Genesis chapter 1 reads like a poem *about* creation.
But what if we try to read it more literally?
Astrophysics is my hobby interest, and I've recently noticed some ways it accords with modern planetary formation theory.
(Warning, if you've never read it, I suggest to stop reading here, and get a clear mind, and try to read it like a poem, with an opening to the inspiration of it, first. That way, you might get the *real* sense of what it is about.)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Looking to see if it could correspond to what we have learned about our solar system and Earth, we notice a few things --
1) the amount of time for verse 1 is not stated (so it could be....8-10 billion years for instance). "heavens" simply means the Universe here
2) verse 2 seems to suggest a water world (echoed again in some later verses), which accords with some hypotheses in mainstream science about early Earth being largely a water world for a brief time (brief that is compared to billions of years)
3) verse 3 seems to indicate the beginning of the first "day" -- a day/night cycle -- like a planet has in relation to a star when the planet rotates and is not tidally locked to the star. So "light" would be that of the sun, necessarily. The notions that the 'light' as that of the Big Bang doesn't really fit this way of looking at the text. The light is the sun, as shown by the day/night cycle (the "fourth day" is addressed later below)
4) continuing in Genesis chapter 1 we don't have any indication one way or another if the "days" are consecutive, that is contiguous, continuous to each other, or if they may have been widely spaced in time. This level of precise detail simply isn't being addressed.
4.5) In the Bible, visions from God are a way scripture is revealed we know, as indicated for example (one of many examples) in 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verse 1. Also we know that often in a vision, the person receiving the vision does not understand all or often even much of it. They can only report what they see, without understanding. Using words they have.
5) the overall point of the chapter looks to be that in addition to God created all that is -- 'the heavens', the Universe -- seems to be the majesty of life on Earth unfolding, and appreciating the grand, stately unfolding of the wonder of life, over time
6) We notice the sun, moon and stars become visible on "day" 4, as if not visible before then. This makes sense as seen from the surface of the Earth, as if from a camera on the surface, in view of the reality that the Earth was warm and cloudy (everywhere, all the time) for on the order of a billion years or more, and even after cooling some would still have few or no clear days for some much longer time even after that. Life began under clouds though we do know with certainty, because we now know some early signs of microbial life on Earth dating back to 4.1 bn years ago, which is in the time when we expect heavy cloudiness was still constant.
7) Notice we should avoid presuming that "day" 4 was the first cloudless day, but is the first of the "days" in which the sun, moon and stars could be clearly seen from the surface, and may be been long after the first partly cloudy day.
Last, let me point out it is not necessary to read a vision as literal -- in scripture visions are most often instead stylized representations, and not necessarily like a mere camera style video, but it is interesting that it's hard to hold onto the idea it is only stylized. It may correspond more than we'd expect to exact moments in time, literally.
Still, one needn't know a single thing about astrophysics to get the message of Genesis chapter 1 correctly. It's not about mere concrete history. It's not about geology, weather, etc. Those aren't the point. It's about something else, and to get that one needs to read it forgetting all the doctrines and even preconceptions, like this very post.
If I want to get the real message of Genesis 1, I need to read it like I....just woke up, with a fresh mind, on the dawn of a new day.
