Water, Earth and Air as Procreators in Genesis Chapters 1-3

Some of the ancient philosophers on the Ionian coast of Greece believed that there were fundamental elements like atoms that made up all of the matter in the universe. They are called "materialists" because they seemed to want to understand the underlying material consituents or parts in nature.

Some of them are also ancestors of the modern materialistic worldview, that is, a view that everything can be explained by science and reduced to operations of chemistry, physics, and biology.

In Sicily, a student of Pythagoras, named Empedocles, elaborated his views in poems. He said that Earth, Air, Fire, and Water make up everything that exists in the universe, held together by opposing forces of Love and Strife.

It is usually thought that Empedocles did not believe in an immortal soul, or anything spiritual underlying the material world.

In Genesis chapters 1 - 3 we find at least three of these elements: earth, air, and water.

Of the three elements, water seems to play the biggest role, as water was already there when God began his creative act. Genesis 1:2 says

"The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters."

On Day One God created the light, and a day and a night passed. No elements were necessary here. Day One is mirrored by Day Four, when the stars and galaxies, the other planets in the Solar System, and the moon were all created.

On Day Two God created the sky by gathering and separating the waters. Some creationists believe that this referred to a cloud of vapor above the earth's atmosphere that would have protected the earth from ultraviolet rays. Day Two is mirrored by Day Four, when winged creatures and fish were "brought forth" from the waters and from the sky.

On Day Three God separated the waters on the earth and "brought forth" dry land from the waters, filling the earth with vegetation and plant life. Day Three is mirrored by Day Six, when "cattle" and "wild animals" of every kind were "brought forth" from the earth.