My analysis of the story of creation is based on the assumption that the story is actually literal. However, what we know and understand about reality and what is literal is much different than what is revealed in the biblical story of creation. There are many points in the story that make it obviously metaphorical. If the story of creation is literal then…
- How is it that it says the earth was created in days when observation tells us that it had to be much, much longer?
- How is it the first man was ignorant and immediately became wise after eating the forbidden fruit? (magic?)
- How is it there was a tree in the middle of the garden that had mystical powers to give one the knowledge of good and evil?
- Why was the tree actually called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
- How is it that was there was a snake that walked and talked?
- How is it that once man ate of the forbidden fruit he immediately became like God?
- How is it that Adam named hundreds of thousands of animals in one day? What language did he speak? And where did he learn it?
- How is it that God got so “tired” that he had to rest on the seventh day? The all-powerful God that doesn’t have a physical body, gets tired? (and commands that those who don’t rest be stoned to death?)
Besides all the things that make this story a parable and not an actual account of history, there are some glaring contradictions:
- Man was created before vegetation and animal life, so what did he eat?
- The Sun, the Moon and the stars were created after the plants. How did the plants grow before there was sunlight?
- In the first account of creation, humans were created after the animals, and before the animals in the second account.
- In the first account of creation, man was created at the same time as the woman, in the second account it was man, then the animals and then the woman.
- There were mornings and evenings before the sun is even created.
These are only a few of the main obvious contradictions. If you look harder you’ll be able to find many more. What is important to bring out here is that, sadly, this story tale or obvious religious myth is one of the cornerstones to the Christian religion — which they believe to be the inerrant Truth of God!.
While it is impossible to know exactly how everything came about, it is impossible that it actually happened that way. The story of creation in Genesis seems to be a kind of allegory of the creation of all things.
In my opinion, if the reality of the beginnings of all things were to be told, there would be an unlimited number of volumes that would have to be written on the subject, that is, if the information could actually be obtained.
In addition, it would have been impossible for man, over 5000 years ago with his simple mind, to have been able to fathom the reality of the facts of creation. Nevertheless, man did need at least a basic explanation as to where he came from and the why of his existence.
Evidently, whoever wrote the story of creation invented a story to satisfy the intellectual needs and curiosity of simple men, just as a parent would create or tell stories to small children who had no possible way of comprehending yet the world of adulthood.
However, as mankind evolves and moves forward and grows intellectually, his childhood stories no longer fill the need of his intellect. Humanity is beginning to see that the religious myths, like children’s stories that helped them grasp some of their curiosities are no longer valid for minds that have outgrown them and are ready for more mature knowledge.
Having said this, isn’t it sad that in such a technologically advanced world adults still believe in children’s stories? It’s even sadder yet to see adults in institutions designed to spiritually advance people, stubbornly insist that obvious metaphorical stories are actually literal, and will actually argue with men of science who are only searching for the truth in reality — as grown-ups?
It’s kind of fun to tell little kids that there is actually a jolly little fat man called Santa Clause who came in the house through the chimney to bring all the toys at Christmas time and that he lives at the North Pole, spending his time making toys year ’round. But when kids grow up we have to tell them the truth, and let them know we were just kidding.
If not, they’ll grow up and at a certain point, they’ll realize it was all more than just a big joke and a children’s story that we traditionally tell children, for fun. Imagine if we insist that the story is true, or worse yet, we truly believe the story is true and insist that Santa Claus truly does exist and insist that they believe us?
What would that be like? Our grown children would just scorn us or worse yet consider us to be deceived or deluded (which would probably be true). In reality, the story of creation in the book of Genesis is like that. It was evidently written for simpletons who were like children and needed a simple explanation that their simple minds could grasp.
Now just because the story is in the “inerrant” Bible (Word of God), we see grown men and women actually believing that this story is actually an accurate narrative of events that really happened.
As said before, it’s impossible for anyone to know exactly how it all really came about, but the evidence that lies before our very eyes tells us that the reality of what and how it really happened had to have been quite different. Nevertheless, there are some deep spiritual truths, and valuable lessons involved in the story of creation as do exist in many myths.
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