Christians, lets talk Genesis?

Question

You're talking to an ex-catholic altar boy, and I was told by a Christian Brother that even the church in Rome took the Old Testament with a pinch of salt. The earth being made in 6 days, Adam & Eve... No-one really believes that. Yet you get these new upstart American fundamentalists churches that take Genesis as,,,,well gospel!

I mean, just because it is in the bible shouldn't make it unchallengeable. Who wrote it, from what source did it come, is there any proof anywhere that says Genesis was divine? When did God share with us that he did make the world in 6 days? When did God denounce evolution? Yet there we have Kentucky trying to make schools only teach creationism.

So why does this age old story that someone made up concerning the creation of the earth hold such respect with some of these churches in the States? I mean Christians the rest of the world over are happy to dismiss the Genesis fable, why not the US bible belt? What part of this tale is credible?

My word people, do any of you actually read what is posted? there is a fair bit of un-christian like judgementalism and mud slinging. Can non of you keep it on topic? So far no-one has tried to answer the question.

Answer 1

I view this largely as a by-product of Modernism. With the demise of the pre-critical naivity of the pre-modern worldvies, we get the advent of the scientific worldview. Everything fits into one objective truth model and, conveniently, I have it.

This problem didn't really exist before the Enlightenment. The absence of domination by scientific method and such allowed a much more magical and less critical environment for accepting faith as handed down from the Church and through the culture. There simply was no reason to suppose it wasn't literally true.

The science comes along with modernism to challenge the validity of these assertions. Modernists with faith have to push back and say they are absolutely factually correct. As such, the richness of literature in the Bible gets squashed flat and it is supposed to be treated as a newspaper. If we admit Genesis is metaphorical, if we admit God didn't will the massacre of Jericho, and so on then the whole thing is thereby conceded - if we admit one thing is false then how can any of it be true?

We can't really go backwards in time and ignore these challenges, so instead we can go forward into post-modernism. For some that means seeing that these stories aren't literal and therefore the whole thing is crap. For others it means seeing that the stories aren't all literal or factualy correct but they reflect a truth which was experienced and expressed in the writing.

Modernism treats standard postmodern angst as immoral blathering and treats postmodern interpretations of the Bible as heresy because they are convinced sola scriptura matters. The root of that conviction is partially a problem in models of thought and the way these brains have been reared, and part is the fear of having the rug pulled out from under you mid-stride.

Origen pointed out in the 2nd Century that in Genesis the sun and moon are created a couple days into Creation and that sense there can't be a day without the sun we are clearly dealing in metaphor. I've seen nothing in the 1800+ years since that indicate to me we've improved upon his idea very much!

Answer 2

Why do you not believe that God made the world in 6 days.

What we see around us is perfectly consistent with this.
Evolutionists interpret rocks layers and fossils as evidence of millions of years. On the other hand it is good evidence that the Global Flood occured as described in Genesis.

I recommend you check out a site like http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3056/

It has a wealth of information.

From a scientfic point of view creation is much more credible than evolution, which is easily refuted (http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4013/).
Evolution is really the religion of atheism.

I wonder what part of the Creation story you find is not credible?

If you don't accept Genesis, then why would you accept any of the Bible. Genesis was written as a historical account (not as poetry or myth), as any Hebrew scholar will tell you.

Jesus accepted Genesis as historical, quoting from it many times.
The New Testament contains at least 200 references to Genesis, of which over 100 refer to Genesis 1-11, and 25 of which are by Jesus himself.

Christian who deny the historicity of Genesis are undermining the whole Gospel. The Bible teaches that (physical) death, and disease is a result of sin. The fossil record is full of death, disease and thorns. All these arose after the Fall. An ancient earth puts this death, disease and thorns *before* the fall.

If death is not the result of the Fall, then Jesus did not need to die. (1 cor 15, Rom 5)

Jadore above is completely wrong about the word day (hebrew yom).
Days of Genesis are real 24 hour days:
A number and the phrase 'evening and morning' are used for each of the six days of Creation
Outside Genesis 1, yom is used with a number 410 times, and each time it means an ordinary day.
Outside Genesis 1, yom is used with the word 'evening' or 'morning' 23 times
In Genesis 1:5, yom occurs in context with the word 'night'. Outside of Genesis 1, 'night' is used with yom 53 times, and each timeit means an ordinary day.
The plural of yom, which does not appear in Genesis 1, can be used to communicate a longer time period (e.g. 'in those days'). Adding a number here would not make sense.
There are words in Biblical Hebrew (such as loam or qedem) that are very suitable for communicating long periods of time, or indefinite time, but none ofthese words are used in Genesis 1.

http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/619/

Answer 3

I believe thet Genesis is the truth and lays the very foundation for the rest of scripture. Therefore that puts me under your upstart American church title. So be it but I am British!

I certainly believe that God created the universe in 6 days and often wonder why he took so long. After all he could have done it in an instant.

God did not denounce evolution because there is no such thing. How can God denounce something that does not exist?

All Gods power to the churches that denounce the evolution lie and want to put creation teaching only, in schools.


Well said Andy.

Answer 4

If only bits of the bible are true, which parts are they and who decides or is it a personal decision. The trouble with that philosophy is that the bible would soon lose all credability and if some bits were not true then it would mean that God lies and suddenly Christianity falls apart with contradictions. It is either all true or all lies, there is no middle ground. The whole of Christianity hinges around the cross. The bible says that Jesus died for our sin......but sin originated in the garden of Eden. If the 6 days of creation is incorrect then so is the idea of the fall and sin. If this falls apart then the death of Jesus was pointless.
When Christians believe in evolution it is usually because they know little about God's word. In fact it shows they also know little about science because, like the big bang, and string thoery, evolution is no more than an unproven theory, with absolutely no hard evidence to back it up.

Answer 5

Apparently God thinks it is creditable. When talking to Moses look at what is said in Exodus 20:8-11. Genesis wrote long ago and finally end up in the form that we have when Moses wrote it. It is a part of scripture that is just as credible as the whole, 2 Timothy 3:16. If I'm also not mistaken, the Roman Church took everything literally until very recently. I actually would question what your friends states with a grain of salt as well.

Answer 6

The bible never was intended to be a geology/biology/astronomy/history textbook, but the main purpose of the bible is for us to discover what we are like, and what God is like. In the account of the creation God is not just making things out of nothing, he is also seperating things from one another, giving things names, and, most importantly, creating order and beauty out of chaos and confusion. (The issue of where the chaos and confusion came from is a very interesting subject, by the way) To approach the book of Genesis from a scientific viewpoint only is a tragedy, as it misses the whole point.

Try reading the creation story again, but whenever you read the expression "the earth", don't think about the globe that we live on, but think about your heart, i.e. your inmost being. It might not seem to make much sense at first, but persist with it, and see if it helps.

I'm afraid with evolution, in the sense of one kind of organism evolving into a higher organism, and particularly humans having evolved from single - celled organism, this simply didn't happen, whatever you think about creationsim or fundamentalism - the odds against it are so mind- bogglingly huge, that it can actually be dismissed out of hand, until any hard evidence turns up, which it hasn't yet. There has, of course, been development within species, but not turning of one into another.

It all boils down to what we want - would you like to believe in God, if you could just reconcile some questions, or do you not want to believe, and are looking for ways to have this proved? I'm afraid that proving either the existence or non-existence of God is a fairly futile business. Whether you believe God to exist, or not exist, it will have to be based on faith, so in that sense we are all dammed to be "believers"

Answer 7

I am not a catholic but.
It seems the catholic church didnt teach you well enough or you were too busy leering over hot chicks in church rather than actually studying catholicism, who knows.





1. READ GENESIS FOR YOURSELF.
2. NOTICE: God commanded the WATER and the EARTH
to PRODUCE the animals. It never said they popped out of thin air.
Sounds like ABIOGENESIS doesnt it?

The Bible does not oppose evolution, just the details of it.

As for 6 days of creation, it may seem that you were a fake convert since to accept Christianity you need to accept the ressurection of Jesus Christ a far greater thing than the amount of time it takes to create the world.


If the bible said GOD TOOK 5 BAZILLION YEARS to do it, WOULD IT be more BELIEVABLE?
Think about what you are asking for.



The truth you cant admit to is simply that you are trying to avoid any type of faith system since it requires you to commit your life.
to forgive others.
to love others.
to pray for others other than your sweet self.
and to be generous with your finances and help the needy- IM NOT TALKING ABOUT WASTING MONEY FOR A NEW CHAPEL.
I am talking about those hungry people in africa, the invisible children or child sponsorship.

If you didnt even do it back then, it can show you the reason why you were more than happy to leave,
you just wanted to appease your guilt over your selfish greed.

or maybe you cant stand not going around having sex or watching pron.


anyway if you really want answers

www.dinosaurs.info
the username to download the video is creation
the password is seminar

those are free non copyrighted videos you can download.

some, not all of the answers are there, but if you are honest to yourself then you will go ahead and look it up.

Answer 8

1. Genesis is not scriptural old testament.
2. The scriptural 'old testament' is the law of Moses; referred to (synonym) as the old testament 2 Cor. 3:13-14 KJV (or NKJV). Can one have the law of Moses before Moses was born?
3. Read creation again. (Genesis 1). The sun, moon,and stars were not created until day 4. So, especially days 1,2, and 3 may have been more than 24 hours. Go from there!!! (10 points)???

Answer 9

Christians the world over do not regard Genesis as true if it is viewed as science or history; that is certainly true, but that is not the same thing as saying they simply dismiss it. Science in the modern sense wouldn't even have entered the authors' mental universe; what they were writing was theology cast into the form of history, and as theology it is still valid.


CHAS_CHA (below):

If evolution is easily disproven why are Christians like the biologist Francis Collins quite sure that it happened; or at least as sure as anything can be?

Answer 10

Hmm...actually, lots of people believe it was made in six days...and an increasing number of educated, PhD-holding scientists are uncovering evidence for a young earth.

And you are correct - it should be challenged. And since it IS be touted as the word of God, it should especially be examined and looked at critically. However, I believe the more the bible is looked at and examined, the more one sees God's fingerprints all over it.

There is a TON of research out there pointing at a young earth. The truth is, modern science is built upon certain assumptions - an old earth, certain views of biogenesis, evolution, etc. Science books are often held up as modern bibles - but they can be full of false assumptions as well (incorrect dating methods, theories built upon systems that have long been discovered as false, etc.).

There is a WHOLE lot of evidence out there pointing at an earth approximately 6000-7000 years old. Check out some reading material in your bookstore concerning this and you'll see that there's more than one theory out there that is scientifically credible.