Genesis 1:2-31 Creation, Evolution and Intelligent Design

On July 10, 1925 nearly a thousand people crowded into the Rhea County courthouse to attend one of the most famous court cases of the 20th century, State v. John Scopes. During the days that followed the ACLU lawyer, Clarence Darrow, and the prosecution lawyer, William Jennings Bryant, argued about whether it was illegal to teach the theory of evolution.

Several days later, the arguments ended, the jury reached its decision and the judge fined a high school biology teacher $100 for teaching evolution.

That case might have ended, but the debate still rages.

Genesis 1:2-1:31 tells us that God created the heavens, the earth and all things on the earth. It gives the detail of the general statement in Gen 1:1.

When science textbooks discuss creation they generally say nothing about God. The justification for that approach is that science does not consider the supernatural. Science looks to obtain only natural explanations and denies the existence of a divine creator and miracles.

There is a growing group of scientists who are questioning the notion that the theory of evolution explains creation. They argue that evolution is bad science and cannot be substantiated by the scientific method.

These scientists do not use the Genesis account to make their case. Rather, they merely say that it is very unlikely, in some cases mathematically impossible, that the world we see was created by chance over millions of years. Instead, a creator had to be involved.

From Genesis 1 we know that the creator is the God of the Bible.

There are many resources dedicated to explaining the creation/evolution issue. For starters go to http://www.answersingenesis.org/ or http://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org/TeachingResources.htm. I’ll not attempt in this post to restate or summarize information on those sites. However, some general observations may be helpful.

1. Genesis 1 says that God spoke and creation took place. For example, God said “Let there be lights in the expanse…and it was so” (Gen 1:14). He did not rely on chance in order to bring about the creation.

2. The days mentioned in Genesis are literal 24-hour days rather than periods of millions of years. Notice that the passage says the moon shall rule by night and the sun by day (Gen 1:16).

3. At the end of each day’s creative work the passage says “There was evening and there was morning, a (fourth, fifth, etc) day. In every case in which the Bible uses a numeral in connection with the word “day” the time period is a 24-hour day.

4. There is an important difference between animals and mankind. Animals are not made in the image of God. Regarding mankind God said “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness” (1:26). People did not evolve from animals. God created them Himself.

5. When we begin to believe that we are merely animals, should it surprise us that we often act like animals? The important message of Gen 1:26 is that we are made in the image of God. Therefore, we should think and act differently from those who view themselves as a more highly evolved animal.

6. There is no contradiction or inconsistency between science and belief in God, including His creative work. The problem arises in our day merely because of the way in which contemporary scientists have defined science. They rule out God by limiting science to natural explanations.

7. Many of the greatest scientists of all time believe in God: Newton, Einstein, Boyle, Faraday and Pasteur.

These verses tell of our great God who designed the universe and spoke it into existence. He knows us, cares for our every need and loves us with an infinite love.

As we consider these great truths about God, our hearts are drawn to worship and adore Him more and more.