Tuesday, April 24, 2007
So What Is The Problem?
It is amazing to me that we are still pitting the biblical account of creation against the Theory of Evolution. Especially when a careful read of chapters one and two of the King James Version of Genesis indicates the writer was talking about two different types of creation; a "spiritual" creation and a "physical" creation. The Old Testament writer describes a "spiritual" creation in six days, and then a "physical" creation without any reference to how long it took to complete that creation.
Let me explain; and please, get your bible out and follow along if you are a believer in scriptures. In Genesis 1:11 through 26, it is written that God created plants on the third day, stars on the fourth day, water animals and birds on the fifth day, and land animals, man and woman on the sixth day. But in Genesis 2: 4 through 5, after the account of the six day creation, the following is written: "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground." (emphasis mine)
In other words, the writer is clearly stating that plants, herbs, and man were created in some state of being before they were "in the earth" and before they "grew". This suggests to me that the six day creation is a "spiritual" or "conceptual" creation, and not a "physical" creation.
After the description of a six day creation, the King James Version of the bible goes on to state in Genesis 2: 6 through 7: "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." In this second version of the creation there is no mention of how long the creation process took to bring forth life. It could have taken millions upon millions of years, and it probably did. So there is no need to for an argument between people who support Creationist thought and those who support the Theory of Evolution. There is plenty of room for both ideas.
Labels: bible, creation, creationism, evolution, genesis, physicl, spiritual