Was earth created as literally written in Genesis?

Question

If it is not completely literal, then it should be referring allegorically in some way to the universe as we now understand it. Yet, the men who wrote it had no knowledge about ANY, or any part, of what we now understand about the cosmos.

And until we started understanding more, Genesis was always taken literally by Christians.

If you do take it literally, then you can see that the sky is a solid "firmament" with water behind it (later used for Noah's flood, and also why the sky is blue). The stars are really small holes in the firmament where the light of heaven leaks through (or decorations), and you realize that the sun and moon were fixed directly onto the firmament which rotated to distinguish night and day (and for a light source).

Really, how do feel about Genesis?

Answer 1

Lets talk about the firmament...

whenever an NB tries to slam on Noah, the question always comes up...where did all the water come from. Obviously, you've heard someone's answer alluding to the firmament as the source of water.

But nowhere has anyone ever stated that the stars were pin holes. In fact, there's not one Scripture verse that refers to stars as pin holes in the firmament. the only reason to add that is if someone was trying to debunk the firmament.

Now...interestingly enough...what happens if greenhouse gases keep rising? Temperature goes up, ice bergs melt, New Orleans and a lot of other coastal towns are gone. But have you ever seen the Discovery channel's show about it?

Notice the part that says as earth temperature goes up, so does the humidity? And water content in the air goes up. Now...we already have a thin layer in the atmosphere of microscopic ice crystals up there...lets add more water to the air...oh...that thin layer gets thicker and there are more crystals.

Next thing you have, is an atmosphere of ice crystals that reflect even more heat. Sorta works like the greenhouses we raise plants in...plants inside green houses tend to grow bigger, thicker and such.

Wouldn't it be a surprise to see the firmament discussed in Scripture return? Look at the plants that existed during the Cambrian period....monster sized leaves...needed high temperatures to maintain. (by the way, I work in Africa, 2.5 degrees south of equator, where they still have cambriac plant life ((on the endangered species list, often mistaken for palm trees, but are completly different genus)).

Point is...as we start understanding more...the more Genesis continues to make sense.

Answer 2

If God could create the universe out of nothing, just like that, in six days, he could also violate laws of physics like having plants without sunshine, not having the earth rotate around the sun, all that stuff. And at the end of the six days, the earth came out looking just as it would have looked had it been formed 5 billion years ago in a supernova. Why not? Not that I believe any of this, but you can't really break down the creation story and say that it's full of problems and mistakes, because the whole idea is just not consistent with what we know about the universe.

Answer 3

No, the earth was not created as it is literally described in Geneses. However, considering that those ancient people didn't have our scientific world view, you will find that the first chapter of Geneses gets the sequence of events fairly close to the story we subscribe to today through our scientific hind sight.

Remember that the Bible is dealing with ideas which point toward what is transcendent and not necessarily historical.
Life bears mysteries that lie far beyond our understanding, so the best way to explore realities which people mainly feel intuitively, is through mythology.

Although history is part of the literary genres of the bible, the whole sense of the bible taps into the human psyche which attempts to discover life's meaning and life's authentic origin and goal.

We need not debunk the bible so readily; most of its answers are encrypted between the lines. The ones who stamp their authority about is interpretation may be the ones who understand it the least. One should not be deterred if its stories seems simplistic. Many of its ideas still form part of our own evolution.

Peace

Answer 4

The Jesuits consider Genesis chapters 1-13 as myths. Genesis was just a way for God or some person to give an idea on how the earth was created. It would have been very sophisticated for people in ancient times to understand the concept of the Big Bang or Evolution so God decided to explain creation in a simple form.

Answer 5

Nope. Here is my theory on how Genesis was written. Aliens came down to earth and threw 1000 monkeys in a room and a laptop was given to each one. These monkeys spent a full year banging away at Venus Wordpad until something that made some sense came into print. This final publication was then officially put into place to start the beginning of the explanation of our existence. So don't expect the bible to be a factual source of our existence.

Answer 6

nope. genesis is actually a representation and a reminder to priests and Christians about the 7 days of the week and about the duties of being a Christian. it was written like "12 days of Christmas", using symbolisms and other words to represent God's power and the responsibilities of a Christian in everyday life. the way Genesis was written was adapted to how the people of the past perceived things to be. comparing Genesis with our present knowledge, we know that stars are not holes, and its the earth the rotates around the sun.

too bad, only a few Christians know about this.

Answer 7

The Genesis account, like most of the Bible, is not a scientific treatise. I don't think that Christians have always taken it literally. I haven't. There is considerable lattitude in interpreting what is meant by much of what is said in Genesis. This makes it difficult to be dogmatic about it.

Answer 8

The ancients may have been less technologically advanced than us but they were intelligent human beings who knew about allegory and delivering a message.

The non-literal view was brilliantly summed up by the current Pope (when he was a Cardinal). Whatever you think of him and his church the man has got a brain the size of a planet. Below is a link to the book on Amazon. You can read the 'non-literal' bit for free on 'Look inside'!

Answer 9

The story/explanation in Genesis is just one of many legends that have been told to explain life as we know it. All human cultures have their own stories. Since they did not have the technology that we have now, it would have been the best explanation at the time of how the earth, universe and life came into being.

Answer 10

It was never intended as an allegory but was intended to be a literal description of how the world was created. In ancient times it was taken literally, the whole crap about it being metaphor or allegory is just an attempt to save a dead religion from the light of science.

It is wrong, end of story.