May be just a matter of semantics... I don’t know whether there was a big bang noise when God created the heavens and the earth (When God makes the world and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?). I reckon creation would be some noisy business, but what it IS laid out in scripture is the number of days it took to create everything and the order in which it was all created. I’m one of those crazy guys who assume that the Word of God is literal in light of the fact I have no way to verify it one way or the other.
I have no idea how primitive the minds of our ancestors were, but I don’t have Cro-Magnon in mind when I see them. The folks that are described in the scriptures seemed to be as capable of understanding complex ideas as we are today. I’m not sure that we understand original creation with our “heightened intellect” any better than they would have. We can teach a child about science and they grow up understanding. There’s simply no evidence that the human mind was any less advanced thousands of years ago. No difference in the ability to understand but without television and computers we tend to view them as being somehow intellectually inferior. I would posit that they were in fact more capable of grasping new concepts because their minds were not clouded with an array of abstract concepts and misinformation.
We may not be that far apart in our beliefs on this, I think we probably just express it in different ways.
Thanks for your reply.
GG
Very often the case.
I don’t know whether there was a big bang noise when God created the heavens and the earth (When God makes the world and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?).
The universe probably exists within a vacuum and therefore, no audible sound would have been produced by a big bang owing to the vacuum.
I reckon creation would be some noisy business,
Scientists today point to electromagnetic "echos" of the big bang which indicate it was exceedingly noisy... just not in the audible spectrum.
but what it IS laid out in scripture is the number of days it took to create everything and the order in which it was all created. I’m one of those crazy guys who assume that the Word of God is literal in light of the fact I have no way to verify it one way or the other.
When one uses a literal interpretation, what standard is used to determine if a particular verse or passage should be interpreted literally or figuratively? If one reads and interprets the six day creation account literally, how does one not do the same literal interpretation for the following verses?
Job 38:4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.I have no idea how primitive the minds of our ancestors were, but I don’t have Cro-Magnon in mind when I see them.Job 38:5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
Job 38:6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone?
Psalm 104:5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever.
Proverbs 8:29 When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Proverbs 30:4 Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son's name? Surely you know!
Primitive in no way exclusively means some proto-human species. If in our modern age we describe stone age cultures living in the jungles of New Guinea to be primitive, why can't we describe a semi-nomadic people using stone implements to be primitive?
Exd 4:25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. [fn] "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said.The folks that are described in the scriptures seemed to be as capable of understanding complex ideas as we are today.
With that in mind, how then do you explain Job 38? I read it as God speaking to a man in a manner capable of being understood by peoples having a very primitive understanding of the earth and universe.