How can the creation week last for 6 days if the earth is old?

Great Debates
21

Well, by implication, it does.

If one posits a “young earth” and the Biblical account of Creation, then one can certainly make the claim.

When Adam was created, he was created as an adult, implying that 20 or so some odd years had passed. I’m willing to bet he was created with bacteria in his digestive tract to aid in digestion, even though he’d not eaten anything that would give him those bacteria. The sun was created “in process” as well. It takes tens of thousands of years for the energy from the center of the sun to reach the surface, yet the sun was created shining, implying that thousands of years had passed. One can certainly subscribe to YEC and state that God created these things (and others, such as plate tectonics, ice ages, etc.) “in progress” as well.

Zev Steinhardt

22

Answers In Genesis says that Adam and Eve weren’t given belly buttons though…

23

In response to the general “early Genesis is basically a poem that says THAT God created the universe, not HOW”…

Well what about Exodus?

I’ll just summarize the passages I quoted in full in the OP:

“Work for six days and rest for one because God created the world in six days and rested for one”.

I think the focus is:
“Work for six days and rest for one because God created the world [God worked for] in six days and rested for one”.

Rather than:
“Work for six days and rest for one because God created the world”.

or

“Work for six days and rest for one because God created the world, and according to the creation poem, it took six days, and he rested for one day”.

The last option could possibly be valid, but the Bible doesn’t seem to say that it is definitely a poem.

24

Well apparently Augustine had a lot of Greek influences, and many of the Greeks believed in a form of evolution where humans evolved from fish, etc. Anyway, the presence of metaphors in significant parts of the Bible (early Genesis, in Exodus where the working week is compared to God’s creation week) should be detectable to most of God’s intended audience! And in Exodus God was alledgedly dictating all that stuff straight to Moses.

25

Some Latter-day Saints (I am along these) believe that the Biblical account and modern theories of the creation and evolution are compatible. For what it’s worth, Latter-day Saints believe that there are a number of creation accounts in what God has revealed in the five Standard Works of Scripture (Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and one more which Latter-day Saints know of).

These Latter-day Saints do not believe in creation ex nihilo; they believe God created the universe from preexisting matter. These Latter-day Saints tend to not bog themselves down with the initial creation of all matter, reserving that topic for further illumination when Jesus returns and will, after doing His many doings, explain all that is left to be explained.

These Latter-day Saints believe that the creation of the world, life thereupon, humanity, etc., occured during periods or ages. Some Latter-day Saints believe that by “day” the account refers to one day according to God, which would be one thousand years according to humans. But other Latter-day Saints believe that all we can know about these periods is that they were a long time - their exact duration cannot be known at the present.

Some Latter-day Saints believe in evolution (although, perhaps, not with regard to humans) - these Latter-day Saints believe there is nothing in what has been revealed that says that evolution did not occur, so we may assume that it may have occured.

As mentioned before, Latter-day Saints recognize a number of creation accounts. Their ordering is not always the same. Some Latter-day Saints believe that the order of creation is either discernable according to what God has permitted us to discover through science or that it is known to God, who will reveal this also at a later date when Jesus returns.

I believe there is quite a bit of room for Latter-day Saint scientists (and non-scientist members) to expound, discover, and relate their findings and yet be in accordance with Latter-day Saint theology and doctrine. However, that being said, since these are issues that do not affect our salvation or God’s work one way or another, since because of this God has deemed it wise not to make any explicit revelations regarding these issues through the highest authorities He has established, since because of this there is no way for us Latter-day Saints to know anything conclusively regarding these issues, there is much argument, discussion, debate, and disagreement amongst Latter-day Saints, which will continue until Jesus returns. Nevertheless, Latter-day Saints are confident that science and religion are not at odds with each other: we simply need to know more about each until there’s an unbroken, seamless, harmonious whole. For this I am quite glad: the door to discovery and debate is still open.

WRS - where I am wrong, I hope a more knowledgeable Latter-day Saint will correct me.