Genesis 1 is Consistent with Modern Scientific Discoveries

Thanks Con for participating. I will now present my interpretation. I suppose I should say this first. The book of Genesis was originally written in Hebrew, therefore I will be using Hebrew words and their definitions often. Keep in mind that Genesis was also originally written for the ancient Jews, that's why is does not contain many specifics that we have come to know today. First off, the days in Genesis are not like literal days. The Hebrew word for day is the word "yom. " This word has a number of definitions. One of those definitions is an indefinite or very long period of time. It is very similar to the English for "day. " For instance, when I say "In the day of the dinosaurs, giant lizards ruled the earth" it's pretty obvious that I am not talking about a literal day, but rather an age, or era. I take the word yom as used in genesis to mean a long period of time. . http://judaism.stackexchange.com... "1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. " The Hebrew written here is "Bereisheet bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz. " The phrase "hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz" was a Hebrew figure of speech meaning everything in the universe. It is similar to a compound word in English. The words "dragon" and "fly" take on a totally different meaning when put together. I believe that this verse is consistent with Big Bang Cosmology. In fact, I believe that this verse directly refers to the Big Bang itself. The whole universe comes into existence in this verse. The universe had a beginning; therefore something caused it to begin. That something may have been God. . http://en.wikipedia.org... (Its Wikipedia, I know, it is well cited though. ) "2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. " Verse two takes a turn. The frame of reference dramatically shifts from the entire universe, to the surface of the earth, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. " This frame of reference remains the same throughout the rest of the chapter. This verse also establishes the conditions of the earth. "[D]arkness is over the face of the deep. " So, the earth was without form, dark, and God was hovering over the waters. Water is the most abundant compound in the universe, and the early earth could have had much more water than the present earth does (for reasons I will address in the next paragraph). Also, a newly formed Earth would have had a very thick atmosphere, due to the nature of planet formation. This would cause darkness over the entire surface. Job 38:8-9 biblically confirms this interpretation as well. It makes perfect sense to think of the very early earth as having these initial conditions described in Genesis 1:2 . http://www.universetoday.com... . http://www.astrobio.net... . http://www.ecology.com... (Earth's early atmosphere most likely resembled that of Jupiter's) Day 1 "3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. " How could light be suddenly seen when the earth's early atmosphere was so thick? Well, the moon impact event would explain this quite well. A mars sized object collided with the primordial earth. This blasted away much of it atmosphere and probably vaporized the water on the surface. This would allow light from the sun to be seen on the surface. Night and day were now distinguishable. . http://www.space.com... Day 2 6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. " 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. " Water vapor condenses and falls to earth. The ocean and atmosphere are now separate and a stable water cycle has been formed. Many Bible translations, such as the NIV, translate the word "heaven" (Hebrew word "shamayim") as sky. Keep in mind that the Hebrew language does not have the large vocabulary that English does. Most Hebrew words have multiple meanings. . http://www.biblestudytools.com... Day 3 "9 And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. " And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.11 And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. " And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. " Many skeptics point out that fossils animal life predate fossils of plant life. However, the Hebrew word used here for vegetation, "deshe," can refer to any green photosynthetic life on land. This would include ancient cyanobacteria which appear very early in the fossil record. The Hebrew words for seed, trees, and fruit (zera, es, and pri) can also resoectively mean "semen" or "the embryos of any plant species, " "any large plant containing woody fiber," and "the food and or embryos produced by any living thing. " Keep in mind that genesis does not say that all plant life was created at this moment. These definitions are consistent with what we understand to be very early life on earth. (Definitions for these Hebrew words can be found in the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament written in 1980 by R. Laird Harris and other authors. I can't find a copy on the internet, so this is the best citation I can give you) . http://www.ancient-hebrew.org... For the sake of the character limit, I will not be showing the direct verses anymore. You can view them here . https://www.biblegateway.com... Day 4 Verses 14-19 During the fourth day the sun and moon appear in the sky as the photosynthetic life was consuming water vapor and carbon dioxide while volcanic activity on earth began to slow down and stabilize. They were now distinguishable from the surface of the earth. Genesis says God "made" the stars, sun and moon and the fourth day, (the Hebrew used for made is the word "asa") however, this verb does appear in an appropriate form for denoting a past action. Verses 17 and 18 say that God set them, past tense, in the sky. The first few verses of Genesis also imply that the sun moon and stars were made prior to the fourth day. Day 5 Verses 20-23 God creates specific kinds of animals here, they are "nephesh" animals. The word nephesh denotes animals that have certain attributes, such as mind, will, and emotion. Examples of nephesh animals are dogs and cats. Most birds also fall into this category. Sea mammals and birds are created here. Many skeptics will point these verses out, saying that there is a discrepancy between them and the fossil record. Sea mammals are found in the fossil record after land mammals. But, this problem is easily cleared when you read the text carefully. These verses refer to sea mammals generically while later verses refer to 3 specific kinds of land mammals. We will explore that shortly. Now you may be thinking, what about the dinosaurs? Well, Genesis is only an account of the creation of what is important to humanity. Nobody in ancient Israel would have known about dinosaurs, dinosaurs did not really apply to them or have any significance, therefore God saw it unnecessary to but them into Genesis. . http://en.wikipedia.org... Day 6 Verses 24-31 On Day 6, God creates three specific kinds of animals: livestock, wild animals, and creatures that move along the ground. This kind of specificity indicates that this verse is not referring to land animals in general. The Hebrew words are b'hema (livestock), hayya (wild animals) and remes (this word most likely refers to short legged mammals like rodents). In light of this information, I think any apparent discrepancy is done away with. After this, God creates man. This is consistent with the fossil record. Man appears later than everything else created. . http://biblehub.com... Now, you may be thinking, what about the theory of evolution? Well, I don't see why you couldn't some how fit evolution into the mix of this interpretation. God creates organisms, and then may or may not allow them to evolve. This would explain why we tend to see species and even whole phyla appear abruptly in the fossil record. To support this I turn to explosions like the Cambrian Explosion and the Avalon Explosion. Even the great Richard Dawkins acknowledges that the organisms in the Cambrian Explosion appear suprisingly quickly. In the Cambrian Explosion, we find most of the phyla (body types) that we know today. This is consistent with what we would see if there was a creator in action. I'm not saying that there is no evolution at all, I'm saying that God creates the animals, and then he may or may not allow them to evolve. . http://en.wikipedia.org... Thanks for your time. Sorry this is an incredibly long post. I'm looking forward to a nice discussion. :)