Evolution

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The Whole problem with the Book of Genesis...and how it has been interpreted by the religious Zealots...is that they "assume" that God's Clock is the same as our human clock. Humans "assume" that 6 of God's days is the same as 6 of ours. One of God's days, could be millions, or billions, of our days....but such a concept is beyond the understanding of those who think the heavens and earth were created in 6 days.
 
Genesis has two different creation stories and they are not compatible, no matter what biblical literalists say.
However, they are not meant to be telling the how, but the why, so it doesn't matter.

Science has nothing to say about why we are here, just how.

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The premise of Genesis is that we are created to be in relation to the creator.
Both creation stories make this point and the second one attempts to explain humanity's dual nature - capacity for both good and evil - and why the earth is not the paradise that we would wish it to be.

Other creation myths contain similar themes. Genesis is a bit different in that it is written from a monotheistic perspective.
Genesis 1 presents a three tiered model of the universe that would have seemed logical to a man standing on a mountain overlooking the land and the sea, and gazing upwards at the sky. He could have been a shepherd watching over his sheep and yarning with other shepherds around the camp fire. A sense of awe and wonder can be sensed when reading this first chapter.

Genesis 2 was probably written by the priestly class. It emphasises human frailties.
 
To get back to the "evolving from apes" question, even if we had evolved from apes, why would that mean the apes were supposed to disappear? There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands of animal species that we have evolved from, most of them still here.
 
I find this poem quite moving.

James Weldon Johnson, ed. [SIZE=-1](1871–1938).[/SIZE] The Book of American ***** Poetry. [SIZE=-1]1922.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]The Creation[/SIZE]
James Weldon Johnson [SIZE=+0](1871–1938)[/SIZE]
(A ***** Sermon)
A[SIZE=-1]ND[/SIZE] God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
“I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.”
And far as the eye of God could see[SIZE=-2] 5[/SIZE]
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,[SIZE=-2] 10[/SIZE]
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, “That’s good!”
Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands[SIZE=-2] 15[/SIZE]
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,[SIZE=-2] 20[/SIZE]
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, “That’s good!”[SIZE=-2] 25[/SIZE]
Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.[SIZE=-2] 30[/SIZE]
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.[SIZE=-2] 35[/SIZE]
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,[SIZE=-2] 40[/SIZE]
The cooling waters came down.
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,[SIZE=-2] 45[/SIZE]
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder.[SIZE=-2] 50[/SIZE]
Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said, “Bring forth! Bring forth!”
And quicker than God could drop His hand.
Fishes and fowls[SIZE=-2] 55[/SIZE]
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, “That’s good!”[SIZE=-2] 60[/SIZE]
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked at His sun,
And He looked at His moon,[SIZE=-2] 65[/SIZE]
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all its living things,
And God said, “I’m lonely still.”
Then God sat down[SIZE=-2] 70[/SIZE]
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought, “I’ll make me a man!”[SIZE=-2] 75[/SIZE]
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty[SIZE=-2] 80[/SIZE]
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,[SIZE=-2] 85[/SIZE]
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;
Then into it He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.[SIZE=-2] 90[/SIZE]
Amen. Amen.
 
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