1956 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 236

194

L. VERDUIN

the earth a whole lot earlier. He could have lived on this planet quite successfully before the animals put in their appearance. He can thrive on a vegetable diet; in fact, Genesis 9 ; 3 seems to say that men began his career as a vegetarian. No, the point more probably is that Adam was created last because he represents the „latest" taxonomically; he was last because the Creator was moving forward from the simple to the complex and man as God's most complex creature stands therefore at the end of a series. The question that finally confronts us is whether the Genesis account, which, as we have seen, incorporates the idea of process and of progress, does also contain the idea of exploitation of inherent potential. God the Lord subsequent to the ex nihilo episode of Genesis 1 : 1, (when He worked with empty hands) carried on with full hands or with handfuls in all the rest of the venture. Now he who takes created stuff in his hands has taken potential between his fingers; what he does with that handful of stuff will not be done without due recognition of this potential. The question is whether the Genesis account pictures the Lord our God as reckoning with inherent potential as He creates. The answer again is yes. At each step Jehovah God exploits inhering potential. This is the point made in „Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind" (1 ; 11). This is no snap-of-the-finger procedure, no aloof „Let there b e . . " such as the irruptionist would like to think, not herbs and trees placed upon the earth from whence I know not — but trees coaxed out of the earth by the power of Him who had made great potentials to reside there. There is nothing in the divine record that could remind one of the magician as he pulls rabbits out of a hat, rabbits that were previously not there and which come out of thin air! No indeed; „out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens" (2 : 19). Recourse to potential is written large in this inspired account of the how of creation „Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things" (1 : 24). Again, no fiat executed in haughty disregard for inherent potential but an unhesitating exploitation of this potential each time the creative act precipitates a new order. Recourse to potential available to Him is back of the report: „And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and He took one of his ribs.." (2 : 21). No doubt God could have made an Eve ex nihilo, but

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