According to the sacred records God created, on the first day, the
heaven and the earth, "moved upon the face of the waters," and made
the light. On the second day he made the firmament or the "expanse" and
divided the waters. On the third day he gathered the waters into seas,
let the dry land appear and caused the earth to bring forth grass, herbs
and fruit trees, and on the fourth day he made the sun, moon and stars
and set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.
This division of labor is very striking. The work of the other days is
as nothing when compared with that of the fourth. Is it possible that
it required the same time and labor to make the grass, herbs and fruit
trees, that it did to fill with countless constellations the infinite
expanse of space?
XI. FRIDAY
We are then told that on the next day "God said, Let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may
fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created
great whales and every living creature which the waters brought forth
abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and
God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
earth."
Is it true that while the dry land was covered with grass, and herbs,
and trees bearing fruit, the ocean was absolutely devoid of life, and so
remained for millions of years?
If Moses meant twenty-four hours by the word day, then it would make but
little difference on which of the six days animals were made; but if
the word day was used to express millions of ages, during which life was
slowly evolved from monad up to man, then the account becomes infinitely
absurd, puerile and foolish. There is not a scientist of high standing
who will say that in his judgment the earth was covered with fruit
bearing trees before the moners, the ancestors it may be of the human
race, felt in Laurentian seas the first faint throb of life. Nor is
there one who will declare that there was a single spire of grass before
the sun had poured upon the world his flood of gold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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