4.5 Billion years is really not a big number. 4.5 billion < 332 billion in dollars made in one fiscal year by a single oil company. 4.5 billion x 365 < a mol. In terms of all of earth’s ∆ in geology… 4.5 billion years is a really short process. Now, Speed is the scale how fast something moves, example: (10 cm/1 sec) is faster then (10 cm/2 sec) is faster then (10 cm/3 sec). Pace is the inverse of Speed, or how long something takes: (3 sec/10 cm) takes longer then (2 sec/ 10 cm) takes longer then (1 sec/ 10 cm). In terms of geology time scales..what is the pace of events happening on the 6th day in Genesis? Specifical, between Genesis 1:20 to 1:28; from what I read of Genesis 1:20..seems to be the start of Cambrian explosion (541 million years ago..beginning of multi cell life) and Genesis 1:28 to be the start of the cenozoic ere (300,000 years ago…the emergence of homo sapiens into the world).
It’s futile and foolish to try to fit the 6 days of creation into the sequence of earth history. The people who wrote the book had no concept of deep time or of any real sequence in the origin of the current world, and their concept of the universe was of a box surrounded by water. You will note that the 5th day includes birds and fish; no mention of trilobites or any other Cambrian life. The message is that God made everything, and the order isn’t all that important to the writers.
Only if you approach scripture as a study in jewish cultural structure, traditions, rituals, and “tales” of manipulative narratives: a product of human intellect. Don’t assume we all hold the same value that a Divine Living Being has no place in the structure of reality. Christian doctrine demands that penmanship doesn’t necessarily equate to authorship; That the Holy Spirit is the Author, and the writers are messengers transcribing the exact intent of God.
I’m just curious what the basis for thinking this is. I assume this demand is interpreted from scripture too, right? If so, what are the specific parts you think imply this doctrine?
Seconding the question. It’s not to hard to find people who treat this as doctrine, but those are usually the same people who want Genesis to be doctrine as well, which it is not.
Perhaps a secondary quibble: I’ve seen the writers described as “transcribing the Word of God,” but not specifically as “transcribing the exact intent of God.” Those aren’t quite the same thing. This is probably one of those questions that simple has no good answer, so please feel free to ignore it. 
@ebg I am a Christian and believe in the inspiration and authority of Scripture. But God’s purpose in inspiration does not seem much aligned with revealing scientific knowledge. If Genesis is meant to reveal earth’s history, it might be the only place in Scripture to confer scientific knowledge. God never says “the earth is a globe and there are continents on the other side”, or “germs cause disease”, etc. Obviously God knows those things, but chose instead to reveal matters that we could only learn by revelation.
OTOH, God does address in early Genesis things that its first readers, the Israelites leaving Egypt and its paganism and headed toward Canaan and its paganism, needed to hear. Like, “the sun isn’t a god, the moon isn’t a god, those are just lights that God made. The earth wasn’t produced by some god being slain; it was made by God for his good purposes.” There are also multiple kinds of poetic structure in early Genesis that aren’t immediately obvious; eg, in 6 days God says “it was good” seven times - part of a pattern I can’t fully describe here. I recommend “The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One” - as a modern person interested in scientific questions, it helped me see some of the literary and theological purposes of the book that go in quite a different direction.
I’ve seen the writers described as “transcribing the Word of God,” but not specifically as “transcribing the exact intent of God.”
Christians have never believed in God “dictating” Scripture word-for-word in the same sense that Muslims believe Allah dictated the Koran - like, if Allah had chosen a different prophet, the words would have been exactly the same. Christians affirm that each writer has his own voice and style (which is obvious), yet that God sovereignly determined that what was written was according to his will.
That was a far better answer than my silly questioned deserved. Thank you.
@ebg Although I don’t prefer a “concordist” approach to early Genesis (trying to make chronology line up with science - I think it’s structured in more of a poetic / purpose fashion), I do agree that a “slow pace” of creation would not be surprising for God. If he himself is outside time, nothing is a “long time” to him. And the hist path in Scripture from Adam to Christ to now is very slow by our standards. I mean, 400 years of silence between the end of the OT and the start of the NT - what was God doing? His pace is not our pace.
I for one find it beautiful to think of God slowly forming multiple generations of stars, working untiringly toward an Earth where the Incarnation would someday take place. The hugeness of the universe matches well with the hugeness of the timespan: both are far more than “necessary” for humans, except to inspire awe in the one who made them. Truly, “what is man, that you are mindful of him?”
I’m just curious what the basis for thinking this is. I assume this demand is interpreted from scripture too, right? If so, what are the specific parts you think imply this doctrine?
Just a quick sample:
Then [Jesus] said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness 2 Tim 3:16
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21
There are some things in [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 2 Peter 3:16
That last one shows that NT writings were already being called “Scripture” on the level with OT writings before the NT was finished.
BTW, belief that the Bible is God-inspired and inerrant does not mean that there are not things in it which might on first reading appear to be errors. For one thing, the claim applies to the original writings, and some (though generally minor and notes in modern Bible footnotes) things have been obscured by copying errors. Furthermore, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, widely espoused by conservatives, has caveats like:
Article XIII. WE AFFIRM the propriety of using inerrancy as a theological term with reference to the complete truthfulness of Scripture. WE DENY that it is proper to evaluate Scripture according to standards of truth and error that are alien to its usage or purpose. We further deny that inerrancy is negated by Biblical phenomena such as a lack of modern technical precision, irregularities of grammar or spelling, observational descriptions of nature, the reporting of falsehoods, the use of hyperbole and round numbers, the topical arrangement of material, variant selections of material in parallel accounts, or the use of free citations.
The vast majority of the signers of this 1978 statement were not young earth creationists, as even YECs acknowledge (with disapproval).
How does that alter the futility and/or foolishness of trying to fit the 6 days of creation into the sequence of earth history? Do you assume that God’s intent was to provide an accurate description of that history? If so, why? And if so, why was his description so contrary to fact?
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