Creation

Scientists say the universe was created by the 'Big Bang', the single cosmic event that created matter out of nothing. This is still a hypothesis and therefore, like the religious explanations is also unproven. Its advantage, if any, is that it is consistent with known science and does not require the complication of a creator god, whose existence must then be explained.

Pros of creationism:

• Recognises that there is a god and creator of everything.
• Satisifes literalist Bible readers.
• Can be used to fill in gaps of current scientific knowledge.
• Useful in finding said gaps in scientific knowledge, so they can be researched more thoroughly.

Cons of creationism:

• Creates unnecessary conflict in those who have reconciled religion with science.
• Creates unnecessary additional conflict between sects and religions (each has their own form of creationism).
• Not internally or externally consistent - doesn't make sense when compared to itself, doesn't make sense when compared to facts and evidence.
• Some basic principles contrary to accepted and mainstream science.
• Relies on supernatural/religious explanation for some events (which is outside the scope of science).
• Is not testable or falsifiable.
• Does not advance science in many useful ways.
• Results in scientists forced to accept one view regardless of any contrary evidence.
• Where creationism is taught to young children: becomes equivalent to religious Propaganda (illegal in many areas).

The Torah states that it was written in its entirety by one author, Moses (Deuteronomy 31:24), to whom it was dictated by God (Exodus 24:12), including earlier events.
The Torah has one creation-narrative, which takes the form of a summary (Genesis ch.1) followed by an in-depth recap (Rashi commentary, Genesis 2:8).

Other mentions of Creation (Psalms, Isaiah, Job) are poetic, not meant to supplant or alter the details in Genesis.

When we see a newspaper whose opening headline is paraphrased in the detailed story, we don't ascribe the repetition to different writers.

But this kind of literary device, which the Torah employs to enrich its text, has been used by Bible-critics in an attempt to reassign and divide up its authorship.

The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of the literary devices used by the Torah, which include:

- recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

- employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

- using apparent changes or redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

- speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially attributing the narrative to several unknown authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim:

Refuting the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

The creation-narrative in Genesis (a Christian author)

The authorship of the Hebrew Bible

A summary of the Creation-narrative is that, day by day, God created the universe and everything in it (Genesis ch.1).God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30). Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth. The light was not the same as that of the sun. Rather, it was light that God created before the sun, and which emanated from a point in space without any physical source; like what we might term a "white hole."
  
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
  
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
  
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
  
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
  
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
  
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.
  

See also:

Is there evidence against Evolution?

Can you show that God exists?

Seeing God's wisdom

There is not just one, but two quite different creation stories in the Book of Genesis, at Genesis 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-20. 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 - but this is not the case. He says that if we mean to understand each story on its own terms, we must scrupulously avoid reading into the second story any facts or notions taken from the first, and vice versa. For example, in reading about the origin of man in the story of the Garden of Eden, we must not say or even think that man is here created in God's image or that man is to be the ruler over the animals.

There is no wonder that Christians disagree about the meaning of the biblical creation. The stories themselves beg to be misunderstood. For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

The creation story was written before anyone had any knowledge of dinosaurs. Furthermore, the same can be said about kangaroos, which also don't appear in the story.

In other words, not every animal is mentioned by name.

The story was writen before any knowledge of the age of the Earth was known, but this does not lessen the ethical teachings of the story.

Answer:

Genesis 1:21. The word taninim (ibid) can refer to great lizards.