Genesis 1:5
Previous Verse < Genesis 1 > Next Verse
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. (ASV)
Pro
According to the Bible, the Earth was created in six days. When combined with the dates given in the Biblical genealogies, this indicates that the Earth is about 6000 years old. Many independent scientific dating methods have determined that the Earth is much older than this (the current consensus is 4.55 billion years), hence this is a major scientific error.
Apologists are divided on this issue. Even if we exclude "liberal" Christians, those who would normally be classed as "inerrantists" can be grouped into "Young-Earth Creationists" and "Old-Earth" or "Day-Age" Creationists. The latter believe that each creation "day" represents a long period of time (millions of years). This model can cope with the evidence for an ancient Earth, but both models run into problems with the sequence of events on the following "days" of creation. --Robert Stevens 09:28, 15 Nov 2005 (CST)
Con
This verse defines the words Day and Night. At this point in the narration there is no sun, moon, or stars in view, so there is no reference point to measure time, except the acts of God. While the word Day is used in reference to the Earth's rotation about its axis, that is not how it is defined here, nor should be understood as such throughout this chapter. A careful reading of each creation event will reveal each act occurred between morning and evening, that is, when it was light. The Evening and Morning signify darkness during which time God rested.
If there is an error, it is inserting a duration into the definition where none is implied, nor can be determined.
Neutral
Edit this section to note miscellaneous facts.
