Questions

A. Where did the spirits come from to incarnate on Earth as soon as it met conditions to receive them?

B. Why isn’t the progress made uniformly in all points of the Earth?

C. Do spirits of primitive also progress? 

Text for reading

631. Genesis Mosaic - According to the book of Genesis, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Then the Genesis reports: "Let light be made, and light was made" Following came plants and fruit trees, the light bodies in the firmament, the sun and the moon. Then aquatic animals, birds, land animals and finally man.

632. Another passage from Genesis: "Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let him rule over the fishes in the ocean, the birds in the sky, the beasts upon all the earth and over all the reptiles that move upon the earth.” Then God created man in his image and created male and female. God blessed them and said to them: “Grow and multiply, occupy the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish in the ocean, over the birds in the sky and over all the animals that move upon the earth.”

633. In six days, the sky and the earth were finished, with all its ornaments. On the seventh day, after having finished all his works, the Lord blessed this day and sanctified it, because ceased to produce all the works he created.

634. In view of the book of Genesis talks about the work of creation, summarized the topics above, we note that on some points there is remarkable agreement between the Mosaic Genesis and science; however, it would be erroneous to believe that it would be enough simply to replace the six twenty-four hour days of creation with six indeterminate periods in order to find a complete similarity. It would be a no less great mistake to believe that, apart from the allegorical meaning of some of the words, Genesis and science walk side by side, as if one were only a paraphrase of the other.

635. Let us note from the start that, as we have stated (chap. VII, no. 14), the number of six geological periods is arbitrary, since more than twenty-five well-characterized formations may be counted. This number merely marks out the large general phases; it was adopted in the beginning only to match the biblical text as much as possible regarding a time not too long ago when it was believed that science was to be verified by the Bible.

636. This is why that, in order to be more readily accepted, the authors of most cosmogonical theories endeavored to make science harmonize with the sacred text. Once supported by the experimental method, science felt stronger and became emancipated; today, it is the Bible that is to be verified by science.

637. Moreover, in taking as its starting point the formation of the granitic layers, geology does not include in its periods the primitive state of the earth. It is no longer concerned with the sun, the moon, the stars or the universe as a whole, which belongs to astronomy. In order to enter the framework of Genesis, one would thus have to add a primary period embracing this order of phenomena, and which could be called the astronomical period.

638. Comparing what it says Science and the reporting Genesis Mosaic, the first fact that stands out is that the work of each of the six days does not correspond as strictly as many believe to each of the six geological periods. The most noticeable concordance is that of the sequence of organic beings, which is approximately the same, and that of the appearance of humankind last. Now, this is an important fact.

639. There is also coincidence, not as to the numeric order of the periods, but as to the fact per se in the passage where it is stated that, on the third day, “the waters that are under heaven be gathered into only one place, and let the dry element appear.” This is the expression of what occurred in the tertiary period, when the upheavals of the solid crust caused the uncovering of the continents and the waters to recede to form the oceans. It was only then that land animals appeared according to both geology and Moses.

640. When Moses said that creation took six days, did he mean 24-hour days or did he understand this word to mean a period or span of time? The first hypothesis is most likely if one refers to the text itself; foremost because such is the proper meaning of the Hebrew word ïôm, translated as day; then, the specification of evening and morning, which limit each of the six days, supports the assumption that he meant ordinary days. There can be no doubt in this respect when he states in verse “He gave to the light the name day and to the darkness the name night; and evening and morning made the first day.”

641. Moreover, everything in creation was miraculous, and within the context of miracles, people could easily believe that the earth was made in six 24-hour days, especially when the primary natural laws were unknown. This belief was shared by all civilized peoples up to the time in which geology appeared, facts in hand, demonstrating its impossibility.

642. One of the points most criticized in Genesis has been the creation of the sun after the light. Attempts have been made to explain this with data furnished by geology itself, stating that in the early times of its formation, the earth’s atmosphere was loaded with dense and opaque vapors and did not allow the sun to be seen, thereby concluding that it did not exist as far as the earth was concerned. This reasoning perhaps might be acceptable if there had been inhabitants at that time to verify the presence or absence of the sun.

643. According to Moses himself, there were only plants, which by all accounts, could not have grown and multiplied without the action of the sun’s heat. Thus, there is obviously an anachronism in the order Moses assigns for the creation of the sun; however, unintentionally or not, he was not wrong in saying that the light preceded the sun.

644. Indeed, the sun is not the principle universal light, but a concentration of luminous elements upon one spot, or to state it another way, of the fluid that, in given circumstances, acquires luminous properties. This fluid, which is the cause, must have necessarily preceded the sun, which is only an effect. In principle, therefore Moses' assertion is perfectly accurate: however, it is wrong in stating that the earth was created before the sun.

645. The earth is subject to the sun in its orbital movement, so it must have been formed afterward; this is what Moses could not have known, because he did not know about the law of gravity.

646. The same idea may be found in the Genesis of the ancient Persians. In the first chapter of the Avesta, Ahura Mazda, narrating the world’s origin, states: “I created the light that was to illuminate the sun, the moon and the stars.” (Dictionnaire de mythologie universelle.) The form here is certainly clearer and more scientific than in Moses and needs no comment. 

Answer Key 

A. Where did the spirits come from to incarnate on Earth as soon as it met conditions to receive them? 

Whether they were created at that moment, or whether they came completely formed from the earth, space or other worlds, their presence after a certain time is a fact, because before their arrival there were only animals. They clothed themselves in bodies that were appropriate for their special needs and aptitudes, and which physiologically belonged to animality. Under their influence and by the exercising of their faculties, these bodies changed and improved – this is what results from observation.

The earth was thus populated with diverse categories of spirits who varied in their desire either to progress or to rebel against progress. Their bodies received the imprint of their spirit’s character, and procreating according to their respective types, the result was races that differed both physically and morally. Similar spirits continued to incarnate, preferably amongst those who were similar to them, thereby perpetuating the distinctive physical and moral characteristics of the various races and their peoples. Such characteristics are lost only over long periods of time through interbreeding and the progress of the spirits.

The spirits that came to populate the earth may be compared to those multitudes of immigrants of various origins who go to settle in a virgin land. There they find wood and stone to build their dwellings, and individuals give theirs their own different style, according to the degree of their own knowledge and particular flair. There, they form groups based on similarity of origin and taste, and these groups end up forming tribes and then whole nations with their own customs and character. (Genesis, Chap. XI, items 29 to 31.) 

B. Why isn’t the progress made uniformly in all points of the Earth? 

Progress has not been uniform throughout the human species because the more intelligent races naturally surpassed the others, aside from the fact that, upon coming to incarnate on the earth after the arrival of the first ones, spirits newly-born to the spirit life rendered the differences in progress more noticeable. In fact, it would be impossible to attribute the same antiquity of creation to the primitives barely distinguishable from the apes, to the Chinese, for example, and even less to civilized Europeans. (Genesis, Chap. XI, item 32)

C. Do spirits of primitive also progress? 

Of course. The spirits of primitives also belong to humankind; someday they will reach the level of their elders, but this certainly will not occur in bodies of the same physical race, bodies unsuited to a certain degree of moral and intellectual development. When the instrument is no longer on par with their development, they will emigrate from such surroundings to incarnate on a higher level, and so on and so forth until they have surmounted all earthly levels, at which point they will leave the earth behind to go on to other more and more advanced worlds. (Genesis, Chap. XI, item 32)