bibleverse2
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(Re: What about *evolution?)
Note that an old earth and evolution can be true without contradicting Creationism, because evolution per se (random mutation and survival of the fittest) can coexist with miraculous creation, just as an automated process created by a human (for example, a computer program which makes random, colorful pictures which can be seen as art) can coexist with that same human sometimes performing a task himself directly (painting some pictures by hand). That is, evolution per se can be a process created by God to allow new, adaptive species to arise naturally over time. And this process can coexist with God Himself sometimes creating new species miraculously and instantaneously. So with regard to evolution and Creationism, it does not have to be either/or, but can be both/and.
Some people ask why would God wait millions of years for something to evolve from a one-celled organism when He could just create it miraculously and instantaneously? God could do that for the same reason that He has every human start out as a one-celled organism: a zygote in its mother's womb. God then has a human zygote only gradually develop through natural means into an embryo, and then into a fetus, a baby, a toddler, an adolescent, and an adult. And God has other animals develop gradually in a similar way. And He has plants start out as seeds. So it must give God pleasure to see organisms develop naturally over time, just as it must give Him pleasure to also sometimes create plants and animals miraculously, instantaneously, already fully-formed, like He did in Genesis 1:11-13 and Genesis 1:20-27, during three of the seven, literal, 24-hour days of Genesis 1:3 to 2:4.
(Re: A *Gap Theory)
Creationism can include what could be called a Double-Gap Theory, meaning that there could have been two gaps of time in Genesis chapters 1-2, the first gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, and the second gap between Genesis 2:4 and Genesis 2:5. Genesis 1:1 could have occurred some 4.5 billion years ago, when God first created the planet earth and its atmosphere (the first heaven, in which the birds fly: Genesis 1:20b). Between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, some 4.5 billion years could have occurred, in which God could have allowed His own created process of evolution to serve as a mechanism by which new species arose naturally on the earth. During those same 4.5 billion years, God could have also gone outside of evolution and created some new species miraculously and instantaneously, whenever He wanted to (compare what evolutionists call "punctuated equilibria").
Genesis 1:2 could refer to the condition of the earth only about 12,000 years ago (at the end of the Paleolithic period), after some cataclysm like a comet-strike had killed off all life on the planet (both evolved and miraculously created), had submerged all land areas in water (comets contain huge amounts of water), and had ruined the atmosphere. The impact of the comet could have also knocked the earth out of its orbit around its original star, so that the earth was sent hurtling into the darkness of interstellar space as a "rogue planet" (astronomers estimate that rogue planets in our galaxy could outnumber the stars in our galaxy). Genesis 1:3 to 2:4 could then refer to God, over a period of six, literal, 24-hour days (some 12,000 years ago, at the start of the Neolithic period), miraculously restoring to the earth light, a good atmosphere, dry land, and life, including a race of male and female homo sapiens sapiens, after God had miraculously restored land plants (Genesis 1:11-13) and land animals (Genesis 1:24-25) to the earth.
Then, only about 6,000 years ago, God miraculously created on the earth an individual male homo sapiens sapiens named Adam in an uninhabited desert land (Genesis 2:5-7; there the original Hebrew word translated as "earth" can refer to a certain "land": e.g. Genesis 2:11). After that, God created the plants of the local Garden of Eden in that desert land (Genesis 2:8-9), and God placed Adam in that garden (Genesis 2:15). Then God miraculously created the animals of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:19). Then He created an individual female homo sapiens sapiens (Genesis 2:22) whom Adam named Eve (Genesis 3:20).
Because Adam was created only about 6,000 years ago, based on Biblical chronology, yet there are homo sapiens sapiens fossils said to be as old as 200,000 years, God could have first created homo sapiens sapiens, or it could have evolved by God's created process of evolution, as far back as 200,000 years. Also, all of the different hominid forms the fossils of which long predate, or are as old as, the earliest fossils of homo sapiens sapiens, and which preceding or coexisting hominid forms we do not consider to have been fully human like us, such as homo sapiens neanderthalensis, could have all been miraculously created by God, or could have evolved by God's created process of evolution, over millions of years prior to the first appearance of homo sapiens sapiens on the earth.
And this does not get into the possibly trillion other inhabited planets in the universe on which homo sapiens sapiens or similar or far more advanced life-forms could have been miraculously created by God, or could have evolved by God's created process of evolution, billions of years prior to the first appearance of homo sapiens sapiens on the earth. For the universe could be about fourteen billion years old, and it contains about a hundred billion galaxies, each containing about a hundred billion stars. So even if only one star out of every ten billion stars has an inhabited planet, there would still be a trillion inhabited planets. And on most of these, God could have begun His miraculous work, and the work of His created process of evolution, billions of years prior to His beginning of His miraculous work, and the work of His created process of evolution, on the earth.
Note that an old earth and evolution can be true without contradicting Creationism, because evolution per se (random mutation and survival of the fittest) can coexist with miraculous creation, just as an automated process created by a human (for example, a computer program which makes random, colorful pictures which can be seen as art) can coexist with that same human sometimes performing a task himself directly (painting some pictures by hand). That is, evolution per se can be a process created by God to allow new, adaptive species to arise naturally over time. And this process can coexist with God Himself sometimes creating new species miraculously and instantaneously. So with regard to evolution and Creationism, it does not have to be either/or, but can be both/and.
Some people ask why would God wait millions of years for something to evolve from a one-celled organism when He could just create it miraculously and instantaneously? God could do that for the same reason that He has every human start out as a one-celled organism: a zygote in its mother's womb. God then has a human zygote only gradually develop through natural means into an embryo, and then into a fetus, a baby, a toddler, an adolescent, and an adult. And God has other animals develop gradually in a similar way. And He has plants start out as seeds. So it must give God pleasure to see organisms develop naturally over time, just as it must give Him pleasure to also sometimes create plants and animals miraculously, instantaneously, already fully-formed, like He did in Genesis 1:11-13 and Genesis 1:20-27, during three of the seven, literal, 24-hour days of Genesis 1:3 to 2:4.
(Re: A *Gap Theory)
Creationism can include what could be called a Double-Gap Theory, meaning that there could have been two gaps of time in Genesis chapters 1-2, the first gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, and the second gap between Genesis 2:4 and Genesis 2:5. Genesis 1:1 could have occurred some 4.5 billion years ago, when God first created the planet earth and its atmosphere (the first heaven, in which the birds fly: Genesis 1:20b). Between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, some 4.5 billion years could have occurred, in which God could have allowed His own created process of evolution to serve as a mechanism by which new species arose naturally on the earth. During those same 4.5 billion years, God could have also gone outside of evolution and created some new species miraculously and instantaneously, whenever He wanted to (compare what evolutionists call "punctuated equilibria").
Genesis 1:2 could refer to the condition of the earth only about 12,000 years ago (at the end of the Paleolithic period), after some cataclysm like a comet-strike had killed off all life on the planet (both evolved and miraculously created), had submerged all land areas in water (comets contain huge amounts of water), and had ruined the atmosphere. The impact of the comet could have also knocked the earth out of its orbit around its original star, so that the earth was sent hurtling into the darkness of interstellar space as a "rogue planet" (astronomers estimate that rogue planets in our galaxy could outnumber the stars in our galaxy). Genesis 1:3 to 2:4 could then refer to God, over a period of six, literal, 24-hour days (some 12,000 years ago, at the start of the Neolithic period), miraculously restoring to the earth light, a good atmosphere, dry land, and life, including a race of male and female homo sapiens sapiens, after God had miraculously restored land plants (Genesis 1:11-13) and land animals (Genesis 1:24-25) to the earth.
Then, only about 6,000 years ago, God miraculously created on the earth an individual male homo sapiens sapiens named Adam in an uninhabited desert land (Genesis 2:5-7; there the original Hebrew word translated as "earth" can refer to a certain "land": e.g. Genesis 2:11). After that, God created the plants of the local Garden of Eden in that desert land (Genesis 2:8-9), and God placed Adam in that garden (Genesis 2:15). Then God miraculously created the animals of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:19). Then He created an individual female homo sapiens sapiens (Genesis 2:22) whom Adam named Eve (Genesis 3:20).
Because Adam was created only about 6,000 years ago, based on Biblical chronology, yet there are homo sapiens sapiens fossils said to be as old as 200,000 years, God could have first created homo sapiens sapiens, or it could have evolved by God's created process of evolution, as far back as 200,000 years. Also, all of the different hominid forms the fossils of which long predate, or are as old as, the earliest fossils of homo sapiens sapiens, and which preceding or coexisting hominid forms we do not consider to have been fully human like us, such as homo sapiens neanderthalensis, could have all been miraculously created by God, or could have evolved by God's created process of evolution, over millions of years prior to the first appearance of homo sapiens sapiens on the earth.
And this does not get into the possibly trillion other inhabited planets in the universe on which homo sapiens sapiens or similar or far more advanced life-forms could have been miraculously created by God, or could have evolved by God's created process of evolution, billions of years prior to the first appearance of homo sapiens sapiens on the earth. For the universe could be about fourteen billion years old, and it contains about a hundred billion galaxies, each containing about a hundred billion stars. So even if only one star out of every ten billion stars has an inhabited planet, there would still be a trillion inhabited planets. And on most of these, God could have begun His miraculous work, and the work of His created process of evolution, billions of years prior to His beginning of His miraculous work, and the work of His created process of evolution, on the earth.