Genesis 1 and Earth's Life-support System
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:45 pm
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(FIY: I'm really sorry for the last thread on this topic. I should have opened a new topic for my own off-topic replies to the off-topic replies by others there. In the present thread, I will stay on topic: I shall, in this thread, let off-topic replies remain un-answered by me.)
I am YEC, but I disagree with the common YEC view of vv. 3 and 14-18. That common view is that, since there is no qualification spelled out in the account as to what the 'light' is in v. 3, then this 'light' must be light, as such, rather than a lighting condition. I think it is a lighting condition, contrary to that commonly believed in YEC circles.
In the last two centuries, YEC has been challenged by a combination of (a) historically unprecedented empirical advances in physics and astronomy; (b) secular cosmological models allowed by these advances; and (c) social and institutional popularity of these secular models. Predictably, YEC now commonly includes belief that as much as the entire first several verses of Genesis 1 rightly may be construed in terms of general and cosmological physics (Morris 1974, 2005). This modern YEC physics belief regarding Genesis 1 is allowed by the fact that various key words in the account readily suggest a conceptually foundational level of physics, even a complete set of such physics (DeRemer, Amundrud, and Dobberpuhl, https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j21 ... _69-76.pdf).
YEC typically includes belief that Genesis 1 begins with, and proceeds upon, accounting of the terrestrial world, planet Earth. But, in the last several decades, many in the YEC community have become so focused on the potential of Genesis 1 to address the general physics of cosmology that other concerns for the account have been down-played, even rejected (DeRemer et al, above; DeRemer http://creation.com/gorman-gray-the-age ... cal-limits).
But Genesis 1 is comprised of a very limited number of words. Therefore, any focus on its potential to address the physics of cosmology must take this limit into account. Otherwise, a focus on its physics potential risks undercutting, even rejecting, the account’s potential for addressing Earth’s life-support system.
So, as I said in the wayward thread that I started on the same topic:
When I read Genesis 1:2-10, I see the creation of the geophysical portion of Earth's Hydrological Cycle. I assume that the Hydrologic Cycle is Irreducibly Complex (ID), just as is said of living organisms by my fellow YEC’s. If the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then what is the number and kinds of most basic parts of the Hydrologic Cycle? I think there are five parts which the physical Earth itself contributes to the Hydrologic Cycle: the Day-night cycle making two parts, the air making a third part, and the land and seas making the fourth and fifth parts. If these five are the most basic geophysical parts of the Hydrologic Cycle, and if the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then these five correspond, in a most profoundly way, to the five instances in Genesis 1 that report on the fact that God's names things (v. 5, v. 8, and v. 10).
Is the hydrologic cycle ID, or isn't it? My opinion is that that is the decisive question for how to interpret Genesis 1, including what is the 'light' of v. 3.
But, here is the problem: what is the controlling context within Genesis 1:1-18 regarding what this 'light' is in v. 3?
Is that controlling context comprised of nothing more than some or all of that text?
Or, instead, does the controlling context of those first 18 verses include, say, our God-given normal everyday sensibility for the water cycle?
Because, if any of that text, alone, provides the sole controlling context for the vv.3 and 14-18 set, then I would argue that there is no actual way to determine what that controversial set really means.
By way of analogy, the following sentence is what the common YEC position amounts to regarding 1:1-14:
"Walk, I say to you, though shalt walk, thou shalt surely walk, thou shalt surely verily walk not."
.
(FIY: I'm really sorry for the last thread on this topic. I should have opened a new topic for my own off-topic replies to the off-topic replies by others there. In the present thread, I will stay on topic: I shall, in this thread, let off-topic replies remain un-answered by me.)
I am YEC, but I disagree with the common YEC view of vv. 3 and 14-18. That common view is that, since there is no qualification spelled out in the account as to what the 'light' is in v. 3, then this 'light' must be light, as such, rather than a lighting condition. I think it is a lighting condition, contrary to that commonly believed in YEC circles.
In the last two centuries, YEC has been challenged by a combination of (a) historically unprecedented empirical advances in physics and astronomy; (b) secular cosmological models allowed by these advances; and (c) social and institutional popularity of these secular models. Predictably, YEC now commonly includes belief that as much as the entire first several verses of Genesis 1 rightly may be construed in terms of general and cosmological physics (Morris 1974, 2005). This modern YEC physics belief regarding Genesis 1 is allowed by the fact that various key words in the account readily suggest a conceptually foundational level of physics, even a complete set of such physics (DeRemer, Amundrud, and Dobberpuhl, https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j21 ... _69-76.pdf).
YEC typically includes belief that Genesis 1 begins with, and proceeds upon, accounting of the terrestrial world, planet Earth. But, in the last several decades, many in the YEC community have become so focused on the potential of Genesis 1 to address the general physics of cosmology that other concerns for the account have been down-played, even rejected (DeRemer et al, above; DeRemer http://creation.com/gorman-gray-the-age ... cal-limits).
But Genesis 1 is comprised of a very limited number of words. Therefore, any focus on its potential to address the physics of cosmology must take this limit into account. Otherwise, a focus on its physics potential risks undercutting, even rejecting, the account’s potential for addressing Earth’s life-support system.
So, as I said in the wayward thread that I started on the same topic:
When I read Genesis 1:2-10, I see the creation of the geophysical portion of Earth's Hydrological Cycle. I assume that the Hydrologic Cycle is Irreducibly Complex (ID), just as is said of living organisms by my fellow YEC’s. If the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then what is the number and kinds of most basic parts of the Hydrologic Cycle? I think there are five parts which the physical Earth itself contributes to the Hydrologic Cycle: the Day-night cycle making two parts, the air making a third part, and the land and seas making the fourth and fifth parts. If these five are the most basic geophysical parts of the Hydrologic Cycle, and if the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then these five correspond, in a most profoundly way, to the five instances in Genesis 1 that report on the fact that God's names things (v. 5, v. 8, and v. 10).
Is the hydrologic cycle ID, or isn't it? My opinion is that that is the decisive question for how to interpret Genesis 1, including what is the 'light' of v. 3.
But, here is the problem: what is the controlling context within Genesis 1:1-18 regarding what this 'light' is in v. 3?
Is that controlling context comprised of nothing more than some or all of that text?
Or, instead, does the controlling context of those first 18 verses include, say, our God-given normal everyday sensibility for the water cycle?
Because, if any of that text, alone, provides the sole controlling context for the vv.3 and 14-18 set, then I would argue that there is no actual way to determine what that controversial set really means.
By way of analogy, the following sentence is what the common YEC position amounts to regarding 1:1-14:
"Walk, I say to you, though shalt walk, thou shalt surely walk, thou shalt surely verily walk not."
.