Well, not exactly. I didn't say that there was no sun, I said that all there was, or all that was visible, was light. It is possible, by the order it was presented in Genesis, that God created the stars, then he created the the rotations and orbits of the planets. That is how we measure time.
In which case the timescale for a day would have been in place before things start evolving. Then of course if you think of it in terms of Moses (as you bring up later) he could have had visions of distinct phases of "creation" which
he interpreted to be a day, when like you say...
It'll be easier with a general time line:
So now we just have to think what Moses
would have seen (and naturally misinterpreted)
God creates 'light'- Meaning that God created the stars that produced light. So light was visible.
Possibly the supernova that led to the formation of our proto-solar nebula or even the formation of our sun. Unfortunately this is at odds with our current understanding of the formation of the solarsystem because one line before that God created the Heavens and the earth. The formation of the earth is something we know to have happened after the formation of the sun (although the heavy
materials for the earth were created in the final, super dense fusion reactions of the dying star
before the supernova.) It's possible that Moses just got mixed up.
God creates night and day- meaning that the earth was set to rotate and orbit
Various large and small rocks in the same orbital pathway around the new sun are gravitationally attracted to eachother and form further larger clusters which collide with eachother until we eventually end up with earth.
God separates the waters- possibly meaning that the water cycle was set into motion
Or water present makes it's way to the surface, and icy comets and meteors contribute to water levels on the new earth.
God made dry land- Possibly meaning that the earth's crust moved till there was dry land.
Geologic uplift resulting from earthquakes form mountains. Volcanic activity forms islands, although it would be a stretch to say that there was absolutely no dry land before this.
God created plant life- No, plant's didn't evolve without the sun, but possibly, if we use the idea that the atmosphere was clouded, the sun was not entirely visible.
Plants and animals are both eukaryotes, they share a common ancestor, one did not start before the other. However plants did reach land before animals, so again, it could just be Moses mucking things up.
I'd like to point out however that some plants need sunlight and some need shade. If plants were to evolve in the absence of direct sunlight, it would follow that all plants at the time would be shade loving plants. Upon God's "revealing" of the sun, there would be a period of time when plants would have a very difficult time growing given that their systems being acclimated to soft sunlight, would suddenly be scorched. This is not a problem per se, as some plants would have survived and gone on to produce ancestors that could survive in direct sunlight, this is known as bottlenecking, and is an important part of speceization in evolution.
God created the sun, moon, and stars- the cloudiness of the atmosphere diminished so that they were visible. It says in Genesis that he created them for the purpose of marking time more accurately.
Just a question. Any guesses what this cloudyness was? Could it have been a meteor hit or a volcanic explosion that engulfed the atmosphere in ash?
God created water life and life in the air- Life began in the water. He told them to be fruitful and increase in number, so we can suppose that water life, and possibly plant life evolved during that period of time.
but plant life is already around, again, out of sync with our current understanding of how life progressed. Also, God "created" the birds after fish but
before amphibians, reptiles, and dinosaurs (the progressions from fish to birds)
God created life on land- God allowed that life move to the land. At the end of that period, God created humans in his own likeness.
Again, life on land came before life in the air, but this is still easily attributed to Moses' misunderstanding
We can think, reason, feel.
Well so can dolphins, but...
God rested- God discontinued to create, so evolution generally slowed. From my observations, the creatures in today's world don't seem to be evolving anymore.
Well that's simply not true. Evolution is not something that can be measured across the board. Different species evolve at different rates according to different environments. The only reason you don't see evolution happening is because it simply isn't something you can observe from the point of view of one lifetime. You have to look into the past.
Did you know that most of the breeds of dogs present today were only created in the last few hundred years?
Did you know that Human evolution is actually speeding up?
But anyway, there we go, we've reconciled all of genesis with scientific understanting, substituting a "well moses didn't understand" wherever it didn't fit, and that works fine, kinda... of course we were retrofitting information.
They seem to be in a state of general 'perfection'. They do evolve some to adjust, but it does not appear that anything is growing a fifth leg because it is more convenient.
Ha, that 'perfection', even with quotation marks is questionable at best. In the human body alone I bet I could match you a defect for every advantage.
And besides the occasional debilitating mutation, functional extra limbs would have started with the advent of bony fish, not now that a quadropedal structure has already been firmly established in animals.
And what environment would a fifth limb actually contribute significantly enough to the survival of an organism that it pays for the cost of making it in the first place?
I admit that I haven't studied evolution very deeply, so my argument might be flawed, but from what I've gathered the time line of creation seems to match up basically with the theory of evolution. For example, evolutionists believe that life began in the water. The Genesis account doesn't contradict that, in fact, it supports it.
marginally
Sorry about that last statement. I realize that my wording choice was poor. By your little tag by your user name, it says that you are an atheist. Meaning that you believe in no god whatsoever, which means no creator. Having no creator means that matter and life must have originated by chance, thus foolishness. To me, evolution without a creator is like setting out a bunch of Legos for billions of years and hoping that it forms something worthwhile without anybody ever touching it.
emphasis mine
I suppose that does come from a bit of misunderstanding. Evolution is not chance, it is a natural process like any other. Abiogenesis is not chance, it's organic chemistry. If this is a topic you'd like me to explore with you further I would be happy to, it was the topic of my senior research paper.
Anyways, I admire your intelligence. I like being challenged.
Why thank you. I like challenging
.
