Genesis 1 got the order of events right

From EvoWiki

Contents 1 Claim 2 Source 3 Responses 4 Fallacies contained in this claim 5 Related claims 6 Acknowledgments

Claim

The creation account in Genesis 1 lists 10 major events in this order:

1. a beginning;
2. a primitive earth in darkness and enshrouded in heavy gases and water;
3. light;
4. an expanse or atmosphere;
5. large areas of dry land;
6. land plants;
7. sun, moon, and stars discernible in the expanse, and seasons beginning;
8. sea monsters and flying creatures;
9. wild and tame beasts, mammals;
10. man.

The odds of getting that order correct by chance are one in 3,628,800.

Source

• Anon, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here? Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., p. 37.

Responses

It is important to note that this argument seems to pre-suppose that the basic scientific account of the universe and solar system are correct (it wouldn't make sense to call the Bible amazingly accurate unless there was something to compare it to), which would have to include their basic "old earth" timelines. Hence, the argument is not taking the days of creation literally, but instead assuming that the Bible is trustworthy based on how it predicts scientific findings about the history and formation of the universe long before any human being could have developed the tools necessary to get the basic account correct. However, there are many many problems with this claim:

1. A broken watch is right twice a day.
2. The odds being presented here are nothing more than a combinatorial expansion of 10!, however, the calculation is done incorrectly in order to make the odds look much higher than they are. For instance, counting #1 (in the beginning, there was a beginning) isn't a valid stage, reducing the calculation to 9! or 1 in 362,880. Other events also simply cannot be in any other order (land plants cannot be before land, etc.) and so reduce the unlikelihood still further.
3. Some of the steps are not clearly derived from the Bible at all. Point two has Earth "...enshrouded in heavy gases..." not because anything in Genesis suggests this, but as part of an effort to save the order by asserting sunlight wouldn't have been visible during the early stages of Genesis. Arbitrarily adding elements to save the order rather injures the argument that the accuracy of the order is amazing.
4. The order proposes that land plants existed for a significant fraction of time (as this is an Old Earth Creationist argument) before the sun could be seen from earth. The idea that plants existed for any length of time without access to direct sunlight is contrary to science and common sense.
5. And by any reasonable definition, "tame beasts" (#9) had to await the arrival of man (#10) to even have any meaningful notion of "tame". By most genomic studies, a dog is a wolf in an arrested state of development due to the artificial selection by man. Cattle and horses are likewise domesticated by human breeding. Did tame animals really exist before the species that would have tamed them? And if so, wouldn't their wild beast variants have quickly either killed them or reverted them back to "wild"?
6. Since there is no mention of animals before #8, then did the pollinators arrive to keep land plants (#6) reproducing? or perhaps were the first land plants not flowering (as the science shows) and that later "evolved" when the pollinators arrived in #8?
7. The order claimed selectively ignores where Genesis is glaringly wrong. Here is a list of all the datapoints from Genesis compared with the order as determined by science:

Order	Event	Genesis Day
1	Light	1
2	Stars	4
3	Sun	4
4	Land	3
also 4	Night/Day	1
5	Moon	4
6	Sea life	5
7	Land life	6
8	Seed bearing plants	3
9	Birds	5
10	Fruit bearing plants	3
11	Grass	3
12	Man	6

While one may believe that mainstream science is wrong, doing so would negate the test of the Bible's accuracy that this order supposedly entails.

Fallacies contained in this claim

• Begging the Question (That it's "the right order" seems to be assumed)
• Stolen Concept (results of conventional science are cherry-picked)

Related claims

• The Bible is inerrant
• Bible's accuracy on other scientific points shows overall accuracy
• Bible says the earth is round
• Bible says the earth is unsupported
• Bible got water cycle right
• Records say civilization was man's original state
• Bible specifies good medical and hygienic practices

Acknowledgments

• Suttkus
• Plunge

Retrieved from "http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Genesis_1_got_the_order_of_events_right"

Category: Creationist claims