Hi Estro.
Greeting to Italy.
I think you can't reconcile Genesis and the Theory of Evolution.
Three point to consider:
1/ According to the ToE, the sun came first and the plants on earth last. In Genesis it's the other way round. So why sould God as the author present a metaphor but mess up the order of things? God is the author of the Bible, I think.
2/ If days in Genesis mean billions of years... how long did day seven, the day of rest for God, really last? Or is it ongoing? No. God was active throughout the last 2000 years. In my opinion, the world cannot cope with a God resting for about half a billion of years to begin with.
3/ when Genesis describes the rise of plants, it uses the one description.
When it describes the rise of animals, it uses the other.
When it describes the rise of man, the wording is still different.
In contrast, according to the ToE, the mechanism of how speciation occurs stays the same for all life. So why would God indicate a difference in the manner of how life arises... when it's all the same in reality, if we were to believe the teachings of the ToE?
But I think you don't have to. Whereas the predictions ot the Theory of Gravity can be observed in the wild... the evolution of man for instance, as explained by the ToE, can not be observed.
So the evidence for both theories does not have the same quality, as I see it.
I personally say: the evidence for the ToE is good. Even if not as good as the evidence for the ToG.
However, I believe Bible more when it comes to evolution.
How do you personally think about the "Rest" aspect? The idea of God Resting? Do you think it was due to fatigue, or what was the necessity of such a thing?
Genesis 2:2
way-yiš-bōṯ
2
And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.
"cause to, let, make to cease, celebrate, cause make to fail
A primitive root; to repose, i.e. Desist from exertion; used in many implied relations (causative, figurative or specific) -- (cause to, let, make to) cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail, keep (sabbath), suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to) rest, rid, still, take away."
Exodus 31:17
way-yin-nā-p̄aš.
It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"
"be refreshed
A primitive root; to breathe; passively, to be breathed upon, i.e. (figuratively) refreshed (as if by a current of air) -- (be) refresh selves (-ed)."
denominative verb from
nephesh
"Definition: a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion
a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion"
Genesis 8:21
When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
(Isn't this promise broken when all life and everything is eliminated before Judgment Day and the refreshed Earth mentioned in Isaiah?)
Isaiah 65:17
"See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
(Commentary: " I create. The same verb is used as in
Genesis 1:1; and the prophet's idea seems to be that the existing heaven and earth are to be entirely destroyed (see
Isaiah 24:19, 20, and the comment ad loc.), and a fresh heaven and earth created in their place out of nothing. The "new Jerusalem" is not the old Jerusalem renovated, but is a veritable "new Jerusalem," "created a rejoicing" (ver. 18; scrap.
Revelation 21:2). The germ of the teaching will be found in
Isaiah 51:16. The former shall not be remembered. Some suppose "the former troubles" (see ver. 16) to be meant; but it is best (with Delitzsch) to understand "the former heavens and earth." The glory of the new heavens and earth would be such that the former ones would not only not be regretted, but would not even be had in remembrance. No one would so much as think of them."
So the promise is supposedly broken, but that wasn't my issue so much, it was the sniffing. What do you personally conceive of as God in your mind? What do you take God to be?
Genesis 9:6
"Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.
So, do you think that God is totally a man, like a man, sniffing about like a man?
Genesis 3:8
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
God literally was walking with two legs so that God was tinier than the surroundings and going ch ch ch walking around like any animal or human?
How do you decide what is literal and what is not?
What the Early Church Believed: God Has No Body
You don't agree with them, do you?
Can you explain your beliefs and ideas to me?
1. What is God, how do you imagine God, what do you take God to be, describe God's form and appearance and all that based on your beliefs and understandings or what pops into your mind maybe?
2. God will break this promise apparently, so how can you trust the promises?
3. If God is literally sniffing and walking through gardens and also "lamenting" or regretting decisions and decrees made, what is it?
4. The article I sent insists that God is "bodiless" and is not some limited, formed, being, but a very literalist interpretation would suggest that God is indeed very limited in form and shape, and smaller than the surroundings, and has appendages and sense organs, and is literally a man, full of blood, which was Wrestled and defeated in wrestling by Jacob:
Genesis 32:25-
25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27
“What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
Genesis 3:22
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
This makes it seem like God didn't intend for this to happen, and that something happened which God did not want, that God thus doesn't have total control, and that God also seems concerned or fearful of things going wrong.
Genesis 6:6
The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled.
1 Samuel 15:11
"I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions." And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.
Isaiah 63:10
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them
Ok, so it sounds like, we are dealing with a human being, like the LDS or Mormons say.
Is that what you believe, are you a member of the LDS, a Mormon?
It appears that God is a man, a magical man perhaps, but a man, smaller than the surroundings, who walks and has a human form, who works and then rests or may need to rest, and after resting becomes refreshed, and sniffs stuff, and is just totally a human being, with blood and breathing and the works. Is that what you believe, how you see God?
5. When and how do you decide what is literal and what is not literal?