Creation (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A) : Revision Note

The Biblical Accounts of Creation

• The Creation accounts of how the universe came into existence are recorded at the start of the first book of the Bible, which is called Genesis, meaning beginnings

• There are two accounts of creation recorded, one in Genesis 1 and one in Genesis 2

• Genesis 1

  • Describes a week-long creation process, where different elements of nature are created on each of six days, with God resting on the seventh day

  • In days 1-3, God forms the world, separating elements from one another

  • In days 4-6, which mirror days 1-3, God fills creation, adding new elements each day

  • Man and woman are created together on the sixth day

• Genesis 2

  • Describes a one-day creation process

  • God creates man first

  • Not wanting to leave man alone, God creates animals

  • Eventually, God decides man needs another human companion, so He creates woman

What Biblical Creation Accounts Say About God

• There are several key truths Catholics can learn about God from the Biblical Creation accounts:

• God is the Creator

  • Both accounts clearly state that God is the creator

  • Genesis 1 says: 'In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the Earth...'

  • Genesis 2 says: 'In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens...'

  • For God to have created everything, it must be true that God existed before creation

• God is transcendent

  • This means God is outside the universe and beyond all things

  • Catholics believe that God is eternal, meaning that He had no start and will have no end

  • While he is not part of creation, he is the reason everything exists

  • God's transcendence means that humans cannot fully comprehend him

• God is omnipotent (all-powerful)

  • God created the whole world unaided, showing his power

  • He was able to create from nothing (ex nihilo)

  • He was able to create simply by speaking things into existence: 'Let there be light,' and there was light, showing his power

• God is omnibenevolent (all-good, all-loving)

  • God showed his benevolence (loving, caring nature) in creating the world in both Creation accounts

  • According to Genesis, God was concerned to make everything fit for his greatest creation: human beings who were created in his own image

    • In Genesis 1, at the end of each day, God saw that his creation was good

    • In Genesis 2, God says, 'It is not good for man to be alone,' showing his care for humans as part of the process of creation

What Biblical Creation Accounts Say About Humans

• There are several key truths Catholics can learn about humanity's relationship with God and creation from the Biblical Creation accounts:

• Humans are made in the image of God (Imago Dei)

  • Genesis 1 makes it clear that both men and women are created in the image of God:

• According to Genesis 2, God 'breathed His life' into humans

  • ‘Breath’ is also translated as 'spirit’ which means that God put his Spirit into humans, another way of describing the belief that humans are made in God’s image

• Humans are sacred or holy

  • Humans are treated differently from animals in the Biblical Creation stories

  • Only humans are made in the image of God and given the Breath or Spirit of God

  • This gives humans a unique place in Creation

• Humans are free

  • Being made in God's image means humans can freely make moral choices

  • They have knowledge of good and evil and a moral conscience

• Humans have dominion over creation

  • God has given humans dominion or power over everything in the created world, when he said 'Fill the Earth and subdue it' in Genesis 1

• Humans are stewards of creation

  • The idea of stewardship is equally important to the idea of dominion

  • God said 'Fill the Earth and subdue it' in Genesis 1

  • Genesis 2 explains that 'God put the man in the Garden of Eden to till and keep it'

  • Stewardship is the responsibility humans have for caring for creation

Implications of these beliefs

• Catholics believe that they are important to God because they share his spirit and this should make them uphold the sacred nature of all human life, which must be protected and respected

• They believe that they have been given dominion over the world but that this carries a great responsibility: they must care for the world as they have stewardship for everything in it

  • This duty of stewardship should influence how they live their lives: they should care for the environment and every part of God’s creation

• They need to remember to show love and gratitude for God’s gifts

• They need to keep in mind that they will be accountable to God for how they treated his world

Different Christian Beliefs About Creation

• All Christians believe that the Biblical Creation accounts contain important truths about God’s creation 

• However, there are different ways to interpret them

• Literalists or Creationists believe that:

  • God created the world exactly as described in Genesis, in six days

  • Humans are all descendants of Adam and Eve

  • Scientific explanations that seem to contradict the literal truth of the Bible as the Word of God are wrong - so they would not accept the Big Bang theory or the theory of evolution

• Many Christians are non-literalists: they would believe that God created the world, but this might not have been exactly in the method the Bible says. They believe that:

  • The Genesis stories are a form of meditation on creation. They are more symbolic than ‘fact’, using metaphor to describe what happened

    • For example, the word ‘day’ used in Genesis is actually a metaphor for a longer period of time

  • They are not intended to be literal scientific descriptions, but rather theological accounts that explain why the world came to exist

  • Science and religion can be used together to explain the existence of the universe: science explains how the universe came into existence; religion explains why, and there is no conflict between the two

• Although the Catholic Church has accepted both approaches, the metaphorical interpretation of non-literalists is more widely accepted and has been supported by Pope Francis, who has a background in science as well as being the leader of the Catholic Church