a) First description of creation
Occupies the first chapter and the first verses of the 2nd chapter in the bible
It is a master piece of inaccuracy from a scientific point of view
It involves a series of six days creation procedures. Each day is marked by a given creation activity from day one to day 7 in various verses
- Day 1 : Light and darkness
- Day 2 : sky and separated waters i.e. upper and low
- Day 3 : Dry land and seas and vegetation
- Day 4 : Stars (sun and moon, other stars)
- Day 5 : Birds and Sea creatures
- Day 6 : Man
- Day 7 : The Sabbath day
DAY 1 (Verses 3-5) (light and darkness; day and night)
And God said
“Let there be light and there was light. And God saw that light was good and God separated the light from darkness. God called the light Day and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning. One day”.
- Scientific criticisms
The light circulating in the universe is the result of the stars. According to the bible, the stars had not been formed at this stage. The lights were created on the fourth day to separate ‘day’ from ‘night’, to give light upon the earth. It is illogical to mention the light on the 1st day when the cause was created three days later.
The existence of evening and morning on the first day is purely imaginative. The existence of evening and morning as elements of a single day is only conservable after the creations of the earth and the rotation under the light of its own star, the sun.
DAY 2 (Verses 6-8) (Sky separated heaven water and earth water)
And God said,
“Let there be firmament (sky) in the midst of the water and let it separate the waters form heavens. And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the water which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament heaven and there was evening and morning, the second day.
- Scientific criticisms
The image of the division of waters into two masses is scientifically unacceptable. However, this myth of water separated into two layers by a firmament can be evident in the floods where God allowed the waters above to pass through the sky into the earth.
DAY 3 (Verses 9-13) (Earth and seas and vegetation)
And God said;
“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth and the Gathered together waters Sea. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seeds according to their kind upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielded seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
-Scientific criticism
The fact that continents emerged at one period in the earth’s history it acceptable scientifically
They do not agree of vegetation kingdom with reproduction by seed existing before the existence of the sun which created on the 4th day. (Because of photosynthesis needed)
They do not agree with the alternating day and nights minus the source of light which was created in the fourth day
DAY 4 (Verses 14-19) (Sun, moon and stars)
And God said,
“Let there be lights in the firmaments of the heavens to separate the day from night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to make the day and the lesser lights to make the night. He made stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon earth, to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day
- Criticisms
The earth and moon emanated from the original star which is the sun. to place the creation of the earth first is contrary to the most firmly established ideas on the formation of the elements of the solar system. The moon reflects light from the sun but doesn’t produce its own light as proposed by the biblical authors.
DAY 5 (Verses 20-23) (Birds and sea creatures)
And God said,
“Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth are the firmament of the heavens. So God created the great sea monsters, every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its own kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them saying “Be fruitful and multiply on earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
- Criticisms
Its true that origins of life started from the sea, and the earth was colonized by the world kingdom. But, it is from animals living on the earth’s surface, particularly the reptiles species which lived in the second era, that is thought the birds originated. Numerous biological characteristics common to both species make this deduction possible. (Birds originated from reptiles living on the earth’s surface).
Therefore the order of appearance of beasts of the earth after birds is not acceptable as the beasts were created in the 6th day.
Animal kingdom scientifically appears with sea creatures then birds (winged creatures).
VERSES 24-31
And God said,
“Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air and over the cattle over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
So God created man and woman in his image “And God blessed them, then said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to every beast of the earth and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life. I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning. A sixth day .
- Scientific views
This is the description of the culmination of the creation. The author lists all the living creatures not mentioned before describing various kinds of food for man and beasts. Man’s appearance is correctly situated after other species of living things.
The description of creation ends in the first three verses of chapter 2.
Thus the heaven and earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God rested. He blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work which He had done in creation. There as the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
a) SECOND DESCRIPTION
The second description of creation in Genesis follows immediately upon the 1st without comment or transitional passage.
“In the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heaven when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up for Yahweh had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the ground, but a flood went up from earth and watered the whole face of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living thing.”
Scientific view
It makes it clear that when God created man, there was no vegetation on earth (it had not yet rained) even though the waters of the earth had covered its surface.
Instead, scientist’s belief that the world originated due to:
a) Nebular cloud theory
b) Passing star theory
c) Darwin’s origin of species
(b) GEOLOGY
Geology deals in particular with the history of the earth. It is the scientific effort to recover the past of the rock formation of the earth. The majority of practicing geologists believe that about 3 billion years ago, the surface of the earth was in molten condition
It gradually solidified and cooled off, eventually forming land masses, oceans and the atmosphere.
Looking in the pages of the Holy Scripture, we find Gen 1:1 declaring the creation of heaven and earth; Gen 1:2 states that the earth was in unformed condition.
In Gen 1:3 we have a narration of 6 days in which the earth is created, consummated by creation of man. There is neither date nor prime element in the record except the expression “In the beginning.” the account is simple brief, majestic and monotheistic
The cultural problem is: if we accept the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit Scripture, what are we o think of the relationship between the story geologists tell and the one the bible tells?
1) Naïve literal view (geology and church)
The majority Christians believe that the world was created about 4000 B.C in 6 literal days. There, only one thing necessary to make impossible a view which holds that creation was in the ordinary week about 4000 B.C and that is to show that the earth has been there considerably longer than that.
Radioactive methods of dating rocks in the earth yield figures running from 5 million years for the Pleistocene epoch up to 500 million years from Cambrian.
A material is radioactive if it gives off small atomic particles which fly away from the active substance at great velocity. Radium and Uranium are the most commonly known radioactive substances. The atomic bomb called studies in atomic physics has made the public very conscious of radioactive phenomena.
As uranium gives off high speed particles, it disintegrates till eventually it becomes lead. The speed of this process of disintegration known and is the same no matter what temperatures have been applied in the laboratory to the substances of greater intensities than are found in the crust of our planet, and the process is neither accelerated of retarded. Hence, physicists can tell who long a sample of uranium has been disintegrating b finding out its atomic weight.
However, it is certainly obvious that if there is any truth at all in the time, processes indicated by modern geology than creation at 400BC is an impossibility and we can either admit a strategic contradiction between Genesis and geology or:
i. Try to overturn geology completely.
ii. Seek a different interpretation of Genesis.
We believe the evidence of the antiquity of the earth from all geological methods of measurements to be overwhelming and we certainly seek another interpretation.
Wilfykil answered the question on March 2, 2019 at 07:01