In the Beginning . . .: Science Faces God in the Book of Genesis

by Isaac Asimov

In the Beginning: Science Faces God in the Book of Genesis. The beginning of time. The origin of life. In our Western civilization, there are two influential accounts of beginnings. One is the biblical account, compiled more than two thousand years ago by Judean writers who based much of their thinking on the Babylonian astronomical lore of the day. The other is the account of modern science, which, in the last century, has slowly built up a coherent picture of how it all began. Both represent the best thinking of their times, and in this line-by-line annotation of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, Isaac Asimov carefully and evenhandedly compares the two accounts, pointing out where they are similar and where they are different.

 

“There is no version of primeval history, preceding the discoveries of modern science, that is as rational and as inspiriting as that of the Book of Genesis,” Asimov says. However, human knowledge does increase, and if the biblical writers “had written those early chapters of Genesis knowing what we know today, we can be certain that they would have written it completely differently.” Isaac Asimov brings to this fascinating subject his wide-ranging knowledge of science and history—and his award-winning ability to explain the complex with accuracy, clarity, and wit.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Religion, History, Reference, Philosophy, Spirituality

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t really understand the low ratings for this, as I found it to be a fascinating evaluation of the sources, myths, and quasi-history that were combined to create the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Except for a few “no kidding” moments (telling us that scientifically, it is unlikely that people could live to be nearly 1000 years old, for example), the “science vs. the Bible” element isn’t really a big part of this. It is similar to Harold Bloom’s The Book of J, so if you liked that then you’ll probably like this.

[Susan]

Interesting read. There were a few holes in the connections he made between biblical scholarship and science, but hard to put in all in a short book. The first question to ask is, what was the purpose of the scriptures? ~ not meant to be a book about science, but to answer questions. Always good to remember the context, the time written, and the limitations of the people. Some points you can't push too far.
Great book to start a discussion integrating scripture and science, and have Tolkien (philologist) and Tielhard de Chardin (paleontologist and theologian) as part of the discussion.

[Jeff Rudisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Observe how legends get incorporated and transformed into holy writings.
A fabulously entertaining and enlightening exploration of the book of Genesis.

[Michael Karol · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone was born to analyze the first 11 chapters of Genesis in the Bible, and compare it to the scientific leaps and bounds we have made since they were written, it's Asimov. As he notes, if the Biblical writers, "had written those early chapters of Genesis knowing what we know today, we can be certain that they would have written it completely differently." Spot on and fascinating, should be read by every Bible-thumper.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying the tidbits about the mythologies that stories from Genesis are drawn from. While I like the idea of Asimov trying to find the common ground between science and religion it is somewhat pointless. The fundamentalists that take the bible as the absolute word of god aren't interested in any other view. They are after all right and science is misguided.

[Eakan Gopalakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always wanted to know what the Bible's view on life and its origins were. I have always wondered how these tales in the Bible got so popular and people started believing all of it was true. This was an excellent read in breaking down verses and comparing it against what we have evidence of at that point in time in history.
I never thought I could enjoy anything about a religious book. But Isaac Asimov has made this an unstoppable read by delving into matters like when exactly certain things might have happened.
If humans wrote a script or a book, they were probably written with some thought and some of it, if not all were inspired by real events. Although a lot of the history gets twisted and mixed into cocktails to add more drama over the generations, there is evidence that some of the legends were inspired by great kings and warriors of ancient civilisation and also based on what the wise men of those days thought was how life came into being.
The fact that the Bible actually has a mix of verses from different documents made it even more interesting. One more focussed on chronology and numbers and the other on mere folklore.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry, initially exceptionally so. And yet, as it gets going, it reveals itself as a genuinely fascinating, careful, considered, precise, thorough, kind exploration of the presence (or absence) of historical or scientific knowledge in the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis. Gave me a new perspective on the Christian creation myth, with plenty of compelling ideas about where the the details of that myth actually came from, anthropologically speaking. For example, it explains where the word (and following the word, the idea of) 'Eden' comes from: Eden comes from Sumerian word meaning 'plain', and, in the eyes of an agricultural society in the Tigris-Euphrates valley enduring backbreaking daily labour, the foraging-hunting lifestyles of their ancestors who lived a way away on flatter ground would have seemed idyllic, and this sense of a 'lost paradise' left space for myths to start arising about why 'humans' (more specifically, our tribe) left or were kicked out of paradise. Nostalgia, folk etymology, and the dawn of farming all rolled into one. Interesting book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asimov starts with a framework - what does the Bible say about creation and human evolution, versus Science? This works decently well for the creation myth parts of Genesis, but starts to fall apart as we get to the later stories, like Noah. It then becomes a survey of the textual research on the Genesis, the multiple authorship theories, and tracing Biblical place names to known civilizations. Still fascination, but I get the impression that Asimov started to get bored of the project as it got further from scientific claims and into known history. My copy stopped around Abraham, which may be where the original stopped, with the interesting math of Noah living 350 years after the flood, still being alive at the time of Abraham.

It's a decent introduction to biblical criticism, and reminds me of some of my high school classes.

[Giulia · Rating 1 out of 5]

L’analisi che Asimov fa della Genesi non mi è sembrata particolarmente scientifica, per lo più si è limitato a mettere in luce l’impossibilita di alcuni eventi narrati come ospitare ogni forma di vita animale su di un’arca per un periodo prolungato o vivere più di 120 anni. Credo che ogni persona sappia che molti degli eventi narrati non siano scientificamente spiegabili anche senza leggere un intero volume. A parte alcune piccole nozioni di cui non ero a conoscenza (tipo l’effettiva esistenza della torre di babele) ma che comunque non vengono approfondite, non ho trovato nulla di interessante in questo libro che alla fine risulta essere piuttosto noioso, se non a tratti fastidioso perché in buona parte del commento sembra fare dell’ironia sul fatto che le vicende raccontate non siamo possibili.

[Julio Biason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really a fan of Asimov books and I was really eager to read some of his non-fiction books.

On this book, he discusses the Genesis, the first book of the bible. The weird thing is that the introduction makes it seem like he will use the bible as a starting point for science -- the introduction mentions that the people who wrote the bible were not stupid, and they were the most smart people at the time -- so I was expecting it to be more like "they thought this, but now we know this". It wasn't like this; but it was really interesting for pointing what was in the bible and what know at the time.

So although it is not a journey to the science, its a really interesting journey to history in the region were the bible was written.

[BRT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Isaac Asimov attempts to explain the Book of Genesis using science. It was quite interesting to read about the likely sources which the writers of Genesis drew from and to have the descriptions placed geographically. Obviously the writers didn't have the knowledge of the world and science that we have now so their explanations seem fantastical to us. However, Mr. Asimov often takes a condescending tone towards the writings and the authors. Definitely not for those who take the word of the Bible as fact and not really a well sourced book for those looking to research the Bible intellectually.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd learned about the J-doc and P-doc back in college, but Asimov presents it all so clearly and blends the stories with actual science, mathematics, and historical records. He uses primarily the KJV bible, but also references the RSV when a clearer translation is needed. A good source for those who find the story of Genesis confusing or conflicting.

[Mike Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do the first 11 chapters of Genesis stack up against what science tells us about the beginning of our world? This isn’t the first or, probably, the most scholarly exposition of the subject, but it’s well written and accessible. At the very least, it provides an excuse for heathens like myself to revisit what we studied decades ago in theology classes.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoy it very much.

It explains a lot better than other books I have read its something I Wil keep to read again as is a lot of information to understand.

[Antonio Matta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, it is hard to read, tends to be boring, but anyway it delivers a very interesting
approach in order to understand better the book of Genesis.

[Gavin Ayling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A respectful analysis of one of the most famous parts of the world's most famous book.

[Stefano Fossati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impossibile non apprendere qualcosa di nuovo, Asimov non delude mai.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Isaac Asimov book. I thoroughly enjoyed his writing. It was readable, clear, and easy to follow. Asimov is simply using science to help explain the book of Genesis. He picks certain passages and explains them through the use of science and the languages. For example, Adam, in Hebrew, was not a proper noun/name. It meant "the man". A great deal of the beginning of Genesis is explained through the big bang theory. Asimov blends the biblical and the scientific almost seamlessly.

[Benn Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A generally interesting analysis and annotation of the first 11 chapters of "Genesis", it does have some minor flaws here and there. The book is footnote heavy. That is, every verse Isaac Asimov quotes is usually followed by several footnotes. (382, to be exact.) Which is fine, but in many cases, the comments Papa Ike makes seem like they are his own personal interpretation. It would have been nice if Asimov could've provided some references to the foundation of these interpretations: who founded that line of thought, how they arrived at, or just notes on where these speculations originated so that the reader might, if they so wish, read the original work for themselves. Of course, that would mean taking a book that's over 90% footnotes to begin with and added even more notations. (Although, such notes could have been appended to the end of the book as many other works of non-fiction have done.)

Another complaints (minor, I admit) I have is Asimov ignoring a phrase that pops up twice in the first few chapters of "Genesis". Just after Adam and Eve were created, God commands them to "be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth". This is the same commandment given to Noah after the Deluge, after the world had been flooded and life wiped out. I'd've been interested to see what scholars, or at least Isaac Asimov, had to say about the phrase, "replenish the earth"? After the Noahic flood, it's understandable the world would need to be replenished. But after God had just finished creating everything? As I say, that is a minor quibble.

At any rate, Isaac Asimov provides a generally well-balanced analysis of the first part of the first book of the Bible. I wouldn't call it essential reading, but it is worthwhile nonetheless.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asimov comments on the first few chapters of the Bible. From the creation until Abram. Funny, that "in the beginning" for me immediately is followed by "the universe was created". The Douglas Adams version. A move that has made a lot of people very angry. Asimov takes much care in not making people angry. He just describes what the Book tells us and what in contrast "science" tells us. There is no polemic in the book. (Well maybe a tiny little bit. So he wonders that although man and animals were strictly vegetarian in the beginning, God obviously was not since he preferred animal sacrifices.)
I was aware (or did remember, I read this book a lifetime ago) that there were two different creation stories. But I did not know that the P-document and J-document are mixed up through the whole period described here. The Bible starts with the later P-Document, but whenever the early editor thought the old document was more colorful (and certainly creatin the woman out of the rib of the man makes a better story) they inserted it. And a way to distinguish it is that the J-document speaks of "the Lord" whereas P speaks of God. That is quite fascinating.
One of the most fascinating facts is that people honestly (well, I am not quite sure) claim that there are no contradictions in the Bible. When in reality it is full of contradictions.

Asimov has too much respect for the Bible to dwell on it. But, I think it would not hurt to point out e.g. that the story about Noah’s ark ist just ridiculous. - I remember vividly that as a kid of 10 or so I started to doubt that the story could be taken literally. I will probably rot in hell.

[R. Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asimov spends as much time, if not more, analyzing the history and etymology of the book of Genesis as he does its science. That's ok with me. I grew frustrated with the lack of sources, though. Isaac Asimov makes some incredibly bold claims - like how "good and evil" is a Hebrew idiom for "everything" - that would actually be a pretty big deal if they were true. This is a good book, but it's frustrating to hear somebody make claims about the intent of the Bible's authors and not back that shit up at least a LITTLE.

[R. Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't quite what it promises to be. The introduction (and subtitle) claim a book that analyzes the science of the book of Genesis. It does - but it also examines the history, culture, and etymology of Genesis, perhaps more so. This isn't necessarily bad; I actually prefer it when he goes off on those tangents. Isaac Asimov makes some interesting points, but the book suffers woefully from a lack of sources. It's difficult to take seriously an author who, in all earnestness, discusses the intention of the authors of the Bible without backing that shit up.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The use of the KJV is my biggest complaint. Other than that, the book does a decent job of presenting the scientific and apologist arguments, so I can see where they converge and diverge. More importantly, I enjoyed reading about all the possible sources for the biblical stories contained in the first few chapters of the Bible.

[Purple Osprey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Не отрицаю необходимость антирелигиозных книг, но это какая-то несуразная попытка одновременно и притянуть научные факты к строфам Библии, и показать ненаучность описанных в Библии событий.
Представьте себе книгу всерьёз обсуждающую невозможность разговора Красной Шапочки и волка из-за строения голосового аппарата у волков.

[Lynne Komidar · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest books I have read

[Curtiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good Doctor looks at scientific explainations for the origins of the universe, our solar system, and life itself.

[Alexandr Shishov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting approach to study Bible :)

[Shawn Marie Hardy]

Just started reading it. We shall see...

[Jason]

An interesting look at the historical and scientific facts and myths behind the very beginning of Genesis, through the flood and the birth of Abram.

[Lee Ezell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

I wanted some supplemental information and found this book very good for that purpose. I would recommend it highly to those who are interested in more information.