Question about Genesis and Evolution?

Question

I read someone's post that said we don't know how long a day was back then so it's conceivable that a day can equal a million years. But, in Genesis, it also says that the evening and the morning were the first day. Do we have any scientific proof that the earth at one time had a much longer rotation and that evening lasted for millions of years.. then morning lasted for millions of years?

or that evening lasted thousands of years? hundreds of years? a year?

Answer 1

tidal 'losses' between earth and moon mean that earth's rotation is slowing--not by much
about 600 million years ago, the day was about 22 hours long

this is shown by tidal deposits from that period in the geological record

Answer 2

No, no. The Bible is clear that the earth was created in 6 literal 24 hour days. The Hebrew word used for day is "yom" and can mean a period of time or a day. In the "context" of Genesis 1, as you have already pointed out it means a day as we know it, or 24 hours. The earth's rotation is actually slowing down-so if the days were different at all, they were shorter by a few seconds or at the most a minute or two.
Some people try to compromise between evolution and creation. Thats where the long "days" idea was born.

Answer 3

Here's my look at this subject. Yes, I believe in a literal translation of "day" to mean 24 hours. A day is a day. I also know the verse about the thousand years being like a day . . . That doesn't apply here. That is God's concept of time, not ours. We are human and a day is a day and a thousand years is a thousand years.

Now I also do not believe that the earth is just 6000 years old or what ever the number is, but the billions of years that has been proven.

***WARNING WARNING - CONFLICT CONFLICT***

No conflict. At least with the way I see it. Not everyone will agree, but that's ok.

The Bible says that God created the world and all that is in it in 6 days, then rested on the seventh. The next thing we read is about Adam and Eve disobeying God and being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Here is my question, How much time passed between the creation of Adam and Eve and their fall? Remember they were created with perfect bodies, immortal. So there is nothing to say that billions of years, as we know it, didn't pass between the two events.

I have no scripture to back this up, as there is none. God doesn't give us any details. Why? Because it is not that important. Those things are not important compaired to what God sees AS important, our relationship with Him. What God deems as important, there are plenty of Scriptures to back it up.

There is my two cents. Do what you will with it. It doesn't affect my salvation.

Answer 4

No, but time expanded with space following the Big Bang (time being a function of relative motion). If you timed the expansion of the universe from an external reference point, 6 days is about how long it took to get from there to here.

But another factor to consider is that the Book of Genesis, like so many other ancient texts, could be read as time past or time present. Does the creation and fall tell us about the origins of the universe and man, or does it tell us about the current metaphysical structure of reality and human psychology? The Gnostics, for example, described the evolution of consciousness in present time - i.e. how consciousness extends out from the mind, perceives the difference between self and object, compares and groups objective forms, etc. All of that was described allegorically as the evolution of the material universe from the transcendent consciousness of God. In other words, the Gnostic creation epic really describes how our conscious mind perpetually recreates the universe. The Genesis account could easily be read as an account of our apprehension of objective reality, the individuation of the Self, and our response to the existential dilemma.

Folks will call this a stretch, but, like I said, that was a very common method of interpreting sacred texts in the ancient world, with parallels in early Hebrew, Greek, Babylonian, Gnostic, Egyptian, and Christian philosophers.

Answer 5

The point that is it is one of many stories about the begining of the world. It is a story told by a man about the way that things came into being. If you don't believe me check how many books Moses wrote out of the bible. All of the books authors are listed. But creation is going to remain a mysterious event because we do not have the means to confirm it, so in belief it happened in an order and weather or not the accuracy of the text is literal or just for story purposes. It is a very good example of all of the things that had to come before us in terms of the planet and the evolutionary needs to even get to us.

The Bible is a translated set of text, most recently translated by into it's popular content at the time of king james.

Answer 6

The Bible says a day is like a thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years as a day. I don't see that in Genesis that day has a set time. It would take a good understand of Hebrew to know.

Answer 7

Such proof, if it could be found, would deal with the rotation of the earth. Earth would have to rotate almost infinitesimally slow for morning or evening to last for many years. I have never heard of evidence of such a thing, though it'd be better to ask a geologist or an astronomist. I can't even begin to think of how one would look for evidence of past variation in the rate of rotation of the Earth.
*edit* tidal losses - well there ya go.

Answer 8

Moses reminds us that a thousand years are like a day to the Lord. God is not limited by time. It’s easy to get discouraged when years pass and the world doesn’t get better. We sometimes wonder if God is able to see the future. But don’t assume that God has our limitations. God is completely unrestricted by time. Because he is eternal, we can depend on him.
Cross References:
Psalm 90:4—Psalm 39:5; 2 Peter 3:8

Answer 9

How long were the days of Genesis 1?
What did God intend us to understand from the words He used?
by Russell Grigg

Were the days of Creation Week of 24 hours duration or were they long periods of time? This article will discuss the Hebrew 'time' words which the author had available to him and what meaning he intended to convey by his choice of the specific words he used.1

Meaning of yôm More can be found at
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i1/days.asp

Answer 10

If I recall we were creating a universe, not just a planet. Why would God be limited by the rotation of the earth when creating the universe?

Love and blessings Don