Agent Bert Macklin wrote:(two creation stories, earth coming before the sun)
HERESY ALERT
That's not necessarily a problem... for one, does God's day have to be the same as an Earth day? Could be longer, could be shorter, he might jump around the timeline. In short, suppose He has a TARDIS....
Secondly, what if the account in Genesis is of the
planning stage rather than the literal, physical execution? His goal was to create Earth, so that's the first thing recorded. Then he realizes light is going to be important and lets it be so. But if it is constant light, that's gonna be a pain, let's see about making a cycle of some sort.
But right now, the physical plan is fairly uniform. He wants to separate the darkness from the light, but there's no provision for it. So, to that end, he now decides to separate the earth from the heavens. Genesis 1:1 created the heaven and the earth, but 1:2 says the earth was
without form, and that hasn't yet changed.
Now, in verse 7, he creates the (plan for the) firmament to clearly separate Earth from heaven - I say it is at this point that Earth, in planning, starts to take take shape. Again, this is still part of the sub-goal of separating light from darkness. We now get the spherical earth we know.
But, again, it is fairly uniform, and God wants land, so he realizes he has to mix things up a bit. Verse nine, he gathers the land up, rising the continent above sea level.
Now, excitedly (
it was good!), God proceeds to populate the planned planet. Grasses, fruits, seeds, oh my! He's very happy with it, but then realizes he's gotta finish the whole light question. Right now, light exists Earth has a provision for some darkness, but to sustain the plants, the light is going to have to be a lot more concentrated at the points of interest.
So, just like taking the formless Earth and bringing it together, then introducing some non-uniformity, he takes the scattered energy and brings it together, with some necessary non-uniformity. And thus stars are formed (planned out). Naturally, he doesn't want to burn the Earth, so he puts the stars in the heavens, including a greater light right here, close enough to sustain life. (The moon also provides some light and surely other functions to assist with life, but it is itself not a star because that would defeat the idea of separating light from darkness.)
Now, verse 18, God's plan to separate the light from the darkness is complete: he's designed a system that will work toward the concrete goal of supporting plant life. And it was good.
With this working, he turns his attention once again toward life and starts to plan out animals, starting with the seas and moving on to the land, plotting out the basic idea of the reproductive system to keep the earth inhabited. Probably introducing some genetic mutations into the plan too. God smiles upon evolution as it allows his wish to fill the waters in the seas to continue to come to pass even as conditions change.
Now, everything is set up for the coup de grace: to crown off the terraforming plan, he planned to set up people in his own image. After an intense period of planning, he was very pleased. This is going to work. And it came to pass that the plan, now being in motion, would take care of itself, so God took a day off.
edit: lol i wrote 'light' almost every time i meant to say 'life'
