Virtually everyone knows that it’s hard to square the differences between the Genesis account of creation and what we now know through science. For centuries, people believed that the earth was less than 10,000 years old, because the Bible doesn’t seem to go back any further than that. Now, geology, biology, chemistry, anthropology, archaeology, and astronomy agree that the earth (and our universe) is far, far older than that. Now, it’s certainly possible that God spoke everything into existence 10,000 years ago, but with the appearance that it had been here for billions of years. That’s what I believed when I was a Christian. Others think that the “6 days” spoken of in Genesis is figurative for simply “periods of time.” But even if one of those theories could answer some of the problems, it can’t solve them all.
The average person living at the time Genesis was written did not know that the earth is a sphere, or that the sun is a star, or that the earth is just one of at least 8 planets circling the sun. Of course, if God miraculously inspired the writing of Genesis, then it doesn’t matter what people understood at the time it was written, because God knew everything we know now, and more. But that’s the thing: Genesis has more problems than just the age of the universe. When you read Genesis carefully, you get a view of the universe much like the one depicted by these images:
Let’s look at some passages, and I think you’ll see the similarities. Take Genesis 1:6,7, for instance:
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
What? This is probably one of the most confusing passages in this chapter if you’re trying to apply it to what we know of the cosmos. What does it mean to separate the waters from the waters? And what’s this “expanse” that it talks about? Well, verse 8 answers that for us:
And God called the expanse Heaven.
In other words, the expanse is the sky. It’s not “Heaven” in the spiritual sense, as we’ll see from some of the other verses. But how does the sky separate waters? We learn more starting with verse 9:
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
So the waters under the expanse (sky) are oceans, rivers, etc. What are the waters above the sky? We can’t say it’s water vapor for two reasons: One, it doesn’t make sense in the context of the passage. But the second and more important reason is explained here (vs 14-18):
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the 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.
According to this passage, the sun, moon, and stars are stuck in the sky — the same sky that keeps back the “waters above.”
Now look again at the two images I posted above. Genesis is describing a system in which the sky acts as a dome around the earth. This dome has pretty lights stuck in it to help us see, even when it’s night. The business about water being above the sky makes sense when you think about it — why else is the sky blue? And where do you think rain comes from? We see this in Genesis 7:11-12, when God decides to flood the earth:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
For people living at the time Genesis was written, this was not a bad job of explaining things. It explained why the sky was blue, where rain came from, and why we have the sun, moon, and stars. We can easily understand why they held these beliefs. However, in today’s age, the Genesis account is absurd. Efforts to make it fit with what we now know about the universe is a bit like trying to rationally argue for the existence of Santa Claus. Why not just put an end to all the mental gymnastics and accept that like every other religious text in the world, the Bible is just the product of mankind’s imagination? It may be a difficult proposition to accept, if you’re a firm believer. But I can tell you from experience that the whole thing makes a lot more sense when you stop assuming God had anything to do with the Bible.
Finding Truth 
Arch, I hold the Pope with the same regard as Laurie. However, I do not believe that the revelations of the Bible are meant to address scientific questions, but rather questions about life and life’s purpose.
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Nay, nay, not so, Marcus – 1:3 tells of the creation of LIGHT, not the sun, for which one has to look to 1:16. See, this is what so many of us mean by the warping and twisting of the Bible, by theists, to try to get it to make sense in a world full of intelligent, educated people. Hate to break it to you, but Bronze Age ignorance is long gone.
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That’s probably the most honest thing you’ve said. You’re right, you need to look to Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale,” Sagan’s “Cosmos,” Friedman’s “Who Wrote the Bible,” Armstrong’s “A History of God,” Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time,” and all of the other sources, both scientific, sociological and philosophical, that illustrate Humankind’s latest conclusions about how and why things came to be. Once you have access to sources such as those, you can then file the fairy tales of the Bible in their proper place, the dumpster.
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I believe that Ya is mighty enough that He could create in whatever order He desired and put it into motion when he was finished. I believe it was a literal 6 days. And since you cannot prove me wrong, and I can not prove you wrong, it doesn’t do any good to debate it.
I saw on the other post Arch, that you actually admitting to being wrong, and I wanted you to know that I didn’t miss it! That must have been really hard for you. Nobodies perfect, I wouldn’t worry about it to much! 😉
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Certainly not I, but there are those, though waning in number, who still do.
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Arch, Did you consume something other than Coke as in Coca-Cola during this move? Where do propose that the LIGHT in Genesis 1:3 came from?
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Yet it still purports to address scientific issues, and erroneously, at that – if I were presented with a science book that began by insisting that the entire universe was created in six days, that there was a dome above the earth holding back the waters of space, that man was created from dirt, and woman from a rib, why would I want to be so gullible as to believe anything else it had to say?
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There will be no sun in the new Jerusalem, why would the first day have to have a sun. If it did, then it certainly seems that he created it twice. I do find your ideas very interesting, but I don’t think I agree just yet
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@Laurie – I prefer to think of it as being not entirely correct.:-)
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If I were a theist, trying furtively to validate a Bronze Age theory using Computer Age knowledge, I would likely obfuscate and say, the Big Bang – as it is, I would say the LIGHT in Genesis 1:3 came from the same place as any other thing in any other fairy tale – the imagination of the author, in this instance, a late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Jewish Priest.
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You would get along with my better half well! He often says “you were right… I was just less right” 😉
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Wow! There’s gonna be a lot of dead plants, and dead animals that depend on them for food, and dead animals that depend on plant-eating animals for food. That’s a lot of dead, so expect a really bad odor.
This just in: There will be no Son in the new Jerusalem either —
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Sounds as though you’ve trained him well! But it’s good to know I’m not the only one who disagrees with you.
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Arch, You have not been paying attention. Genesis 1:1 concerns the Big Bang, and then Genesis 1:2 becomes geocentric. Genesis 1:3 concerns the creation of the Sun. The universe was created in c 14 billions years, and the process of creation is revealed in Genesis as six periods of time specific to the creative actions of God. Arch, you were probably a good XXXX, fill in the blanks, in your day. Your distorted references regarding the history of the Bible are a bit laughable.
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I like you more every time you post Marc!
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“Laughable,” Marc, in my opinion, is most clearly defined in the person of a grown man who still believes in Bronze Age fairy tales.
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It must be nice, Laurie, to find someone on this thread who shares your delusions.
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I appreciate your posts as well Laurie. I must admit however, that I am a bit confused on what your perspective is on these matters. I believe that you stated that you are not a Christian, but you seem to be a believer in a Creator and appreciate the revelation of Scriptures. Please fill in the blanks so that I do not make assumptions that you may find offensive.
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Arch, Your criteria for truth is so blatantly self-serving, it remains laughable. Anyone who believes that the cosmos and our existence in it has no cause or purpose is not being reasonable. In fact I would have to say that atheists are probably the most delusional folks around. Given the history of the 20th Century and the destruction rought by the atheist regimes of Nazi Germany, Communist Russian, China, etc. Who in their right mind would want to buy into the atheist brand?
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I am not offended very easily, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
I believe in the scriptures as a whole, but unlike Christianity, I do not believe the law was done away with.
I also believe that Paul was the false prophet of Genesis 49, Deut 13, and Revelations 2.
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This should clarify things for you, Marc —
Laurie:
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Thanks Arch, that was really helpful :-[
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— as evidenced by the fact that you can still offer me the occasional smiley-face!
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Hey, sweets to the sweet – and nuts to the —
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