Cosmology: Bible vs. Science

Although the Jewish Bible is intended as an ethical guidebook for man, and not as a science textbook, the basic facts that were explained in Genesis using simple language so that all could understand are quite compatible with advanced modern science:

1. The Universe did not exist forever and had a beginning in the finite past. In addition, according to Maimonides (12th century CE) we cannot know exactly when the Universe was created because time itself was created.

2. The initial Universe described as unformed matter in Genesis 1:2 was an extremely tiny point of formless matter. (Nachmanides 13th century CE)

3. All the matter in the Universe was initially created (Genesis 1:1) and the components of the Universe were gradually separated (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed).

4. The first animals were various types of swarming marine invertebrate. (Genesis 1:20).

5. There was a gradual metaphysical upward increase in biological complexity over time, that was NOT due to Darwinism.

6. Man (as we know him) is the most complex creature and was created last and very recently (Genesis 1:26). Thus recorded human history is much shorter than the age of the Universe.