There are many things in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 that suggest that evolution did take place. There are also many things in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 that are commonly mistaken for evidence that evolution did not take place.
The biggest of these is the 24-hour day. The Hebrew word used here for day means 24 hours. Science declares that evolution takes millions of years, and so evolution couldn�t have occurred in just 6 days of creation.
Now, before I unleash a theory on you, lets study the language of Genesis 1-2.
�Then God said, �Let us make man in our image, in our likeness�� Genesis 1:26
There are several interesting points in this beginning fragment of Genesis 1:26. First we must study the difference between create (Genesis 1:1) and make (here). Create means to make from nothing, and make implies that a material was used.
The first living creatures on the earth were �created� by God (Genesis 1:21). These were the creatures of the sea and the winged birds.
Then, when we reach the next day, we hear this: �God made the wild animals��(Genesis 1:25) Made. As in there was something there before them. Could that something be the sea creatures and winged birds of 1:21?
The land animals were made from something, and so was man after that. That implies evolution from one species to another.
Now, back to the importance of 1:26. Read it again. Now, go down to 1:27.
�So God created man in his own image��
God made man, then He created him. What�s wrong with this? Now, we see that something is different with man. All the other creatures were either made or created, not both. So what�s different?
Turn the page and look at Genesis 2:7
�The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.�
The word translated as breath is the Hebrew word neshama, which means soul. God made man, but later created his soul and gave it to him. Adam wasn�t the first human, but he was the first human with a soul, and therefore the first man to be made in God�s image.
But there�s also that line that says �from the dust of the ground.� That would seem to defeat the whole theory. Not at all. Science declares that the first life formed from chemicals in the ground getting all mixed up, getting an electrical charge, then having amino acids form. Hence, man was formed from the dust of the ground.
Now we run into the trouble of the 24-hour day though. This has a very complex answer, but a very simple premise. The premise is that time for God is different than time for us, but, as I said, the rest is complex.
Genesis 1 is all from God�s perspective, so why wouldn�t time be from His perspective also? The problem is discovering how different time is in His perspective.
Now we must use the Theory of Relativity, which states that every point in space has it�s own time. I suggest you read the book �The Science of God� for a more in- depth discussion of this part, but I will do my best to explain the idea.
If you use the equation used to track the curve of a Nautilus seashell then you can see the relation of God�s time to ours. I�m not going to explain this because I�m sure I would get it wrong since I don�t fully understand the idea myself. The Nautilus shell�s curve gets smaller as you get closer to the center, but you will never reach that center. When you use the center of the universe as the center, you can calculate how long in our time a day is to God.
The idea is this: Day 1 equals 8 billion years our time Day 2 equals 4 billion years our time Day 3 equals 2 billion years our time
And so on. When it�s all done and finished you see that the first 6 days add up to 15 � billion years, which is close to science�s estimates of how long the universe has existed. After the first 7 days the Bible switches over to our time because it is no longer from the perspective of God.
15 � billion years is plenty of time for evolution to occur, and God�s days are still 24 hours long, and so the Hebrew word used still holds its original meaning.
Evolution does not need to conflict with the Bible, rather it seems to conform well with it.