The first chapter of the first book of the Bible has become a stumbling block of one kind or another for so many people. Strong Christians with deep faith find themselves on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to Genesis 1&2. Are the days of creation literal days, or are they longer periods of time? What about the theory of evolution? Did all of life evolve like most universities like to insist? I have strong feelings about what I believe about all of this, but I still have a few questions I wonder about.

What bothers me the most on this issue is when people take an iron-clad stance on either side of this issue and insist there are no unanswered questions, that they have it all figured out. This happens on both sides of the debate.

Many universities have fired professors who write papers about any research that shows evidence of creation over evolution. In most universities, students are thoroughly indoctrinated with the evolutionist point of view. Existing evidence that supports the creation is not allowed to be taught, and the best approach they seem to have to combat the evidence is to ridicule it instead of considering it and giving it an honest response.

On the other hand, many creationists are so determined to have a water-tight case that answers every possible question, that they come across as equally closed-minded and uninformed as the hard-nosed evolutionists. Some of their explanations can get unnecessarily ridiculous and extreme. In my opinion, it would be more honest to simply say we don’t know all the answers, but we know why we believe what we do believe.

What impresses me most about the Genesis account of creation is how truly logical the sequence is laid out, though many still find ways to pick that apart. Let me share the insights I see in the account.

The first things named that God created were the “heavens and the earth,” yet it was dark and void and deep. God hovered over the waters. So the first thing he created was an ambiguous mass of waters from which he later pulled out the land implying there was more than water in that initial mass of creation.

Next, on the first “day” he created light. I’ve heard the mockery come because the unimaginative can’t separate light from our typical source of light, the sun. But light waves can come from other sources as well. Consider that we read in Revelation that in the Holy City there will be no need of moon or stars because Christ himself will be the light. Consider also that God created everything through Christ. Could it not be possible that Christ was the light that was created on the first day? Maybe, and maybe not, but light itself is made of waves that radiate from a light source. God created light waves on that first “day” but he doesn’t explain how he did that. God is not a man, nor is he limited to what we could do if we tried to play God.

On the second day God separated the waters and created an expanse he called sky. This would surely include the atmosphere needed by both plants and animals. On the third day he drew up the land out of the waters. Given land, water, atmosphere, and light, God had everything necessary for plants to survive. Plants bore seeds and fruit so they could reproduce themselves as well as provide food for the animals he would create later. Green plants are the only living thing that can make its own food from water and sunlight through photosynthesis. Animals are dependent on plants for food, so plants had to be created first.

To maintain the plants over time, God created seasons by creating the sun, moon, stars and planets, the later two identified only as the “smaller lights” in the night sky. Not only did this fourth day’s creation establish seasons, it also provided a way to measure days and nights, months, and years.

On the fifth day God created the creatures in the sea and the birds. It is worth noting that the Hebrew word translated as birds could also have been translated as winged creatures – which could have included insects and even bats.

On the sixth day God created the land animals and finally he created man in his own image.

Scientists who insist on teaching evolution have theorized that the creation account was made up by cavemen, and was told around campfires over thousands of years. How could cavemen have sorted out and created such an exact food chain sequence? Why is the Genesis creation model the only one that has scientific logic behind it while other folk-lore creation accounts lack this logic.

Evolutionists lack logical explanations for beauty, the complexity of DNA, plants and animals that are interdependent as in pollination, and the fact that it takes not one, but two of most animals – male and female – to be created at the same time for them to reproduce. The theory of evolution is taught as fact in most universities in spite of a growing amount of evidence against it. One of the early classic books that came out to debunk evolution is Evolution: A Theory In Crisis by Michael Denton.

May we all be honest enough to consider that there is more to know about how the earth was created than we can possibly figure out and/or prove, and be willing to admit that we don’t know the answers to every possible question.