¶ … 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
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…
