What are some doubts that people may have regarding the creation account from Genesis?

Answer 1

Many people doubt a new earth creation theory, many people doubt a literal 6 day creation, as it doesn't seem to square with modern science. However, many faithful Christians, even 2nd & 3rd century Church Fathers believed in an old earth and a metaphorical six days. Even if we were one day able to definitively prove that that the earth is more than 6000 years old and that creation didn't happen in a literal 6 day period, that does nothing to disprove Scripture.

Answer 2

One doubt may be why there are actually two different creation accounts in Genesis (Genesis 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-25). The existence of two contradictory creation stories immediately creates the suspicion that neither of them is really correct. Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that pious readers, believing that the text cannot contain contradictions, ignore the major disjunctions between the two creation stories and tend to treat the second story as the fuller, more detailed account of the creation of man (and woman) that the first story simply reported. Others, reading the first chapters as they would read any other texts, do see the contradictions so readily evident.

Technically, one could doubt the first creation story when it tells us that grass was growing before God created the sun.

Technically, one could doubt the second creation story because there can be no single terrestrial place that would serve as the common source of these four widely separated rivers, Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates that are said to have flowed through the Garden of Eden.

The Church Father, Origen, could be allowed to voice his 'doubts', showing that even a staunch Christian can query the creation stories without losing his faith. On First Principles, 3.1.1: "Now what man of intelligence will believe that the first and the second and the third day, and the evening and the morning existed without the sun and moon and stars? And that the first day if we may so call it, was even without a heaven? And who is so silly as to believe that God, after the manner of a farmer, "planted a paradise eastward in Eden", and set in it a visible and palpable "tree of life", of such a sort that anyone who tasted its fruit with his bodily teeth would gain life: and again that one could partake of "good and evil" by masticating the fruit taken from the tree of that name? And when God is said to "walk in the paradise in the cool of the day" and Adam to hide himself behind a tree, I do not think anyone will doubt that these are figurative expressions which indicate certain mysteries through a semblance of history and not through actual events."

Of course if God does not really exist, this is one of the strongest reasons for doubting the creation accounts in Genesis.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 3

See also: How many creation-narratives are in Genesis? (a Christian author)

The greatest doubt is people's belief that the universe, and this Earth, are vastly older than Genesis seems to suggest, and that things "could not have" been formed in six days.

However, evidence of a young Earth, much too young for Evolution, is out there for those willing to consider it.

See also:

Is there evidence against Evolution

Evidence of a young Earth

Evidence of Creation

Answer 4

Perhaps most doubts are due to the person beginning to read Genesis 1 and 2 with preconceived ideas/notions of what to expect. Or perhaps, they just never read it and just accepted the ideas of others. But the first rule of reading Scripture is to allow The Bible to interpret itself and then read all in its full context which may at times require searching other Scripture to get the full picture - like a giant jigsaw puzzle.


God created the earth with exquisite perfection (read Job 38:4-7) , but apparently some sort of a cataclysm brought destruction. We don't know how many years there were between the time of God's creation and that cataclysm, nor do we know how many years there might have been between that cataclysm and the 'renewal ' described in Genesis 1.


Notice Psalm 104:30: "You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth." What is described beginning with Genesis 1:3 is God's renewal of the earth and its creatures.


Would it be logical to think that God would create the earth "formless and desolate" as are the translations of Genesis 1:2. Why shouldn't we expect God to create everything with beauty and perfection. After all, the Scripture states "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33).


Further, Isaiah 45:18 tells us, "For the LORD is God, and He created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos" (New Living Translation). The Hebrew word here translated "empty chaos" is tohu, the same word translated "without form" in Genesis 1:2. Extra-biblical sources also suggest a 'falling' down of the original earth. The early Catholic theologian Origen (186-254), in his commentary De Principiis, explains regarding Genesis 1:2 that the original earth had been "cast downwards" ( Ante-NiceneFathers, 1917, p. 342). There are many others who thought along this path as well.


As this is a very lengthy topic, I would suggest readers delve into a study of it with an open mind. Read Genesis and the pros and cons in other writings before making a decision for yourself. If done properly, most if not all doubts will disappear.