-
Hello; and welcome to a home-spun collection of common questions that
just everybody eventually wants to know.
Buen Camino
/
=====================================
How Long Was A Creation Day?
The Hebrew word for "day" is very ambiguous. For example; at Gen 2:4,
yowm encompasses the entire creation endeavor from start to finish.
In the past, no doubt most Bible scholars interpreted the phrase "evening
and morning" to indicate a 24-hour calendar day; but God began marking off
His days of creation with evenings and mornings before the sun even
existed; so I think it's pretty safe to rule the sun out as a time-keeping
mechanism relative to the days of creation.
According to Gen 1:24-31, God created humans and all land animals on the
sixth day; which has to include dinosaurs because on no other day did God
create land animals but the sixth. Hard-core Bible thumpers insist the days
of creation were 24-hour calendar days in length; but the sciences have
easily proven that the Jurassic era was over and done several millions of
years prior to the entrance of truly human life.
So then, in my estimation, the days of creation should be taken to represent
epochs of indeterminable length rather than 24-hour calendar days.
In addition: I suggest that the expression "evening and morning" is simply a
convenient way to indicate the simultaneous wrap of one epoch and the
beginning of another.
When I was a little boy, my dad bet me that he could make a dollar bill
stand on edge. Well, I passed on the bet because I didn't own any money at
the time. So my dad proceeded to fold a dollar bill in half into a vee and it
easily stood on edge like that. When I protested, he replied: You didn't say I
couldn't fold it.
We have a really interesting museum in the Portland Oregon metro area
called OMSI with lots of interesting exhibits, a real Navy submarine (it had a
brief role in the movie Red October) and some brain-busting puzzles too.
One of the puzzles consists of maybe five large jig-saw looking wooden
pieces that when correctly arranged depict a jockey riding a horse. Try as I
might, I could not make those pieces come out right. Well, a museum
volunteer came by and asked me if I had tried stacking the pieces. I replied
by telling him that the instructions don't say I can stack the pieces. He
responded by asking me: Do the instructions say you can't stack the pieces
one on top of another? No, they don't, and that's the secret to the puzzle.
My mind assumed all the pieces had to be arranged side by side but in
reality, the instructions don't say one way or the other.
As a follow up to reinforce the reality of the human mind's propensity to
make assumptions; the volunteer told me he had two coins in his pocket
adding up to 55¢ and one of them wasn't a nickel. He then proceeded to
extract a half dollar and a nickel from his trouser pocket. When I protested
that he said one of the coins wasn't a nickel, he calmly replied: That would
be the half dollar. You see; he said "one" of the coins wasn't a nickel, rather
than neither coin. The volunteer then proceeded to lecture me on the
importance of paying attention to words and grammar.
Moral of the story: It's just as important to discern what words do say, as
well as discern what they don't say; thus avoiding false conclusions derived
from a so-called "argument from silence" a kind of logic which essentially
believes that if something isn't clearly stated, then it's inferred from the
silence that there was nothing to state.
It was a humiliating experience, but a valuable one too because in time; I
began applying that principle to the Bible in regards to what it does say, and
in regards to what it doesn't say; and one thing it does not say right from
the outset is that creation's six days were 24-hour calendar events; but
most of us assume the terms evening and morning insist upon it; when even
those terms are ambiguous. For example; when Jesus was here, a day
consisted of only 12 hours rather than 24 (John 11:9) which means that
when he was here, evening consisted of the hours between high noon and
sundown, while morning consisted of the hours between sunrise and high
noon. Why only daylight hours? Because at Gen 1:3-5 God decreed "day" as
a time of light, and "night" He decreed as a time of darkness.
This has been a chronic problem for just about everybody who takes Genesis
seriously. We assume the "days" of creation consisted of twenty-four hours
apiece; so we end up stumped when trying to figure out how to cope with
the 4.5 billion year age of the earth, and factor in the various eras, e.g.
Triassic, Jurassic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Cretaceous, etc, plus the ice ages and
the mass extinction events. It just never seems to occur to us that it might
be okay in some cases to go ahead and think outside the box. When we do
that-- when we allow ourselves to think outside the box --that's when we
begin to really appreciate the contributions science has made towards
providing modern men a window into the Earth's amazing past.
NOTE: If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching History
Channel's two-season series titled: "How The Earth Was Made". The earth's
geological past, and its present, are just astounding. The series takes some
liberties here and there-- especially in its theories about the origin of the
blue planet's huge volume of water --but by and large, it's very informative;
and I believe quite useful to students of Genesis.
=====================================
What Is/Was The Light?
Light has several meanings and applications in the Bible; but the light that
most people question is the energy that God created in the very beginning.
†. Gen 1:1-3 . . In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of
the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Then God said "Let there be light" and there was light.
In the April 2014 edition of Discover magazine, astrophysicist/cosmologist
Avi Loeb states that the Bible attributes the appearance of stars and galaxies
to the divine proclamation "Let there be light". Is Mr. Loeb's statement
correct? No; of course not. God created the light on the first day of creation;
while glowing celestial objects weren't created until the fourth day.
Seeing as how law can be construed as light (Pro 6:23) then it's possible
that the light of Gen 1:3 refers to the laws of physics; without which it would
have been impossible for the creator to transform the formless earth of Gen
1:2 into a solid structure. Within that context, light can be thought of as the
power to bring order to chaos; and one of the very important laws of physics
is the law of gravity. Take away gravity and the entire universe would fly
apart in a moment.
The interesting thing about the laws of physics is that they have not always
existed. No; they are created laws-- created as a companion to the created
cosmos to regulate how the cosmos, with all of its forms of life, matter, and
energy, behaves.
An interesting aspect to creation's light is that according to 2Cor 4:6, it
wasn't introduced into the cosmos from outside in order to dispel the
darkness and brighten things up a bit; but rather, it radiated out of the
cosmos from inside; from itself; strongly suggesting that the cosmos'
elements had no energy of their own when God first made them; which
explains why the earth was formless and void in the beginning. "formless
and void" meaning that though all the earth's elements existed; they lacked
the necessary energy to bind themselves into cohesive unities. Everything
around us, including our very own selves, is held together by a mysterious
force called atomic attraction. Take that away and poof; you're gone in less
than sixty seconds.
Some Bible students regard science an enemy of religion; but I sincerely
believe that science and religion are not enemies; no, to the contrary,
science and religion assist each other. Galileo believed that science and
religion are allies rather than enemies-- two different languages telling the
same story. There are well-meaning folk who prefer to keep science out of
the creation story. I truly believe that is an error because though the cosmos
has a supernatural origin, it is not a supernatural cosmos; rather, it is a very
natural cosmos and the creation story makes better sense, at least to me
anyway, when it's approached from that angle.
=====================================
Hello; and welcome to a home-spun collection of common questions that
just everybody eventually wants to know.
Buen Camino
/
=====================================
How Long Was A Creation Day?
The Hebrew word for "day" is very ambiguous. For example; at Gen 2:4,
yowm encompasses the entire creation endeavor from start to finish.
In the past, no doubt most Bible scholars interpreted the phrase "evening
and morning" to indicate a 24-hour calendar day; but God began marking off
His days of creation with evenings and mornings before the sun even
existed; so I think it's pretty safe to rule the sun out as a time-keeping
mechanism relative to the days of creation.
According to Gen 1:24-31, God created humans and all land animals on the
sixth day; which has to include dinosaurs because on no other day did God
create land animals but the sixth. Hard-core Bible thumpers insist the days
of creation were 24-hour calendar days in length; but the sciences have
easily proven that the Jurassic era was over and done several millions of
years prior to the entrance of truly human life.
So then, in my estimation, the days of creation should be taken to represent
epochs of indeterminable length rather than 24-hour calendar days.
In addition: I suggest that the expression "evening and morning" is simply a
convenient way to indicate the simultaneous wrap of one epoch and the
beginning of another.
When I was a little boy, my dad bet me that he could make a dollar bill
stand on edge. Well, I passed on the bet because I didn't own any money at
the time. So my dad proceeded to fold a dollar bill in half into a vee and it
easily stood on edge like that. When I protested, he replied: You didn't say I
couldn't fold it.
We have a really interesting museum in the Portland Oregon metro area
called OMSI with lots of interesting exhibits, a real Navy submarine (it had a
brief role in the movie Red October) and some brain-busting puzzles too.
One of the puzzles consists of maybe five large jig-saw looking wooden
pieces that when correctly arranged depict a jockey riding a horse. Try as I
might, I could not make those pieces come out right. Well, a museum
volunteer came by and asked me if I had tried stacking the pieces. I replied
by telling him that the instructions don't say I can stack the pieces. He
responded by asking me: Do the instructions say you can't stack the pieces
one on top of another? No, they don't, and that's the secret to the puzzle.
My mind assumed all the pieces had to be arranged side by side but in
reality, the instructions don't say one way or the other.
As a follow up to reinforce the reality of the human mind's propensity to
make assumptions; the volunteer told me he had two coins in his pocket
adding up to 55¢ and one of them wasn't a nickel. He then proceeded to
extract a half dollar and a nickel from his trouser pocket. When I protested
that he said one of the coins wasn't a nickel, he calmly replied: That would
be the half dollar. You see; he said "one" of the coins wasn't a nickel, rather
than neither coin. The volunteer then proceeded to lecture me on the
importance of paying attention to words and grammar.
Moral of the story: It's just as important to discern what words do say, as
well as discern what they don't say; thus avoiding false conclusions derived
from a so-called "argument from silence" a kind of logic which essentially
believes that if something isn't clearly stated, then it's inferred from the
silence that there was nothing to state.
It was a humiliating experience, but a valuable one too because in time; I
began applying that principle to the Bible in regards to what it does say, and
in regards to what it doesn't say; and one thing it does not say right from
the outset is that creation's six days were 24-hour calendar events; but
most of us assume the terms evening and morning insist upon it; when even
those terms are ambiguous. For example; when Jesus was here, a day
consisted of only 12 hours rather than 24 (John 11:9) which means that
when he was here, evening consisted of the hours between high noon and
sundown, while morning consisted of the hours between sunrise and high
noon. Why only daylight hours? Because at Gen 1:3-5 God decreed "day" as
a time of light, and "night" He decreed as a time of darkness.
This has been a chronic problem for just about everybody who takes Genesis
seriously. We assume the "days" of creation consisted of twenty-four hours
apiece; so we end up stumped when trying to figure out how to cope with
the 4.5 billion year age of the earth, and factor in the various eras, e.g.
Triassic, Jurassic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Cretaceous, etc, plus the ice ages and
the mass extinction events. It just never seems to occur to us that it might
be okay in some cases to go ahead and think outside the box. When we do
that-- when we allow ourselves to think outside the box --that's when we
begin to really appreciate the contributions science has made towards
providing modern men a window into the Earth's amazing past.
NOTE: If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching History
Channel's two-season series titled: "How The Earth Was Made". The earth's
geological past, and its present, are just astounding. The series takes some
liberties here and there-- especially in its theories about the origin of the
blue planet's huge volume of water --but by and large, it's very informative;
and I believe quite useful to students of Genesis.
=====================================
What Is/Was The Light?
Light has several meanings and applications in the Bible; but the light that
most people question is the energy that God created in the very beginning.
†. Gen 1:1-3 . . In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of
the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Then God said "Let there be light" and there was light.
In the April 2014 edition of Discover magazine, astrophysicist/cosmologist
Avi Loeb states that the Bible attributes the appearance of stars and galaxies
to the divine proclamation "Let there be light". Is Mr. Loeb's statement
correct? No; of course not. God created the light on the first day of creation;
while glowing celestial objects weren't created until the fourth day.
Seeing as how law can be construed as light (Pro 6:23) then it's possible
that the light of Gen 1:3 refers to the laws of physics; without which it would
have been impossible for the creator to transform the formless earth of Gen
1:2 into a solid structure. Within that context, light can be thought of as the
power to bring order to chaos; and one of the very important laws of physics
is the law of gravity. Take away gravity and the entire universe would fly
apart in a moment.
The interesting thing about the laws of physics is that they have not always
existed. No; they are created laws-- created as a companion to the created
cosmos to regulate how the cosmos, with all of its forms of life, matter, and
energy, behaves.
An interesting aspect to creation's light is that according to 2Cor 4:6, it
wasn't introduced into the cosmos from outside in order to dispel the
darkness and brighten things up a bit; but rather, it radiated out of the
cosmos from inside; from itself; strongly suggesting that the cosmos'
elements had no energy of their own when God first made them; which
explains why the earth was formless and void in the beginning. "formless
and void" meaning that though all the earth's elements existed; they lacked
the necessary energy to bind themselves into cohesive unities. Everything
around us, including our very own selves, is held together by a mysterious
force called atomic attraction. Take that away and poof; you're gone in less
than sixty seconds.
Some Bible students regard science an enemy of religion; but I sincerely
believe that science and religion are not enemies; no, to the contrary,
science and religion assist each other. Galileo believed that science and
religion are allies rather than enemies-- two different languages telling the
same story. There are well-meaning folk who prefer to keep science out of
the creation story. I truly believe that is an error because though the cosmos
has a supernatural origin, it is not a supernatural cosmos; rather, it is a very
natural cosmos and the creation story makes better sense, at least to me
anyway, when it's approached from that angle.
=====================================