When I read Genesis one I perceive an image of the world that is nothing like the world I live in. I think this text describes an ancient cosmological view of the world that is now defunct. This is the reason I must turn to science, but if you think the text is accurate then explain what I have misunderstood so that I can grasp it as you do.
When I read Genesis one, it opens with these foundational words:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
When I read Cosmos by Carl Sagan, it makes a different opening statement:
The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.
Science affirms a beginning and nothing more. Genesis affirms a beginning. Scientific evidence confirms the first three words of Genesis 1:1. Carl Sagan made a dogmatic statement that the Cosmos is all that ever was. Thus Dr. Sagan affirmed a timelessness to the Cosmos without evidence to do so.
The logical Principle of Causality is: “Everything that begins has a cause.” As stated previously, books have authors, skyscrapers and bridges have builders. The universe had a beginning and must have a cause.
Logically, the notion of a beginning supports a cause to that beginning. The cause of a beginning would be One who had no beginning. His name is God.
Carl Sagan asserted that the Cosmos is all that ever was. Thus, he asserts a timelessness to the cosmos but it is only an assertion. Science confirms a beginning but nothing more. Science shows that the heavens and the earth had a beginning and estimates the beginning of the universe at around 14 billion years ago. The earth has a finite age. Galaxies, stars, planets, protons, neutrons and electrons all had a beginning. Conventional science has a name for that beginning: The Big Bang. Science can make some assumptions and postulate a Big Bang. Before a Big Bang, science can show us nothing. Scientists are human beings and they can speculate but speculation is not science.
The heavens and the earth had a beginning. Since they had a beginning, we can also be confident that they will have an end. All things are possible with God. God can make a new heavens and a new earth.
Based on evidence and logic, acknowledgement of a beginning would necessitate acknowledgement of a cause to that beginning and that would lead to an acknowledgement of God. Since the a priori presumption of conventional science is that there is no god, Carl Sagan and conventional scientists needed to assert a timelessness to the Cosmos that extended before a beginning even though they lacked evidence to do so.
Now, Cosmos with a capital "C" seems to me to be a pantheistic personification of the visible universe as "god" but that would be another topic.
Carl Sagan asserted dogma that science does not support. Science does not confirm that the Cosmos is all that ever was. Also, science can not prove the non-existence of realities in addition to the cosmos.
Faith can originate as an outworking of evidence and logic. Scientific evidence supports that there was a beginning. Scientific evidence supports a beginning (and nothing prior to a beginning). Logic supports that where there was a beginning, there was a cause to that beginning. By logic, the only force that could cause a beginning is one who had no beginning. The Name for the Force who had no beginning but caused a beginning is: God.
As affirmed by Dr. T, in the opening episode of the new Cosmos television series, one of the agreements of the community using the scientific method is: Follow the evidence wherever it leads. The evidence leads to a beginning. A beginning leads logically to a cause for that beginning. Ultimately, the cause of a beginning is One who had no beginning. His name is God.
Please do follow the evidence (and logic) where it leads. It leads to a beginning and to God.
When I continue with Genesis one, it describes an arrangement of formlessness followed by order, of darkness followed by a separation of darkness and light, of things below separated from things above, of pervasive waters followed by a separation of waters from dry land, of six creation days. Genesis 1:26 contains hints of a theological trinity and of the nature of humanity: "Let us make man in our image". Genesis one contains information about God creating male and female and giving them directions (Genesis 1:28-30). An expansion of those themes would need to be the subject of additional posts.