Literal six-day creation and young earth interpretations of Genesis

¶ … Origins

I conducted interviews with three individuals: Rosemary, Ann and Tom, and got varying answers. However, all the responses held that the days of creation of Genesis 1 were literally six (24-hour) days. Their proof of this is in Genesis where day is described as the light to differentiate it from the darkness, referred to as night. Tom and Ann are convinced that earth and life is about 6,000 years old. They mention that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 provide us with the years from Adam to Abraham, who nearly all academics agree, lived around 2000 B.C. This places the creation date at about 6,000 years ago. However, Rosemary does not agree with their standpoint. She points out that the age of earth and life goes into millions of years based on scientific techniques like radioactive dating of materials. Rosemary and Ann believed that apes and man do not have a common ancestor; they held that man was created in the image and likeness of God. Tom, on the other hand, believed the contrary. His stand is based on a broad collection of fossil evidence which clearly depicts/traces how apes evolved to humans (Patterson, 2007), together with the similarity in their DNAs. Regarding whether Adam and Eve were real people, Tom and Ann gave a positive reply while Rosemary believed that they were just symbolic characters.

How long are the days in Genesis 1? Why?

I strongly believe that the days of creation in Genesis 1 were literally six (24-hour) days. In the Old Testament, the most dominant meaning of yom is a literal day, and Genesis 1 confirms this meaning. In verse 5, yom is described in its literal senses. It is often used with a number (first day, second day, etc.) and with morning and evening, which refers to a literal day elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is again literally defined in verse 14 with regards to the movement of heavenly bodies (Mortenson, 2011).

The author of the book of Genesis has gone to great extents to provide a proper definition to the phrase 'day', the very first time it appears. In Genesis 1:5, God referred to light as day, and the darkness as night. The first time the phrase day is utilized, it is described as the light to differentiate it from the darkness referred to as night. Genesis 1:5 concludes with, "And the evening and the morning were the first day." This phrase is used for all of the other five days; there was an established sequence of days and nights. God did His work during the periods of light and no creative work was done during the period of darkness (Ham & Wieland, n.d.).

How old is the Earth and life? Why?

I believe that earth and life is approximately 6,000 years old. Earth's age can be approximated by assuming the initial five creation days, then carefully subsequent to the genealogies to Abraham from Adam particularly in Genesis 5 as well as 11, and subsequently incorporating the time from Abraham till date. Most academics agree that Abraham existed about 2,000 B.C (4,000 years ago).

A simple calculation therefore is: 5 days + ~2,000 years + ~4,000 years = ~6,000 years

The five days happen to be insignificant for this calculation. A few individuals have carried out this particular calculation utilizing the Masoretic text and with close attention to biblical features, they came at the identical time of approximately 6,0000 years or around 4,000 B.C (Hodge, 2007).

On the other hand, the opponents like Rosemary are advised by scientific techniques. They hold that the earth's age has been most precisely determined via the radioactive decay of its rocks. The oldest known rock formations are dated at 4.0 to 4.2 billion years. Meteorites which have landed on the surface of the earth are dated to 4.56 billion years, which establishes the date the solar system together with its entire world was created (Deem, 2013).

The opponents mainly employ the radioactive dating technique since it offers clocks which allow them to establish the ages of different substances on earth. It appears that isotopes having a half-life of less than 80 million years are not existent. One might claim that perhaps God did not want to create isotopes having short half-lives. The most compelling answer, however, is that all the isotopes having short half-lives have totally decayed over the 4.5 billion years of the earth's history. Such isotopes do not exist apart from carbon-14 that is constantly formed in the earth's atmosphere (Deem, 2013).

Were Adam and Eve real people? Why or why not?

I hold that Adam and Eve were real people. God created them as fully formed humans with no ancestors. This shows that every human who has ever lived is a direct descendant of this pair. The Genesis account is considered to be a record of actual events that took place similar to the way they would be recorded by a journalist today (Guinness, 2010).

The opponents view is based on biblical texts that suggest that other people do not quite appear to be descended from Adam and Eve (Cain's wife). Additionally, various elements of Genesis 2-3 show that on some level, the text describes Adam and Eve as archetypal figures. They are swayed by scientific proof that man evolved and shares a common ancestor with other beings on earth. They believe that the genetic diversity among human beings today could not have just risen from two people in the past, but instead, from a population of thousands (Guinness, 2010).

Additionally, other proponents such as Rosemary maintain that early chapters of Genesis are simply symbolic tales in the genre of other ancient Near Eastern literature. According to this view, Adam and Eve were not historical figures. They communicate inspired and important theological truths regarding humanity and God, but are not really historical in the sense individuals today utilize and interpret the word (Guinness, 2010).