Creation

There have been various philosophical arguments that attempt to prove the existence of God. One of these is known formally as the teleological argument, which holds that because there is order in the world, God must exist. William Paley (1743-1805) was a strong advocate for this argument.

Paley's favourite example of design in nature is the eye, whose delicate and intricate mechanism he discusses in great detail. He says (Natural Theology):

"Were there no example in the world of contrivance except that of the eye, it would be alone sufficient to support the conclusion which we draw from it, as to the necessity of an intelligent Creator. It could never be got rid of because it could not be accounted for by any other supposition, which did not contradict all the principles we possess of knowledge."

Since the time of Paley, the teleological argument has been shown to be an unsound argument. As for his favourite example of design in nature, which he said could not be accounted for by any other supposition than an intelligent Creator, biologists have found numerous examples of more primitive eyes in nature and can plot the stages of the evolution of the human eye.

For many reasons. I will run down a few of the "biggest" ones. One reason is that some people do not believe in God in the first place, and therefore obviously a story about God "creating" the earth will have to be symbolic to them. How could it literally happen if God is not a literal being? Some might attribute it to being just a story about how the world was made that a certain people invented because they needed an explanation, not because that is how it actually happened.

Another reason comes from people who do believe there is truth in the story. Some of them believe there is truth but they do not think that some of the things in the story are possible or it's likely that it happened exactly as described. For example, they might read about God making the Earth in six "days" and say "I think the Earth might appear to be so old because God didn't really do it in six days but He did it over thousands of years. It's just written down as days."

Also some who believe there is truth in the story might not have a problem with the "facts" (like how long it may or may not have taken to make the Earth) but they do not believe that the authors of the story themselves intended for everything to be literal. Certain scholars who analyze the actual writing style of the creation account might feel that the original writers were incorporating things like poetic imagery into the account, or influences from the cultures that existed when the story was written which are artistic more than factual.

The Egyptian Creation Story is known as The Story of Re. It tells of the creation of the Earth, and of how the god Re grew angry with mankind and tried to destroy them using his daughter, the terrible goddess Sekhmet.

In the beginning, there was an all-powerful god Re. He made the other gods: Shu - the winds that blew; Tefnut - the rain that fell; Geb - the earth; and Nut - the sky goddess. And Re also made the god Hapi - the river Nile that flowed and made Egypt fertile. Then Re made all things on Earth and he also made man. Re ruled as Pharaoh for thousands of years and it was such a time of goodness and plenty that people spoke of it fondly for ever after.

But it came to pass that Re grew old and men no longer feared or obeyed him. So Re became angry, and summoned all the other gods to him. They advised him, "Send destruction upon men and turn your Eye against them."

So Re sent his Eye against them, in the form of his daughter Sekhmet, the fiercest and most terrible of all goddesses. Like a lion rushing upon its prey, she fell upon the people of Upper and Lower Egypt and slew all those who had disobeyed her father, Re. She killed everyone she saw and rejoiced in the slaughter, delighting in the taste of blood.

The Nile itself ran red with the blood of man, and eventually Re felt sorry for the people, but even he couldn't stop Sekhmet's blood-thirsty rampage, she was so carried away with cruelty.

Re realised he would have to trick Sekhmet into stopping, so he ordered messengers to take red ochre form the isle of Elephantine, and then bring it to him in the town of Heliopolis, where the women had been brew all day long at Re's command. The red ochre was mixed with the 7 thousand jars of beer and then poured out over the land where Sekhmet was planning her next slaughter.

When the sun rose the next day, Sekhmet saw the ground all flooded with the red beer and, thinking that it was the blood of those she had killed, she laughed with joy and drank deeply of it. She drank so much that the strength of the beer made her powerless. She could no longer slay, but instead slept the day away and then staggered back to her father.

Re said, "You come in peace, sweet one," and from that moment onwards she became the goddess Hathor, as sweet and strong as love itself. Each new year afterwards, the priestesses of Hathor drank the beer of Heliopolis coloured with red ochre from Elephantine to celebrate her festival.

Re continued to rule, but he was growing old and losing his wisdom. None of the other gods could take his wisdom as they didn't know his secret name of power. But then Geb and Nut had children, and the younger gods and goddesses were born: Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nephthys. Isis was the wisest of these four, and she managed to trick Re into telling her the secret name of his power.

From that time on, Re was pharaoh no longer, but took his place in the heavens, travelling across the sky each day, and crossing the Underworld each night in the Boat of Re, taking with him the souls of the dead.

Re is also known as Ra.

Seth is pronounced Set.

Sekhmet is pronounced Sec-Met.

Nephthys is pronounced Nep-thes

Morover, Adam lived to be 930 years old. Gen 2:17 says "in the day you eat of the fruit" you will die. By the reckoning of time IN the garden of eden, a day after being kick out into the normal world, must have been 1 day equals 930 years (or close to 1 thousand), then it took 6510 years to create the earth then rest on the 7th day (or 7000 years).

Answer:

The 7 days of creation were NOT 7 literal 24 hour days.

The word 'day' in the Bible, does not always mean a 24 hour day.

For example: just the next Chapter in Genesis (chapter 2) in verse 4, it labels all the 6 days (plural as depicted in Genesis 1); all those 6 days are labeled as 1 day (singular). Is this to say that 6 days also equals 24 hours, since it is also called 'day', not 'days'?

This is but one example of MANY, where the word 'day' refers to something OTHER THAN a 24 hour day. Likewise with the term 'evening' and 'morning'; it is also used in a 'figurative' was, NOT NECESSARILY always 'literal'; as fundamentalists would have you arbitrarily believe.

Another Evidence that the creative days were NOT 24 hour days. In the Scriptural record the account of each of the six creative days concludes with the statement: "And there came to be evening and there came to be morning" a first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth day. The seventh day, however, does not have this ending, indicating that this period, during which God has been resting from his creative works toward the earth, continued on. (Among other scriptures) at Hebrews 4:1-10 the apostle Paul indicated that God's rest day was still continuing in his generation, which had by then been more than 4,000 years after that seventh-day rest period began. This makes it evident that each creative day, or work period, was at least thousands of years in length.

Reference Quotes:

• A Religious Encyclopaedia (Vol. I, p. 613): "The days of creation were creative days, stages in the process, but not days of twenty-four hours each."-Edited by P. Schaff, 1894.
• The Hebrew word yohm, translated "day," can mean different lengths of time. Among the meanings possible, William Wilson's Old Testament Word Studiesincludes the following: "A day; it is frequently put for time in general, or for a long time; a whole period under consideration . . . Day is also put for a particular season or time when any extraordinary event happens." (Old TestamentWord Studies, Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1978, W. Wilson, p. 109)

Therefore we cannot be as arbitrary as 'fundamentalists'.

I believe that science agrees with this Bible view. While not calling them 'creative' days; science agrees that there was MUCH TIME involved in the things that formed the earth, and life on it.

Answer:

Yes -- 24-hour days.

A day consists of two parts... a day or "light" portion, and a night or "dark" portion. And these are treated in the account:

"God called the light 'day,' and the darkness He called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning -- THE FIRST DAY." (Gen.1:5 NIV)

"...And there was eveniing, and there was morning -- THE SECOND DAY." (verse 8)

"And there was evening, and there was morning -- THE THIRD DAY." (verse 13)

And so on.

The first day. On the first day, God created the world together with water and atmosphere. Although the Torah, in the Creation as in other topics deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis (see the Talmud, Hagigah 11b), Jewish tradition is that God created a complete universe, out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30; Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1). This is one of the meanings of Genesis 1:1 (Targum, Gen.1:1; and Rashi commentary, Gen.1:14), though the verse has further meaning as well (Rashi, Gen.1:1).Note:

According to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8).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 chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various 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, whose falsehood has been pointed out:

http://religion.answers.com/theory/debunking-the-jepd-documentary-hypothesis

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

And see also the wider picture:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible

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

Seven (Genesis ch.1). The seventh introduced rest; cessation.Note:

According to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8).The same literary devices which the Torah employs to enrich its text, have been used by Bible-critics in an attempt to reassign its authorship.

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 chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various 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, whose falsehood has been pointed out:

http://religion.answers.com/theory/debunking-the-jepd-documentary-hypothesis

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

And see also the wider picture:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible

This is a difficult question to answer. Everyone on Earth has his own preferred ideas about creation. If you whittle down all of them into their most basic elements, you find two primary themes: either the universe was created by God(s)/dess(es), or it was born out of some sort of preexisting material. Evolutionism falls into the latter category, citing speculations about a multiverse out of which our universe was born. Likely the second most widespread view today is that of biblical creationism, which holds that God created the universe by the command of His word as recorded in the Hebrew Torah.

If you're searching for a more general folktale (as opposed to a religious belief), fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien crafted a very detailed creation narrative in the opening chapters of his book The Silmarillion. In it, Eru Ilúvatar (God) inspires the Ainur (angels) to sing a beautiful melody that paints a musical picture of Arda, the world. Then he puts reality to their song and creates Eä (literally, "let it be"), the whole of the universe. There is much more to the tale than just this brief description.

If I'm correct, on the third day:

6 Then God said, "Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth." 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space "sky."

And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.

9 Then God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear." And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground "land" and the waters "seas." And God saw that it was good.

After this it says he created vegetation, and considering that i would assume that rivers would exist, thus rivers would have been created on the third day.