Creationism Versus Evolution

Have you ever tried to understand the other side of the debate over Evolution or Creationism? Many will balk at the idea of this being a debate and many have had this debate unsuccessfully, as it seems to always end in a stalemate of sorts where both sides walk away feeling either like they must have taught the other something or irritated that neither would concede. Each generation has their own way of seeing and thinking about things. Just as each religion has it's own take on things. This particular take on this discussion is mostly through the eyes of someone who had a somewhat openminded Christian upbringing. Along side this there was a very small age gap in the learning mentalities, since the "grands" had the four "rents" starting at age 17 and spanning over only 9 years. These four "rents" had eight living "littles" over a roughly 7 year span. The littles were mostly taught to question everything, just like the age they were growing in. However this wasn't intended to carry over to religious beliefs. Clearly some of us took this a bit too literal.

How many questions can one person have towards a book full of it's own contradictions? Lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, lets stick to one for now because believe me there are several. The biggest question that seems to exist is were we created or did we evolve? Some insist that based on:

***Genesis: Chapter 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

~The First Day~ 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good, and He 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.

~The Second Day~ 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, to separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the waters beneath it from the waters above. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

~The Third Day~ 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of waters He called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind.” And it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

~The Fourth Day~ 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years. 15 And let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. 17 God set these lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, 18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

~The Fifth Day~ 20 And God said, “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters teemed according to their kinds, and every bird of flight after its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

~The Sixth Day~ 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth—everything that has the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis: Chapter 2: ~The Seventh Day~ 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished...***

That we were clearly created just like the earth as all the animals were created by God in those first six days with a day of rest making seven days, one whole week. Now one would have to admit this is a lot of work to do in just six days. How could anyone argue this point you may wonder, think about it, at some point all these different animals dinosaurs, Mammoths, Sabertoothed tigers, horses, whales, a plethora of fish, dogs and countless other animals all on one day? Yet another day was ONLY for the sun? Ok well if we think about the fact that the sun is extremally hot and probably took a lot of effort, fine it is conceivable to have this on a day by itself. What about one day for the sky alone, and a whole day for just the land? But somehow all four seasons are done in a day as well?

The answer here is simple; There is another passage in Peter that talks about a day in heaven being like 1,000 years on earth. Now one must know there have been several dissections of what is technically meant here, but we must bring up once again, this book contradicts itself all over the place and we don't have time for that right now. However it can be used to explain, yes He said 1 day, but His sense of time is skewed. If it isn't looked at as the literal definition of a day, but rather looked at as the Heavenly version of a day, that is still more like 7,000 years for creation alone. We do understand how controversial this specific passage is, but if one can pick and chose which side of the controversy to be on (vengeful vs forgiving, spiteful vs loving) then this can be used here as well.

Now to expand on this just a little bit; it is also stated that Adam lived to be over 900 years old, now this is a ridiculous age for a human, even so lets keep an open mind and think. What creatures live this long? Generally small creatures like lizards and turtles and small aquatic creatures like the Immortal Jellyfish, but also some larger ocean creatures like Greenland sharks. We have found proof that humans were not always the size we are now, it is very much scientifically believed that humans were quite a bit smaller and as part of evolution was growth in height and girth. There is nothing in the bible to say this is not the case or that the critters didn't grow and change over time, just that they all existed at the same time, created on the same "day." So again if "one day" was 1000 years then who's to say they didn't actually change as He was creating them, that He didn't tweak them as he went? It doesn't say he didn't change them periodically, nor does anything say we didn't live with the dinosaurs, although there isn't proof that we did either, they are finding new things everyday as we dig.