Genesis and science

There are a number of ways that Christians have attempted to reconcile science and the early chapters of Genesis. Two questions are crucial to the position Christians take on science and Genesis:

1. Is the earth old?

2. Do we have a common ancestor?

(i) Extreme creationists reject the scientific evidence and hold onto a literal six-day creation, they claim that the earth is young and we don’t have a common ancestor e.g Henry Morris (ed.) Scientific Creationism (1974).

(ii) Progressive creationists adopt some sort of age-day or revelatory-day view of Genesis 1 and thus accept an old earth but reject a common ancestor, e.g. Pattle P. T. Pun Evolution (1982).

(iii) Theistic evolutionists would accept that while God created matter and natural laws, life evolved, the earth is old and we do have a common ancestor e.g R. J. Berry (1988).

The nineteenth and early twentieth century saw a number of ways of relating the early chapters of Genesis with science.

Position	Advocates	Work	Date
Flood geology/ creation science	E.G. White	Spiritual Gifts	1864
	George McReady Price	The New Geology	1923
	Byron Nelson	The Deluge Story in Stone	1931
	A.M. Rehwinkel	The Flood in the Light of the Bible	1951
	H.W. Clark	The New Diluvialism	1946
	Henry M. Morris & John C. Whitcomb	The Genesis Flood	1961
Local creation	John Pye Smith	On the Relation Between the Holy Scriptures and Certain parts of Geological Science	1839
Ideal time view	Philip Henry Grosse	Omphalos	1857
Gap theory	Buckland	Bridgewater Treatises VI	1837
	Adam Sedgwick	Discourses on the Studies of the University of Cambridge
	Robert Chalmers	The evidence and authority of the Christian Revelation	1817
	John H. Pratt	Scripture and Science not at variance	1857
	J.H. Kurtz	Bible and astronomy	1842
	G.H. Pember	Earth’s Earliest Ages	1876
	C.I. Scofield	Scofield Bible	1909
	Harry Rimmer	Modern Science and the Genesis Record	1937
Age-day	G. S. Faber	Genius and object	1823
	Buffon	Epoques de la Nature	1778
	James Dana	Manual of Geology	1863
	J.W. Dawson	Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science	1877
	Edwin K. Gedeney	in Modern Science and Christian Faith	1948
Pictorial day	J.H. Kurtz	Bible and Astronomy	1857
	Hugh Miller	Testimony of the Rocks	1849
	A.H. Strong	Systematic Theology	1907
	Canon Dorlodot	Darwinism & Catholic Thought	1923
	L.F. Gruber	The Six Creative Days
	J. Pohle	God: The Author of Nature and the Supernatural	1942
	P.J. Wiseman	Creation Revealed in Six Days	1948

Flood geology or creationism, subsumes science with a literal six-day creation reading of scripture.

Local creation. The special act of creation by God was limited to a small area of the ancient near East.

Ideal time view. How old was Adam when God created him? He was apparently created with the appearance of age. The earth could likewise be created with the appearance of age, so this view purports.

Gap theory. In order to reconcile the geologists’ old earth view with the prima facie young earth view of Genesis a gap was inserted in Gen 1:2. God created in Genesis 1:1, this was followed by a catastrophe in Gen 1:2, and was followed by a re-creation in 1:3; 1:2 could provide the geologists with as much time as they required!

Age day. This view holds that the days of creation were periods of time representing the development of the earth.

Pictorial day. The days of creation in Genesis 1 are the days of revelation by God to 'Moses' of the successive acts of creation.

Adapted from Steve Bishop ‘A typology for science and religion’ Evangelical Quarterly 72 (1) (2000) 35-56. When I get time I'll put on some links.