[1]"
[Footnote 1: It also needs only to be remarked, in passing, that we are
really in complete ignorance as to the light-medium, the
"luminiferous-ether" outside the comparatively thin stratum of our own
terrestrial atmosphere. We do not know whether there might not have been
a condition of the medium in which, up to the moment of a creative
_fiat_, it was incapable of transmitting light-waves.]
There is no necessary connection between the creation of light _per se_,
and the existence of any particular source (or sources) of light to our
planet or to other planets.
No justification is now needed for such a remark, and the almost
forgotten cavils of one of the "Essays and Reviews" may still survive as
a "scientific" curiosity, to warn us against too hastily concluding that
(in subjects where so little is really _known_) the Bible must be wrong,
and the favourite hypothesis of the day right.
But as a matter of fact, the text, especially when read in connection
with Job xxxviii., need not be taken to refer to any original creation
of light in the universe generally, but merely to the letting in of
light on the hitherto dark and "waste" earth. The command "Let there be
light" was followed on the next day by the formation of a firmament or
expanse. So that all the verse _necessarily_ implies is, that the thick
clouds and vapours which surrounded the earth were so dealt with, that
light could reach the earth: the light was thus divided from the
darkness, and the rotating globe would experience the alternation of day
and night.
Pages:
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203