3. How old is the earth?
4. Do you think that Adam was a historical person?
2. When the Bible talks about God creating in six days, what do you
think that means?
1. Do you think that the creation account in Genesis records history?
“I mean I guess, it’s biblical history so yeah. He was the first human.”-Taylor
I believe most things have a basis in reality no matter how it is spun religiously or
mythologically. I do have some concerns with Adam being a real person especially if his
“I don’t know, a couple billion years? Maybe a trillion?”-Taylor
Most of my beliefs are more scientific in nature rather than strictly biblical. I would
gander somewhere between 4 and 5 billion years old going by the sedimentation layers and
carbon dating. I believe the common biblical belief is that the earth is roughly 6,000 years old,
which I don’t want to believe because it means every age and era that has passed has gone by
quickly. I would like to imagine that the next mass extinction event, whether it be a flood, an ice
age, or a meteor would not fall anywhere on a timeline of descendants that I could imagine. If the
world is truly so young than statistically, we would be due for another extinction event soon.
“He was the only one that was creating at the time so obviously he is very powerful and
organized because I don’t think I can create a world in six days. He is also very
dedicated.”-Taylor
I think it refers more to periods of work and rest rather than a sunrise-sunset, calendar
day. According to Genesis, God created light on the first day, then the sky on the second.
No true day/night cycle exists until the fourth day, where he created the sun, moon, and
stars.
“Yes, because it is going into details. If it wasn’t true there would be no reason for
details and there are aspects that have been proven with physical evidence throughout
history. The world had to come into being somehow. The world had to change from
dinosaur times somehow because we have seen the bones, clearly, they came from
somewhere.”-Taylor
I believe Genesis is a good concept of what may have been the start of the world. There
are gaps and plenty of spaces that do not line up with what science says that prevent me
from giving a solid ‘yes’. Genesis makes no mention of the varying periods of life prior
to humanities existence. So, while I do believe that it is one possible explanation, or even
part of the real explanation, I cannot for certain say it is true history. I think the real and
accurate history is somewhere in the middle of the theories we currently debate over.
“Because I have heard his word and I believe what it says. It’s a pretty cool story. I
had my ‘coming to Jesus’ moment in 7th grade, one of my friends took me to church
one day after we had been talking for a while about her church. It was an eye-
opening experience, I saw so much joy, it was so overwhelming. I was drawn in by
the energy and ended up learning about Jesus and God from the youth group there.”-
Taylor
I was raised in a Southern Baptist church until I turned away from it around the age
of 10, at the time I saw believers as idealist fools. In retrospect, most of my hurt and
anger was due to people not knowing how to explain why people die to a young
child. Especially when a death of a loved one is a brutal, unpredictable accident
instead of cancer or suicide. “It was God’s plan/will” is probably the worst cop out
explanation. I thought if God was real, then he must be cruel and unkind. If God was
real, then why did he allow such awful things to happen? I turned away from the
church for almost a decade, throwing myself into science, tangible facts and proof. I
have been slowly coming back around to religion over the last three years but I still
struggle to balance belief systems at times. I learned in the meanwhile to play Devil’s
advocate and find middle ground of varying arguments where multiple perspectives
can interact and even agree from different angles.
story is also based in more reality. I have only ever seen mention of Adam and Eve
having 3 sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth. Though I know it is also believed that they had
many more children, if the bible story is real than there was only 1 woman, with a
potentially unknown number of daughters for the human race to spawn from. That leaves
a worrying plot hole of ‘where is the genetic diversity’? Plus, from my understanding that
sort of relationship would be categorized as a sin.
5. What are some of the reasons why you answered the way you did on
these questions?
