Snoopy has been reading and meditating on Genesis 1. As you might expect for a dog, Snoopy is pretty fond of the natural world.
Who knew that before God got involved, our planet was dark and watery? God arranged for there to be light and for the sun, moon and stars to be placed in the sky.
Wow! The writers of Genesis 1 obviously had never heard of the solar system.
The creatures of the sea, sky and earth came next. By the end of day six, God had come up with male and female human beings.
In this version of the creation story, there is nothing said about Adam’s rib. Snoopy was pleased. Whether by magic or surgical intervention, rib removal makes Snoopy feel a little queasy.
The newly created earth is new and lovely. God is optimistic! God hopes all the newly created creatures will be vegetarians.
One of the problems of people taking the bible literally is that the same story might be told more than once, with different components involved. Does this mean stories can be added up to be one or what?
I read a book years ago that talked about the different creation stories out there. It might have been a Tom Harpur book. Some biblical stories probably existed before the bible as I recall.
It’s interesting that probably every culture has a creation story. What makes Genesis more credible?
In Genesis 2 God implements the Sabbath and takes a day of rest. Then God returns to planting vegetation on the earth.
This could be just a variation on the same story but the human beings create more of a problem.
By the end of Genesis 1 God has created the first human beings in God’s own image. God has blessed them and given them dominion over the earth. So far so good.
In Genesis 2 God fashions the man from the soil and breathes life into him. Next comes Eden and the forbidden tree. And finally, the creation of a woman from the rib of this man.
So what happened to the first humans? Did the prototype fail?
I think it more likely the author of Genesis had no problem including two different creation myths.