From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Wed Jun 18 2003 - 15:39:58 EDT
Oldest seed plants I think are now back to latest Devonian.
First algae goes back to mid-Precambrian; photosynthetic bacteria much earlier. Thus, things that would plausibly be called plants are much older than the oldest true animals. Water teeming with invertebrates goes back to late Precambrian; abundant fish and definite land plants both appear in the early Paleozoic.
Apart from the sun, moon, et al., the oldest thing mentioned each day is in order with the astronomical/geological evidence. More discrepancies arise with the attempt to put every thing mentioned on each day before anything mentioned the next day. Thus, a more flexible concordist approach ("possibly overlapping highlights" rather than "detailed, precise log") works pretty well except for day 4.
I prefer a symbolic interpretation of the days as categories of creation, without chronological significance, but a concordist approach need not entail all of the difficulties that have been mentioned.
Ironically, this ties into the issue of credal statements. Is Genesis 1 primarily about God or about science?
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Jun 18 2003 - 15:32:28 EDT