What is there?

Before thinking about the beautiful, it is necessary to think about what exists, to situate ourselves. The Bible gives us a good idea of this subject in its first chapter, in the creation account.

The text begins with the expression, “In the beginning,” introducing the notion of time, but in this principle, God is already there; so, the first thing that exists, according to the text, is God.

The text says that God “created the heavens and the earth.” Here we have two things that came into being by the power of God: the heavens, which is what we see when we look up, space; and the earth, which is what we see when we look down, a mixture of the chemical elements.

Next, the text gives us more information about the earth and introduces the figure of the Spirit; then, the week of creation begins with God saying, “Let there be light.” He said, and so it was. Which shows that God's power not only creates but moves things.

Even on the first day God separated the light from the darkness, called the light day and the darkness night. On the second day, he created the firmament, separated the waters below and above the firmament, and called it heaven. On the third day, he gathered the waters that were below in one place and made the dry part appear. The dry part he called land and the whole of the waters he called seas. We see that in these early days, God separated and named the chemical elements. This organization we can call information.

On the fourth day God said, “Let the earth be covered with vegetation…” And it was so. He also made the two great lights and the stars. On the fifth day, he created the aquatic animals and all the birds. On the sixth day, he created the land animals and also man and woman. These days we see that in addition to creating the luminaries, God filled the earth with life. Life is not just an organization of chemical elements; it is something different, self-organizing, a mystery.

So, these are the accounts that exist in Genesis 1: God, time, space, the mixing of the chemical elements, information, and life.