Avoiding the Mistakes of Genesis As we saw in chapter 2, both the Qur’an and modern science confirm that the heavens and the earth were created simultaneously, having been separated from a primary nebula. It is important to understand that the Bible, the most famous record of the creation prior to the Qur’an gives a sequence for the creation of the heavens and the earth that is today found unacceptable from a scientific standpoint. If the Qur’an was the work of human beings it is difficult to imagine how they could have avoided the human errors so firmly fixed in the minds of people from the previous records. In the Bible, in Genesis, chapter 1, we read that God created light which He called day, and separated it from the darkness which He called night (see v. 3). Today we know that the alternation of day and night is caused by the earth’s movement in relation to the sun. But, according to Genesis, the sun was not created until the fourth day (see v. 16). So how could day and night alternate before that? A related problem is that vegetation is created on the third day (see vv. 11-12) whereas the sun which is necessary for sustaining vegetation does not appear until the fourth day. “What is totally untenable” says Dr. Bucaille, “is that a highly organized vegetable kingdom with reproduction by seed could have appeared before the existence of the sun” (The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, p. 42). We have already seen that the Qur’an states, and modern science confirms, that the heavens and the earth were formed together. Dr. Bucaille explains as follows: “Earth and moon emanated, as we know, from their original star, the sun. To place the creation of the sun and moon after the creation of the earth is contrary to the most firmly established ideas on the formation of the elements of the solar system” (p. 42). By giving a sequence in which the sun and moon are created after the creation of the earth, the Genesis account proves erroneous. On the other hand, the Qur’an, by speaking of the simultaneous creation of the heavens and the earth, has judiciously avoided the errors of the Genesis account. Could the Qur’an have been authored by a human? No! Dr. Bucaille asks: “How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have made corrections to the existing description to such an extent that he eliminated scientifically inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements that science has only in the present day been able to verify?” (p.151).