It’s popular to combine the theory of evolution with Genesis. One method used to accomplish that claims each “day” in Genesis could be billions of years, as the Hebrew word yom can mean age or other period of time.
Before we solve the problem, why do people desire to do this? What reason exists to reconcile evolution with creation?
Failure to make a choice.
Nobody argued for the day-age theory until recently, after Darwin proposed his theory. The only reason is failure to understand the absurdities of evolution and believe it actually contains science.
It does not.
Science uses the scientific method, simply meaning make a guess, devise experiments to support or disprove your guess, then modify your idea in response to experimental results.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Evolution, however, does not use that method. Ask where the published, peer-reviewed, repeatable, experimental data exists for the following basic concepts of evolution:
- Matter comes from nothing.
- Non-life suddenly becomes alive.
- Explosions produce order.
Without experimental evidence for those, you don’t have science, only wishful thinking. In other words, you take evolution on faith, not science.
It turns out a smidgeon of truth exists in the day-age idea, as the Hebrew in Genesis can imply other periods of time, such as age.
The day-age theory doesn’t meet its death in Genesis, but Exodus.
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:10–11)
In Exodus Moses writes about the Sabbath, where no work could be done on the seventh day of the week. Moses compares it to creation, connecting the two. What logical reason could exist for Exodus stating 7 24-hour days meaning one week for the Sabbath, but billions of years in the creation comparison?
None.
The context in Exodus makes clear — creation in Genesis was six 24-hour days or a week the way we normally think of it.
Not billions of years.
You’re free to believe evolution or not, but please, don’t try and reconcile it with the Bible, because the current theory simply doesn’t fit.
Next week, we’ll cover another (in)famous idea trying to cram evolution into Genesis — the gap theory.