The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By ScienceAckland, T. S. (Thomas Suter)
Religion
The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By Science
Ackland, T. S. (Thomas Suter)
Bible and science; Creation; Religion and science
These phenomena seem to point to the conclusion that the
condensation of light in the sun has been a very gradual process,
which is even yet incomplete. If we suppose that at the time of
the formation of the coal measures it was not far advanced, but
that a diffused light extended beyond the orbit of the earth,
similar in some respects to the present Zodiacal light, but equal
in intensity to the light which we now see in the corona, the
phenomena of the third day will be satisfactorily accounted for.
There is, however, still an enormous amount of mystery connected
with the sun. It is the centre from which an inconceivable amount
of force in the shape of light, heat, actinism, and probably other
manifestations, is hourly poured forth. If the whole of that force
were divided into two thousand million parts, the portion received
by the earth would be represented by one of those parts, and the
whole amount received by all the planets would fall short of
twelve of them. All the rest is radiated away into space, and so
far as we know at present lost to the system. The question then
arises, "How is this enormous expenditure supplied?" Various
sources of heat have been suggested, but none of them seem
satisfactory. One conceivable source there is, but that lies out
of the domain of science. Then again, metals, which only our most
powerful furnaces will even melt, exist in the sun's atmosphere in
the state of vapour. What must be the intensity of the heat which
underlies that metallic atmosphere? and what can be the solid or
fluid substances which, from the continuity of the spectrum, we
know must exist there?
We turn now to the Mosaic Record to see what light it throws upon
and receives from this investigation. The first thing to be
noticed is that the word used by Moses for the sun and moon is not
the same as that employed to denote light. It properly signifies a
light-holder, such as a candlestick, and harmonizes with the view
that the sun in his original state was not luminous, but was made
a luminary by the condensation of light previously existent under
other conditions. In the next place, though the apparent
dimensions of the sun and moon are the same, Moses correctly
describes the one as "the great light," the other as "the little
light," thus indicating a knowledge to which the astronomers of
his day had probably not attained.
The relation between the accounts of the first and fourth day's
work becomes clear if we assume that the sun was not made a
luminary till the fourth day. The division of night and day
depends upon two things, the rotation of the earth upon its axis,
and the concentration of light in the sun. Hence when the rotation
of the earth commenced that division was potentially provided for,
but the provision would not take effect until the second condition
was fulfilled by the concentration of light in the sun. The
indications given by the coal measures point, as we have seen, to
the same conclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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