What Happened During the Creation Days?

What Happened During the Creation Days?  Dr. T J. Tofflemire 3/26/13    

 I think what Dr Craig is saying is that insisting on a young earth and universe can be a stumbling block for college students and professors.  Being open minded on other options for creation and still promoting the truth of the Bible and of Jesus may be best for this group that one is trying to win for Christ. My view on creation follows:  I remain open minded on the age of the universe and earth.  A young universe and earth is possible and is supported by a straight forward reading of scripture. It could be that creation is partly a mystery as God wants us awe struck by this. Many authors state that The Bible and early Genesis is not intended to be a detailed scientific account of creation, and in this brief account some details are left out. A number of authors classify Genesis as an historical narrative and not poetry.  Nevertheless as Craig has pointed out, Gen. Chap 1 language is quite grand with many “and God said” and different that a straight history as in Acts, for example.  In my view the grand language is comparable to John Chap1:1-18, which may have some deeper hidden meanings.   For example it could be the “Word” in vs. 1 is a type for Jesus. In my view the following important science is not specified in Genesis. When an how were all of the following created?:  Energy, elementary particles and matter, protons, electrons, atoms, molecules, viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, worms, DNA and RNA, the N, S and C cycles.  Also we know that bacteria and worms help make the top soil fertile.  On what day were viruses and elementary proteins created as they are not clearly plants or animals?

       I believe God is a God of logic, order and mathematics. He is also a God of the highest morals and love. He created time and is still in complete control of it, and uses it for his purposes. I have several papers on my web site on time delving into several views of time including what the Bible says about it. God can step outside of time space and order if He chooses.  Nevertheless most of the creation probably has order and follows the laws of physics which God also created. There is a danger here of making creation too naturalistic which I wish to avoid. Making it too naturalistic removes the miracles.

        Gen 1:1 says “In the beginning God created the heavens and Earth.” Here heavens come before earth. It is possible as Ross suggests that Gen. 1 is written from a view point or perspective of an observer on earth and what he would see; as the Bible is intended for man. What an observer in deep space would see might be different. Logic and order to me involves creation of energy and elementary particles first, before water and before earth. It would be nonsensical to me to create water and earth and then bulk of elementary particles later. Preceding all of this, God may have had a plan, even a mathematical pan incorporating all the laws of physics. E= MC² of Einstein is a basic equation relating energy and matter.  Einstein also says the universe has a space time fabric. The Bible says God stretched out space like a fabric or tent. Gen. 1:3-4 says that light was created and separated, Gen 1:6 talks of expanse being separated. There is general consensus that the universe is expanding. Is it possible that in Gen.1:2 that waters is a type for matter and elementary particles while also being the oceans on earth? We know that at some time the elementary particles had to be created by God.

        Let’s take the analogy of a watch and watch maker. In making a complex digital watch, it is logical to first have plan and design- before making any parts. One might even make the case-holder for the watch early on, as this would hold the parts so they don’t fall as they are being assembled.

        In the case of living organisms, it would be logical to have plan for the complex proteins, DNA and RNA before making plants and living creatures. It is logical that the smaller simpler living things would be created before the bigger more complex ones, as the bigger ones are dependent on some of the smaller ones.  I will note some of Selling’s book- Earth’s Catastrophic Past. He is a young earth creation geologist. The oldest rocks- Precambrian-contain Stromatolites fossils of cyanobacteria, blue green algae(pg 325,450, 633, 678). The figure 23b shows that fossils of flowering plants did not occur until much later in the fossil record, shown in the Mesozoic period. So how then can all plants be present in one 24hr day? Could it be that the DNA bank for all plants were created on day 3, but some did not appear until later?

       I will now shift to a grammatical interpretation of the Hebrew by Whiddon (Whiddon, Andy Essay on Genesis: http://www.aboutgenesis.com/id2.html)  He claims that the words “God created” and the phrase “let there be” have different meanings in Hebrew and that “let there be” can imply development over time. The phrase let there be is used on days 1,2,3,4 in Genesis chap. 1.

       Let’s shift to Day 4. H. Ross claims in A matter of Days (p.227-38) that day 4 of Gen.1:14-18 can be interpreted as follows: As the earth’s atmosphere cleared, the sun and stars could now, for the first time, be visible from earth.  He also noted as an astronomer that there is evidence that space, mater, energy and some form of time were all created initially and the earth later. In the book- Why the Universe is the Way it Is- Ross makes the case in chap 2 that the mass of the universe, of the sun and their ages and expansion rate of the universe are all necessary for life on earth. Humphreys is creation physicist who claimed on pg 34 that on day 2, the expanse was created and separated. This would fit with the stretching of the heavens. He also noted time dilation. (Humphreys, R. D. ‘New time dilation helps creation cosmology’ Jour. of  Creation 22(3) 2008  http://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j22_3/j22_3_84-92.pdf Starlight and Time 1994 Humphreys, R. D. Starlight and Time, DVD Creation Ministries International. 2007.)  He has also offered possible view that the earth was created out of a white hole below an event horizon that would dilate time. Time dilation is a scientific principle.  I note in a web paper on time (Tofflemire, T.J. Time use in the Scriptures and a Summary article on Time, Creationapologetics.net) that God is in control of time.  In Gen. 1:14 it states “They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and yrs” So it is possible that time that we now use, started, from an earth perspective, on day 4.  Also we don’t know for sure the speed of rotation of the earth(the basis of a day) on days 2-3.  It is possible that days 5,6,7 were 24 hr days as we have a week established in Gen. Chap. 2

      I don’t agree with Ross on the age of birds, fish and animals being millions of yrs old or man being 100,000 yrs.  Making man this old would invalidate the biblical genealogies.  Thus the fossils of the moving life could all be young and most buried in the world wide flood. This view is a bit speculative and I remain open minded to more findings. To me the details of creation remain not fully understood and a mystery.  The most straight forward scriptural view remains 6-24 hrs days. My  book is Evidences for God and His Creations and the web site: http://creationaoplogetics.net  has many book reviews and some papers. What are you thoughts about this?

Prof. Wm. Craig successfully debated Prof. Alex Rosenberg about “Is Faith in God Reasonable?” The 90 min. debate was held at Purdue Univ. on Feb. 1, 2013 You can watch the full debate on this link: live.biola.edu/  The panel of judges gave the victory to Dr. Craig 4/2, and the audience and internet vote also favored Craig; Both debaters had great academic credentials. My of some key differences in the debate approaches follows: Rosenberg opened with ...some ridicule of Craig in that his arguments have been used before and are not new; thus we should not pay attention to them. One of Rosenberg's key arguments dealt with Uranium atoms emitting alpha particles( with one emitting and one not, with no apparent cause). He used this to counter Craig's assertion that things that begin to exist have a cause. He closed with a statement that belief in God is like belief in the Easter Bunny, tooth fairies and Santa Claus. Craig had no such ridicule of Rosenberg but actually complimented him on some points. Craig used slides to help make points clear, had clear speech with almost no Ums and Ahs; Rosenberg had no slides, and many ums and ahs. Craig referred to Rosenberg's book featured at the debate, The "Atheist Guide to Reality", and pointed out some illogical problems in it. Rosenberg made little reference to Craig's Book, "Reasonable Faith". In these ways Craig seamed more prepared, on point with clear logical arguments and polished in his speech. Rosenberg also used the phrase "that Craig's arguments were offensive to him" which is and appeal to emotion, which is not proper use of logic. Also Rosenberg used the straw-man analogy using Joseph Smith's vision and Mohamed's ascension to call into question Christ's resurrection. What are your comments? My web site is at: creationapologetics.net