Opethian said:
Errors like this in the bible only add to the unbelievability of the bible and the incredibly large probability that it is just a nice work of fiction. Obviously the man who wrote this part of the bible didn't know the way light works yet which caused his faulty reasoning. If the bible was the word of an omniscient god, it would not contain errors like that.
I was reading genesis 1 and I noticed verse 15 :
"and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth"
Therefore it seems to me that the author knew something about how light works. Maybe a modern 'technical' reading misses the point. Here's an interpretation which I don't think anyone else has mentioned yet: The first day had to have the sun and a rotating earth otherwise how could you have day and night? Now notice the difference between verse 3 and verse 14:
Gen 1:3 "Let there be light.."
Gen 1:14 "Let there be lights.."
To me this latter verse seems to be refering to the rearrangement of heavenly bodies, orbits/tilts etc to mark out times and seasons, but it would have to include a repeat of the initial lighting setup so the listener takes
all the lights in the sky into account as far as marking the seasons go. Verse 18 clearly says that these lights 'seperate' the light from the darkness. This is important because in verse 4 we are told that God did it, now we are told what he used. This is reiterative reinforcment on top of the 'seasons' thing, which is what day 4 seems to have really been about. If you asked me what genesis says God made on day 4 I would guess 'the seasons', which would include the addition of the moon which isn't mentioned until day 4. I know genesis 1 is not meant to be a scientific paper, and I know that ancient Hebrew poetry had many literary devices, but either way I think there is room to accept it as an account that doesn't necessarily have to be erroneous, if one is so inclined.
Just my point of view.