Genesis 1 - In the Beginning ...

Genesis 1

I think everyone has probably read the Bible's initial chapters many times before.  The Creation is always a controversial topic both outside and inside of the church.

What it literally says - God created life.  In six days He formed everything that we know of existence with just His words.  The chapter lines out the first six days and what God did in each.

Day 1:  God created light, naming what is "day" and what is "night."
Day 2:  God created and named the "sky."
Day 3:  God created and named the "land," the "sea," and vegetation.
Day 4:  God created and placed the stars, the sun and the moon, giving them their "governing" abilities.
Day 5:  God created aquatic life and birds.
Day 6:  God created land-dwelling animals and human beings; we are made in His ("Our") image and given dominion over everything.

What it says to me - The Creation is so full of amazing and interesting things.  Did it take a literal six days, or is this simply a poetic gist?  If we believe God can do anything, he could have done all this in one day if He wanted, why six?  Does the Big Bang theory disprove this "something from nothing" concept?  And what does it mean in verses 2 and 7 that the earth was "formless and empty," but had deep waters, then God made waters above and below the sky?

I have no idea to any of these things.

There's a lot of the Bible that I think can be taken strictly by the way our translations have worded them.  "Love your neighbor as yourself," "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength ..."  Probably a lot of the Levitical laws about dealing with dead things (can't wait to get to those!).  But Genesis 1, to me, isn't dependent on the literal details.  To me, chapter 1 paints a picture of a loving, careful, caring and creative God who crafted a purpose for every single detail about existence.  I mean, why the heck do we even exist!  Evolution may try to explain how we became the way that we are and look, but what about the predecessor to our predecessor?  And the predecessor to the predecessor of our predecessor?  Eventually you have to get back "something from nothing," and the chances of nothing making something that then happens to lead up to the unprecedented human brain and my voiceless thoughts that my fingertips are transcribing into typed words ... it's too well-designed to be by chance.

So what does Genesis 1 say to me, aside from the obvious Evolution-Creationism floor of debate?  God exists and life has a purpose.  Every single one of us has a purpose.  I hope that gives someone out there some comfort.

But I would like to know what those two waters thing means.

If you have any questions about the fiery Evolution vs. Creationism debate, I highly recommend Lee Strobel's The Case for a Creator, Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution, and Ben Stein's documentary Expelled, which you can actually watch in it's entirety below!