http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth ... g1tZ8H3VSr
Day 4
Many people believe that the text about day 4 says that God created the Sun, moon and stars on the fourth day. This is not what the text actually says, so let's read it again.
•Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; (Genesis 1:14)
•and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. (Genesis 1:15)
•And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. (Genesis 1:16)
•And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, (Genesis 1:17)
•and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:18)
How can a day be longer than 24-hours?
Even though the Genesis text clearly indicates that the days are longer than 24-hours, some Christians insist that any interpretation of Genesis 1 that deviates from 24-hour days is not literal. The problem is that the Hebrew word yom17 has three literal definitions - 12 hour daylight period, 24 period of time, or a long, but indefinite period of time. A careful reading of the Genesis creation account reveals that the 24-hour interpretation is ruled out by the actual Genesis text. The first definitive example of a day that is longer than 24-hours can be found in the beginning of the Genesis 2 creation account, which says that the entire six days of creation are one day.18
In verse 14 we have that unusual construction again of "let there be." It is not a statement of creation, but a statement of appearance. At this point, the clouds present at the initial creation of the earth were completely removed so that the bodies themselves appeared for the first time on the surface of the earth. The passage tells us that the lights were allowed "to be" so that they could be signs of the seasons, days, and years. It was necessary for the creatures of day 5 that the heavenly bodies be visible. We know that many of the migratory birds (created on day 5) require visible stars to navigate, hence the need to actually see these bodies. Verse 18 gives us another hint. The lights were placed in the sky to "separate the light from the darkness." Does this sound familiar? It is the exact Hebrew phrase used for God's work on the first day when, "God separated the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:4) By using this phrase, the text is recounting the formation of the Sun, moon and stars from the first day. If we accept that God created the Sun, moon and stars on the fourth day, then He didn't really create the heavens in verse one. So, the 24-hour day interpretation suffers a contradiction between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:16.
So because the Bible contradicts itself, he feels the need to go back and try to make it not contradict itself. The heavens of day 1 are the environment of space. Each environment is laid out and then the inhabitants for each environments are created. He has no idea that day 1 corresponds to day 4 as the heavens and then that which inhabits the heavens. Just as day 2 establishes firmament from sea and day 5 brings that which inhabits the sea and firmament. and Just as day 3 establishes dry land and day 6 brings that which inhabits the dry the land. This is mythological pairing of environment and inhabitants and to neglect to see and understand this is to neglect to understand the writing style of Genesis 1. The above apologist has fallen into that trap and suffers for it.
He wants to assert that "let there be" isn't a statement of creation, rather the sun, moon, and stars already existed and simply became visible on day 4. So what of the living creatures? Elohim (Gods) said "let the waters teem with living creatures", and "let the earth bring forth living creatures" as well. So then we must conclude that he didn't create them on the 5th and 6th days if "Let there be" doesn't indicate the sun, moon, and stars, being created on the fourth day because it's not an act of creation. He's digging a deeper hole for himself. So yes, the sun was created on the fourth day as the bible states and so no amount of "years" could have gone by before time keeping was established on the fourth day when the sun was created. Because he fails to see the day 1 / day 4 mythological pairing of space (heavens) with the celestial orbs that inhabit space (heavens), and how this theme runs through each of the other days exactly the same way, he gets further and further away from the meaning of Genesis 1.
Finally he comes around to conclude:
We are left with only one internally consistent interpretation for the days of Genesis one. The literal, clearly indicated, meaning of yom for Genesis one must be an unspecified, long period of time. Since the Genesis text says that the third day must be at least several years long, none of the other days would be expected to be limited to 24-hours. All or nearly all of the other creation days would seem to require long periods of time, although the text does not clearly indicate the specific amount of time required.
So he comes to an OEC theory in the end. This guy's all over the place! The root of the problem - which solves the whole thing - is that Genesis 1 is a mythological creation story that does not give any concrete information on either the age of the earth nor how life emerged on the earth. It's a mythological creation story, not live CCN coverage of the dawn of creation. Trying to present it as such only results in problems stacked upon more problems that require stacking ever more problems until the amount of pure bunk involved is so blindingly obvious that it reduces the proponent of such ideas to a deceptive force loose in society! Whether they realize it or not.
The blind leading the blind further along into the darkness (ignorance)...