

First Day: The Light

[3] God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. [4] God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. [5] God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

‭(Genesis 1:3-5 MEV‬)

Making complex ideas into a simple story. That’s an endless pursuit. Einstein used to say: “A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended its area of applicability.”

What do we see here if not that? We have two complex ideas, Order and Chaos, turned into a simple one so we can, with the limited processing of our brains, grasp even the faint idea of how God's act of creation happened.

First things first (as the day, ironically), here we see the emergence of Paradox as a principle for creation.

Paradox

What does this word mean? According to Merriam-Webster “the ancient Greeks were well aware that a paradox can take us outside our usual way of thinking. They combined the prefix para-(“beyond”or “outside of”) with the verb dokein (“to think”), forming paradoxos, an adjective meaning “contrary to expectation.” Latin speakers used that word as the basis for a noun paradoxum, which English speakers borrowed during the 1500s to create a paradox.”

This shows us that the origin of the word is connected to the idea of what is contrary to expectations. A sense that can be very familiar to us, because this happens all the time. For example, when we have high expectations of something to then let us down, or when we have no expectations, but then they exceed them.

The emergence of paradox is caused by the comprehension that it cannot be light without shadow and the same goes for shadow, which can't exist without light. 

A paradox shows that everything has a duality. Why is duality or paradox important in our lives? Because it opens our minds to the notion that, regardless of our position, nothing is prevented from having a counterpart. As we said that God is Everything and Nothing at the same time, we are discussing His Paradox.

One thing is certain, God is beyond our limited comprehension, and for that reason, His is beyond our understanding of morality and immorality. So, when the creation is talking about light and darkness, order and chaos, it goes beyond the morality we understand as a reality in our world.

Religious degrees of understanding

In regards to the symbolism of light and darkness. You might, already thought of a, nowadays, common symbol for it and suspect that we are getting this concept from Daoism. It is true that Daoist were the ones that first comprised this concept in a comprehensible symbolism, Yin and Yang, and yes, it is the same idea.

The question here is not who said it first, but how this universal concept is repeatedly represented. Our objective is to understand the essence of things. If two religions bring different perspectives of the same concept or the same essence, the matter becomes what is the best representation for you to understand the universal principles of God. The universal principles of God will always emerge to be understood by His creatures, regardless of the different religious perspectives.

Each perspective of God will be different, but the Essence is the same. Alziro Zarur used to say that: “There are as many religions as there are degrees of understanding of human beings, according to the sum of their incarnations.”

Here is not an attempt to diminish other religions. It is a statement about the different degrees of observation. It does not represent steps as if there are religions better or superior than others. Degrees, the word answers by itself. Religions are all at the same level. The difference is the angle (degree) to which they are able to reach the Essence of God.