Aside from the nice litany of Bible verses that I've been presented advocating foolishness.
I don't advocate being a fool voluntarily. Proverbs doesn't smile on it. It is pretty sad to appeal to the resurrection being seen as foolishness and then turn foolishness into a virtue, apparently universally on that basis. It's a complete misuse of the intent and context of that verse and an appeal to faith on anything in their position they can't explain. You can't win. Their mind is made up.YEC'ers are either elevating their doctrine of 24 hour days to the equivalent of the main theme of the Bible, which either diminishes the Gospel and/or elevates their belief to a litmus test for belief. Small wonder the more extreme factions seek to expel otherwise believing people from universities or exclude them from ministry. Rather a tolerant lot. (I know not all do that, but it shows you the extent that it is taken.) Yet, I don't see consistent hermeneutics.
None of this material is unique to me. I'm arranging it on my own however.
Internal Evidence for long days.
1. I accept Genesis 1 as literal not figurative. I believe if you apply one particular principal of explanation to one section of Genesis 1 or 2 then you cannot arbitrarily exclude it from another verse in the same passage unless there is corresponding evidence, within that particular verse to exclude it, or favor a different approach. Therefore, if you allow for any of the 6 days of creation to be longer than 24 hours, you cannot then claim it as an exception and not the rule.
2. Literal understanding does not mean reading the passage in English and then deciding what makes sense to you or what you want it to mean. To understand something literally, you need to read it and seek to put the following elements in place. A. Context B. Historical Understanding. C. Grammar. D. Authors intent. E. Use of literary devices.
Claiming a "literal" understanding is the plain understanding of Biblical text without all these elements in place usually leads to misunderstanding at best, or heresy at worst.
Forgive me for pointing that out. I have a degree in Biblical Literature. I can't ignore this element.
3. The Hebrew words used in Genesis 1 and 2 which generate the most excitement in this regard are:
"Yom" which means either,
A. The daylight hours of a day as opposed to the dark hours.
Example Genesis 8:22
"As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease."
B. A 24 hour period of time.
Example Genesis 39:10
10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
C. A period of Time of unspecified length without any reference to solar days.
Example Genesis 2:4
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-
Other examples of the use of "yom" in this context includes: Gen 4:3 (long time), Gen 30:14 (season of harvest), Joshua 24:7 where it means a long season, and Isaiah 4:2 where it means a future era.
The words used for morning and evening also apply to the beginning and ending of a specific period of time, not just a 24 hour day.
In view of this, there is a literal basis in Genesis 1 to indicate that creation took place in an orderly and measured manner. While it can remain a possibility that God did it in 24 hour days with the word "yom" used it is not the only possibility. In fact, if Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intended to mean a long period of time what do you think the best Hebrew word to use would be? That's right. "YOM!!"
Moses was the human author of Gen 1 and 2. He was also the author of Psalm 90. Including the passage that states, ""For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by..." While it certainly would be a stretch to tie this passage as the basis for defining a day in Genesis, it is significant because the writer here is the same one God inspired to write Genesis 1. This demonstrates that Moses was aware of the relativity of time in the context of God. At the very least, it should give 24 hour day creationists pause to consider the other possibilities.
The first use of "yom" in Genesis is in 1:5 where it is used to mean the light portion of the first period of time. So, the first usage of the word in the passage does not mean a 24 hour period of time. That should be a clue that not every usage in that passage necessarily equates to a 24 hour day. Combine that with the use in Gen 2:4 which even young earth creationists concede means a period of time and you have a grammatical, contextual, literal basis to question what the meaning is in other usages.
Whatever the usage, one would expect that the ordinal "yoms" should be consistent in their meaning moving from 1 - 6. Given the formula is similar, it's reasonable to assume that the meanings are similar.
So, if 1 of those days has internal reason to question a 24 hour day, then similarly, the others fall to that similar usage.
There are strong reasons to suppose that this is case for the following reasons.
1. The events of the 6th day require more than 24 hours due to the activities of Adam. Separating the activities of God from Adam and claiming a dual sense of the use of "yom" where it means 24 hours in reference to God and a long period of time for Adam, is not supported contextually, grammatically or historically. It in fact introduces an element of translation that is in fact, less literal. It's very ironic to me that those arguing for the "simplest" translation then jump in this day to make the most convoluted translation attempted by any camp.
To hold to a 24 hour day in day 6 you have to believe that all this happened in that period of time:
(1) God created the higher forms of animals, (2) God created Adam, (3) God planted a garden in Eden, (4) God made to grow the vegetation in Eden, (5) God gave Adam the responsibility for tending the garden, (6) Adam became lonely, (7) God had Adam name all of the animals, in search of a companion, (8.) Adam was still lonely after this, (9) God put Adam into a deep sleep and made Eve from his rib, (10) Eve was presented to Adam as his new partner, and finally (11) God gave them instructions to multiply and care for the earth. (See Genesis 1:24-30; 2:4-24). How could all of these events have been completed in only twenty-four hours? At the very least, they would have taken several months.
Add to this Adam's reaction when Eve is presented to him. This "at last" is bone of my bone.
Apparently Adam had A.D.D. He got bored quickly.
The best argument I've experienced and one that made me think hard was the argument that the use of ordinal numbers with "yom" always means 24 hour days. Further review showed another instance. Hosea 6:2. The use of yom in the instance of 2 or 3 "days" has almost universally been understood through prophetic history to mean at least a year or more for each time period. So that argument fails, from biblical evidence itself to say nothing of the fact that that "rule" is not found to be consistent in common Hebrew Usage.
In short, long periods of time are the literal sense of Genesis 1. YEC is not only bad science, it is bad theology. Rejecting bad theology does not diminish Scripture. In fact, theology is only as true as it reflects the truth of Scripture.
YEC'ers love to equate their beliefs as "believing" the Bible, thus inferring that those who reject their tortured misinterpretation of Genesis must therefore reject the Bible. It's an argument of personal attack in that regard, not one of conviction.
So there you go. That's what I think, proof-texted and spelled out.
) I would appreciate anyones input on this. 