A. How is the material body composed?
B. Is Chemistry important for the understanding of the Genesis?
C. How were the bodies of the first living beings formed?
Reading Text
464. Biblical Flood - The Biblical Flood, also known by the name of "large Asian flood", is a fact which cannot be denied. A lifting of part of the mountains of that region must have caused it, similar to what happened in Mexico. This is confirmed by the existence of an inner sea, which formerly went from the Black Sea to the Boreal Ocean, and this is proven by geological observations. The Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, whose waters are salty, although it has no contact with any other sea; the Aral lakes, as well as the numerous lakes on the vast plains of Tartalia, as well as the Russian steppes seem to be the remnants of that ancient sea.
465. When the lifting of the Caucasus' mountains occurred, after the universal flood, part of that water was pressed northward, toward the Boreal Ocean. The other part went to the south, toward the Indian Ocean. These waters flooded and devastated Mesopotamia and the entire region in which dwelt the ancestors of the Hebrew people.
466. Although this flood covered a very large surface area, it is proven today that it was only local, and it was not caused by the rain, because, as much as the rain was copious, and even though it rained for forty days, the calculation shows that it could not have been enough to cover the whole Earth, right above the highest mountains.
467. For the men at that time, who knew no more than a very limited area of the surface of the globe and had no idea of its configuration, when the flood covered the countries they knew, it was as if the whole Earth had been covered too. If to this belief we add imagination and a hyperbolic form of description, peculiar to the Eastern style of narrative, we are no longer surprised by the overstatement of the biblical narrative.
468. The Asian flood evidently occurred after the appearance of man on Earth, since its memory was preserved by oral tradition among all peoples of that part of the world, who consecrated the flood in their theogonia (description of the origin of the world). It also took place after the great universal deluge, which marked the beginning of the current geological period. When talking about antediluvian men and animals, the reference is to that first cataclysm.
469. Periodical Revolutions - Besides its annual motion around the Sun, which gives place to the seasons, and its rotation on itself in 24 hours, day and night, the Earth has a third movement that is completed in about 25,000 years, or more exactly, in 25,868 years, and that produces the phenomenon known in astronomy, as the precession of the equinoxes. This movement, which cannot be explained in a few words, without the aid of figures and geometric demonstration, consists in a sort of circular oscillation, which is compared to the movement of a dying top, when the Earth's axis changes its inclination.(1)
470. The equinox is the instant when the Sun, going from one hemisphere to another, is perpendicular to the Equator, which happens twice a year, on March 21st, when the Sun moves into the northern hemisphere, and on September 22nd, back to the southern hemisphere.
471. The consequences of this movement have not yet been determined with accuracy, because only a small part of its revolution has been observed. Therefore, there is no more than assumptions, some of which with a great probability of being.
472. Future cataclysms - The great telluric commotions have taken place in times when the solid crust of the Earth, due to its weak thickness, offered almost no resistance to the effervescence of the ignited materials inside it. These commotions decreased as the crust consolidated. Numerous volcanoes are found already extinct, and the other lands, formed later, were buried.
473. Most surely, local disturbances can take place due to volcanic eruptions, the emergence of some new volcanoes, of sudden floods in some areas, islands may arise and others disappear, but the time of general cataclysms, such as the ones occurred in the major geological periods, has come to an end. Earth acquired a stability, which without being invariable, now frees mankind from general disturbances, unless there are unknown causes that in no way can be predicted.
474. As for the comets, today we are perfectly reassured regarding their influence, more beneficial than harmful, since they seem to be destined to replenish the world with their vital principles, which they store in their race through space and approaching the suns. Thus, they can be considered sources of prosperity instead of messengers of doom.
475. Their fluidic nature, already well proven, removes all fear of violent shocks, because if one of them found the Earth, our planet would go through it as if passing through a fog.(2)
476. And their dragging tail is to cause no fear, since it is only the reflection of the sunlight in the immense atmosphere that surrounds it, and one can see that is always directed to the opposite side of the Sun, changing its direction according to the position of the Sun too.
477. This gaseous matter could also be, due to their speed, like a kind of hair, similar to the ship's wake, or to the smoke of a train. Moreover, many comets have already approached the Earth, without harming it.
478. Due to their respective densities, the Earth would attract the comet. Only outdated information can make the presence of a comet cause any terror.
479. The possibility of the Earth clashing with another planet is only a fantasy. Based on the regularity and invariance of the laws, which rule the movement of the stars, this likely encounter is not possible.
480. The Earth, however, will come to an end. How? This still remains in the field of conjecture. However, since it is still far from perfection and from the age, which would indicate its coming to an end, we can be sure that this will not happen in our time.
Answers to the proposed questions
A. How is the material body composed?
Chemistry considers elementary some substances, such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, chlorine, iodine, fluorine, sulfur, phosphorus and all metals. By combining these substances we arrive to compound bodies: the oxides, acids, alkalis, salts and numerous varieties derived from a combination of these. The combination of two bodies to form a third one requires a special combination of circumstances: either a certain degree of heat, dryness, or humidity; either motion, or rest; an electric current, and so on. If these conditions are not met, the combination will not occur. When there is a combination, the component bodies lose their characteristic properties, while the compound which follows them acquires others, different from the first. Thus, for example, oxygen and hydrogen, which are invisible gases, chemically combine to form water, which is liquid, solid or vaporous according to the temperature. In the water, so to speak, there is no oxygen or hydrogen, but a new body. It the water is decomposed, the two gases, made free, regain their properties: there is no longer water.
The composition and decomposition of the bodies occur because of the degree of affinity that the basic principles have among themselves. The formation of water, for example, results of mutual affinity between oxygen and hydrogen; but, if in contact with water, a body that has more affinity with oxygen than this one has with hydrogen, then the water decomposes: the oxygen is absorbed and the hydrogen is released. There will be no water.
The compounds bodies always form in definite proportions, that is, by combining a certain amount of the constituent principles. Thus, to form the water one part of oxygen and two parts of hydrogen are required. If two parts of oxygen are combined with two of hydrogen, instead of the water we will have a corrosive fluid, consisting, however, of the same elements in the composition of the water, but in another ratio.
Such is in a resumed way the law, which governs the formation of all natural bodies. The innumerable variety of them results from a small number of elementary principles combined in different proportions. For example, oxygen, combined in certain ratio with carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, forms the carbonic acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid; oxygen and iron oxide to form iron or rust; the oxygen and the lead, both harmless, give rise to lead oxides such as litharge, red lead and white lead's, which are poisonous. (Genesis, Chapter X, items 3 to 8)
B. Is Chemistry important for the understanding of the Genesis?
Yes. Experiments show us how much chemistry is necessary for the intelligence of Genesis. Prior to the time when the laws of molecular affinity were not yet known, it was not possible to understand the formation of Earth. Chemical analysis shows that all vegetable and animal substances are composed of the same elements as the inorganic bodies. These elements are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon which play the main role. Others join unintentionally. (Genesis, Chapter X, items 9, 10 and 12)
C. How were the bodies of the first living beings formed?
The law, which governs the formation of minerals, leads naturally to the formation of organic bodies. As we have seen, Chemistry shows that all plant and animal substances are composed of the same elements as inorganic bodies.
Some common examples will make us understand the changes taking place in the organic kingdom, only by altering the components. In grape juice there is no wine, no alcohol, only water and sugar. When the juice is mature and conditions are favorable, it produces the fermentation work, which is close to wine. For this to happen, a part of the sugar is decomposed; oxygen, hydrogen and carbon separate and combine the necessary to produce alcohol, so that, by drinking grape juice proportions, you are not really drinking alcohol, since it does not exist yet. It is formed by constituent parts of water and sugar, without, in short, one more or one less molecule.
On the bread and vegetables that we eat, there is certainly no flesh nor blood nor bones, nor bile, or brain matter; however, these same foods, decomposing and recomposing during our digestion, produce those different substances only by the transmutation of their constituent elements.
What happens today with us, can take us back to the beginning of time, because the Laws of Nature have not changed. Since they are the constituent elements of the organic and inorganic beings; since we know that they are incessantly forming, in given circumstances, stones, plants and fruits, we can, therefore, conclude from this that the bodies of the first living beings were formed, as the first stones, the meeting of the elementary molecules, through the law of affinity, as the conditions of the vitality of the globe were favorable to this or that species. (Genesis, Chapter X, items 12 to 15)
Notes:
(1) According to today's data, we know that the movement designated as the precession of the equinoxes does not interfere with the seasons, since the Earth's axis of rotation maintains its 23.5?. What occurs is a change in the position in which the Earth is in orbit around the Sun at a given station. [Note made by the scholar Luiz Gonzaga Pinheiro, author of Apelos do Tempo (Appeals of Time), published by IDEAS @ WORK.]
(2) Today we know that comets are solid. They are like a rock, sometimes exceeding one kilometer in size. If a rock of such a size crashed into the Earth, it would cause a great damage, as big as the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. The fluidic nature forms its tale, and its core is rocky. [On this topic, see the Apelos do Tempo (Appeals of Time) by Luiz Gonzaga Pinheiro, published by IDEAS @ WORK.]
