The universe is not made for us
Why the anthropic principle can’t explain creation
One of the interesting features of the Hebrew bible is that the story of Creation, as recounted in the first book of Genesis, never says that God made the world for human beings.
The first book of the Bible says God made heaven and Earth in six days and rested on the seventh. He made men and women (no making woman from man’s rib in this account) on the sixth day.
In verse 26, God explains how and why He made us:
“Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”
He then makes the first humans and commands them to “Fill the Earth and subdue it”. He gives human beings all the plants and animals for food (no forbidden fruit here). And while previously God had said everything was “good” now things are “very good”.
At no point in this story, does it ever say that God made the world for human beings. Rather, He made human beings as stewards for the Earth (not the Heavens, mind you). In other words, we are made for the world not the other way around. Our privileged place is to be made in God’s image and tend this planet…
