I would like to know how you reconcile the story of Creation with the scientific view.  I find it impossible to believe that the earth and everything else was created in seven days, but if I don’t believe it I begin to doubt everything.

Dear Gill,

I don’t try to reconcile the story of creation with the scientific view.  I see no reason to do so.  I do not know of any reputable biblical scholar who thinks the seven-day creation story is a description of creation.  That narrative is a production of the exiled community of the Jews, dating from the 6^th century before the Common Era.  It is a hymn of praise to the wonder of creation, designed to justify the Jewish Sabbath day tradition as an essential part of Judaism since this writer is assuming that even God rested on the seventh day.

My question to you who was it who told you that this was a literal description of the way the world began?  Who do you suppose was present at creation who might have recorded this?  Most scientists today believe the universe came into being somewhere between 13.7 and 13.8 billion years ago.  The planet Earth is no more than 4.5 billion years old.  Life developed on this planet about 3.8 billion years ago.  Human life is somewhere between 4 million and 100,000 years old depending on how one defines human life.  Abraham lived about 1850 BCE, Moses about 1250 BCE and this story of creation was written during the 6^th century BCE.

There is an abundance of religious ignorance in our world and I suspect you have been the victim of it.  I hope you can be in touch with some Christian pastors who have some knowledge of how the Bible came into being.  If you will do that, you will soon learn that literalism about the texts and accuracy of the Bible is an attribute of the uninformed, the unlearned and, increasingly, the closed minded.

~John Shelby Spong