The Book of Genesis is the first book in the bible, and it is jam-packed with extraordinary events and extraordinary people.   

In the beginning, we are told, God made heaven and earth. (Gen. 1:1)

A lot of people have scoffed at this idea—that the world came into being all-at-once, and not over millions of years. On the other hand, there’s redshift.

What is redshift? About 100 years ago, telescopes were getting bigger and better, and an astrophysicist named Hubble decided to apply spectroscopy to what he saw through his telescope—spectroscopy being the study of wavelengths. To his amazement, everything in the galaxy was awash in red—red being the color of fast movement. All the planets, all the stars—everything in the universe was moving away from everything else, and doing so with incredible speed.  It was as though there had been a massive explosion—incomprehensively powerful—a “big bang” that set the universe in existence. How did this happen? No one is quite sure.  

Genesis Chapter 1 tells us after creating heaven and earth, God created everything else—the oceans, the animals—and then saved the best for last by creating Adam and Eve “in his own image” and designating that they would be in charge. (Gen. 1:26-28).

Unfortunately, the very first humans did what a lot of other Bible characters did, and fell victim to the sin of pride. God instructed them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the wily serpent (meant to represent Satan) told them they would be equal to God if they did—and encouraged them to go ahead, and be gods.  (Gen. 3:5)

When God called them to account, Adam and Eve immediately tried to blame the other (which is also very human) and then they were cast out of paradise to lead lives of hardship and toil. Whenever you hear anyone speak of the concept of “original sin,” they are referring to Adam and Eve; as the Hungarian proverb says: “Adam bit the apple, and our teeth still ache.”