Emergence Explanation Fail

And God said, Let the water team with living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.  Genesis 1.20  NIV

Here finally comes animal life on planet earth in our creation narrative.  Of course, the origin of life is a huge question in several fields of science.  Being an enthusiastic student at UI's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), I was excited this past semester to note a course called “The Emergence of Life.”  It was taught by the diversely focused, talented, and entertaining Bruce Fouke, professor in geology, microbiology and the Woese institute for Genomic Biology.

In the class I learned that the traditional view of the tree of life has expanded incredibly just over the last few decades.  Here is the updated diagram.  Inside the circle is what was known and taught when I was in high school.  So much more has come to light since then!  Our class was updated on this and shown examples of evolution.  In the entire eight weeks however, Dr. Fouke shed no light on the actual origin of life.  How could he?

Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, says this in his book The Language of God:  "How did self-replicating organisms arise . . . ?  It is fair to say that at the present time we simply do not know.  No current hypothesis comes close to explaining how in the space of a mere 150 million years, the prebiotic environment that existed on planet Earth gave rise to life."

Perhaps it's not fair to say the Emergence of Life class did not explain the emergence of life.  I suppose Dr. Fouke could say that he meant emergence of life from lower forms to higher forms rather than the emergence of life from inorganic matter.

PS  Thank you, Em, for the formatting help tonight!

Everything created is a message.

Tonight I had the privilege to hear Gary Wills, prolific author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Professor Emeritus of History at Northwestern University.  He spoke here at the University of Illinois about humans' relationship to the earth.  He asserted, in agreement I'd say with St. Augustine and many others, that "everything created is a message."  God speaks to us through the world of nature.  

Wills is Catholic, although uncharacteristically so.  Here's a five-minute clip of him startling Stephen Colbert with his thoughts about abolishing the priesthood.

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/he6l0j/the-colbert-report-garry-wills

Light before sun? Explanation 6: Framework View, 2 of 2

The second tenant of the Framework point of view, according to Ted Davis, is this.

"When seen against the cultural and literary context of the Ancient Near East (ANE), it is clear that Genesis was written to combat the polytheism and pantheism of other creation stories. It was not written to provide a scientifically accurate account of the creation."

See April 17th entry Stripped of Deity.

And here is the third tenant.

"It is not possible to find a close match between what is proclaimed in Genesis—that God is the creator—and the details of natural history. We should not approach this text with inappropriate expectations."

But is it historical?  Framework proponents are divided.  Some see Genesis 1-3 as historical but not chronological; the other camp does not see it as historical, especially in its similarity to other ANE creation stories.  However, they do see it as being "the crucial, timeless, substantive message that God has revealed to us."

For Davis' article on this, including an intriguing example explaining this interesting sign, please go to biologos.

http://biologos.org/blogs/ted-davis-reading-the-book-of-nature/science-and-the-bible-the-framework-view#sthash.jgRzRrBa.dpuf

Light before sun? Explanation 6: Framework View, 1 of 2

We shouldn't leave this burning question from day 4 without a look at what's called the Framework View.  A Biologos article by Hugh Ross lists the first tenant of this line of reasoning.

"The 'days' in Genesis have nothing to do with historical time; they are literary devices, employed by God in order to communicate the story of the creation in terms that we can understand."

Just as the pre-creation-day-1 world has three elements----darkness, watery chaos, and an empty earth----so the creation is divided into two sets of three, days 1 ,2, and 3 creating spaces while days 4, 5, and 6 fill them.  

Day 1 separates the newly created light from darkness and day 4 provides the bodies that produce and fill the light.
Day 2 separates water above from water below and day 5 fills this air and water with appropriate creatures.
Day 3 distinguishes the dry land from the water and brings on vegetation while day 6 populates the dry land with animals and people.

See more at: http://biologos.org/blogs/ted-davis-reading-the-book-of-nature/science-and-the-bible-the-framework-view#sthash.jgRzRrBa.dpuf

Stripped of Deity

14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to vie light on the earth."  And it was so.  16 God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.  He also made the stars.  17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.  And God saw that it was good.  19 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day.  Genesis 1:14-19  NIV

In all the views of what we are to take from day 4, one thing is certain;  unlike other creations accounts of the era, Genesis strips the sun, moon, and stars of any imagined or proposed deity.  There is no sun god.  No superpowers are manifest in the moon or stars.  These things are set in place by the one, all-powerful creator God to serve humanity by giving light and marking time.  They are not given names except for greater light and lesser light which emphasize their function.  The amazing stars get only five words.  Stunningly different!

Stars before Earth? Another puzzle from day 4

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone
----while the morning stars sang together                                                                          and all the angels shouted for joy?

Job 38:4-6  NIV

Here is another creation poem, this one from the book of Job.

If we are to take the Bible literalistically, then here (besides needing to explain the meaning of the earth's footings) we have to wrestle with the stars joining angels in singing while God sets the earth's foundation.  In other words, stars created before earth, in contrast to stars created on day 4, the order given in Genesis 1.

Light before sun? Explanation 5: Instantaneous Creation

Here's another important viewpoint on why Genesis 1 lists the creation of light as coming before the creation of the sun.  Several well known early church theologians, among them St. Augustine and Clement of Alexandria, believed that God created everything all at once, instantaneously, with just a thought of his divine mind.  The six-day structure is used simply as a way to present the creation to hearers and readers, perhaps in order of priority culminating in human beings.  Clement asserted that creation couldn't have  happened in six actual days, or any number of days, because time itself was part of the creation.