Objections to the Creationism of the Bible

The whole edifice of Christian theology of Salvation finds it’s origins in the Biblical account of creation and the subsequent fall of man — necessitating the final salvation through Jesus Christ. So we begin our critique with this myth. The fundamentalists would have us believe that God created the world from nothing (ex nihilo). The world was created according to Genesis in 6 days, then God tired from his labour and took rest on the seventh day, which was consecrated as a holy day. (The original day was Saturday which Emperor Constantine changed to Sunday). If this is accepted as a Myth — meaning a description which explains an inexplicable Truth, then there is no problem. When it is presented as historic and cosmological fact then some questions call for answers. The first major problem that faces us with the story of creation is that there are two distinct and Mutually contradictory accounts.

Genesis 1; 1-31

The earth is formless and void — water is in a state of chaos.

Day 1. God creates the light through speech and separates it from darkness, calls light day and darkness night.

Day 2. Divides the waters upwards and downwards by the sky.

Day 3. Gathers the waters below the sky into the sea, and dry land (earth) appears. Creates vegetation.

Day 4. Creates sun, moon and stars. Day 5. Creates creatures of the sea and birds, and sea monsters (ta‘inim).

Day 6. Creates cattle and all earth creatures,then creates both male and female (Adam & Eve).

Day 7. Takes rest from His handiwork.

Genesis 2; 4-25

The earth is barren and dry

Step 1. A spring gushes out and waters the entire earth.

Step 2. God creates Adam from the dust.

Step 3. God plants a garden to the east — Eden, together with the tree of life and the tree of good & evil.

Step 4. God puts Adam in the garden to work as a gardener.

Step 5. Makes animals to be his companions so that he won’t be lonely. He brings each one to Adam to name it.

Step 6. Adam still has no helper and so God creates Eve from his rib.

Objection 1. The creation ex nihilo?

There is no definite statement that the world was created from nothing. The first verse “ln the beginning God created heaven and earth” is a statement introducing a subject about to be taught ie. the creation of heaven and earth. There was either a pre-existent chaos in which earth and water and sky were all combined and undifferentiated or the first thing that God did was to create a chaos and then set about sorting it out.

Objection 2. Day & Night without the Sun?

God separates light from darkness and calls the light Day and the darkness Night. (Genesis 1;4) Then three days later he creates the sun.(Genesis 1;16) How is it possible for day to exist without the sun? Every school child knows that the day and night are created by the movement of the earth. The Fundamentalist will perform all kinds of exegetical gymnastics to get out of this quandary. Saying that the Day referred to is not an actual day, and the Night is not an actual night — none of which is borne out by the text which uses the words in a simple and straight forward manner, affirming that day and night were alternating with each other.

Objection 3. Canopy of the sky?

According to Genesis 1; 6-8 God separates the waters by means of the canopy of the sky. There is water below which is the sea and there is another body of water above the sky. Seeing that water is a physical substance this canopy too must be a physical substance. Yet millions of people have flown in aircraft above the clouds, space ships and satellites have regularly been sent into space yet never has there been any report of vast bodies of water beyond the sky! Nor a canopy that has been pierced.

Objection 4. Creation of Man

We are told that God created animals first and then followed with the creation of man (Adam) and woman (Eve) at the same time. We are then told that he first created Adam, then he created the animals to be companions to him. When this does not alleviate Adam’s loneliness he takes a rib and creates woman (Eve) to be his companion. An evangelical friend of mine understood the second account to be an elaboration of the first account. But he still could not adequately explain how the animals were created before Adam and then again after him.

Objection 5. Human-like Activities of God.

Genesis 2; 8 tells us that God then took to gardening and planted a garden in the east called Eden. He then gave Adam and Eve to live in the garden. In the cool of the evening He used to stroll about in the garden4alking to himself (Genesis 3;8). Where Adam and Eve hide themselves from him, he couldn’t find them and called out to them(Genesis 3;9). He then interrogates them about their indiscreet behaviour and curses them. This episode clearly demonstrates that God is very much a physical being with physical limitations and is not yet omniscient. If the East spoken of is a geographic east why is it that the garden of Eden has never been found? If it is acknowledged by our Fundamentalist friend to be spiritual realm, then surely the account cannot be historic! History pertains to the realm of scientific investigation not to the realm of mythological speculation! The two views are incompatible. One Evangelical that I was discussing this subject with told me that the garden had been destroyed in the flood! Tree of life and all! (There is no indication of this in the Bible to my knowledge!)

Objection 6. The existence of other Peoples

Adam and Eve had two sons — Qayn and Hevel, Qayn killed Hevel, God then inquires from Qayn what has happened to his brother (Gen. 4;10) In the dialogue that follows Qayn expresses fear that he will be victimized and the Lord acknowledging the reality of his fear promises to protect him (Gen. 4; 15).Qayn then departs to the land of Nod where he marries and has children (Genesis 4; 16). It seems like the creator suddenly has a memory lapse, the entire population of the earth is three; Adam, Eve and Qayn, so who does Qayn fear and from whom will God protect him? Where did those people in the land of Nod come from? Who made them? If this is an historical account we must come to the logical conclusion that other creators were at work oblivious of each other’s agendas!

Objection 7. Lifespan exceeding 800 years

We then have a genealogical table of Adam’s descendants all whom live not less than 800 years! Seeing that a year has always been exactly 12 months except in a leap year it is impossible to accept that our pre-flood ancestors actually lived for 800 + years!

Objection 8. God’s lack of knowledge

The people began building a tower to ascend to heaven (Gen 11;4) God (elohim) came down from heaven to see what they were doing (Gen 11;5) He became worried because nothing would prevent them from doing what they have imagined to do (Gen 11;6) God (elohim) then says “let us divide their languages so that they will become confused and their work will be obstructed” (Gen 11;7) From this “historical” account we learn that God lives up in the sky beyond the clouds, his vision is limited so he cannot see clearly from were he is. He is compelled to descend from the sky to observe what the people are doing. He becomes worried because they can and will reach heaven if they continue building and so he and his colleagues (“let us“) divide the languages, cause confusion and so foil the plot by humans to ascend to heaven!!