DAY 90
CHALLENGE
“Genesis 1 is inaccurate. Modern science reveals that the world was created over eons, not six days.”
DEFENSE
Genesis 1 uses symbolic language. “God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work’” (CCC 337).
The Church acknowledges the value of scientific studies. “The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies, which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator” (CCC 283).
A careful reading of Genesis 1 shows it uses symbolic language. It says that initially “the earth was without form and void” (Gen. 1:2). During the six days of creation, God solves both these problems. First, he gives the world form by separating day from night (day 1), sky from sea (day 2), and the waters of the sea so dry land appears (day 3). Second, he revisits these realms and populates them so they are no longer “void” (empty): He populates day and night with the sun, moon, and stars (day 4), sky and sea with birds and fish (day 5), and land with animals and man (day 6). Then he rests on the seventh day. Genesis 1 thus takes the work of the Creator and symbolically fits it into the structure of a Hebrew week.
A clue that this is literary rather than literal is the fact that the sun is not created until day 4, yet the day/night cycle was established on day 1. The ancients knew the presence of the sun is what makes it day, so the creation of the sun on day 4 shows the audience the text is symbolic.
John Paul II stated: “The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe and its makeup, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise but in order to state the correct relationship of humanity with God and the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God” (Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 3, 1981).