Dr Paul Allen

Did the author of Genesis 1   intend to communicate  that God created everything in six 24-hour days, or are the days meant to be understood in some other way? The question of how to interpret the “days” in Genesis 1 has been debated for hundreds of years within the Christian church. The early chapters of Genesis were explored for their theological message (and not for scientific claims) by  many notable Christian thinkers  long before scientific evidence for the great age of the universe began to accumulate. The  diversity and sophistication of pre-modern views of Genesis  remind us that the best interpretation is not obviously six 24-hour days. Despite disagreements, all Christians believe Genesis 1 teaches that the one true God created all things and called his creation good. BioLogos affirms that Genesis, like the rest of the Bible, is the inspired and authoritative word of God. Based on a close examination of the biblical text and the cultural co...

Unbelievers constantly assert that the Bible says that Cain went into the land of Nod and took to himself a wife. What the Bible does say is that “Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden . And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch” ( Genesis 4:16–17). What the Bible means by “knew” in such connection anyone can discover for himself by taking his concordance and looking it up. He will discover that the word used in this connotation does not mean to get acquainted with, but is connected with the procreation of the species (see Genesis 4:1; Judges 11:39; 1 Samuel 1:19; Matthew 1:25 ). Cain doubtless had his wife before going to the land of Nod and took her there with him. But who was she, and where did he get her? In Genesis 5:3–4 we learn that Adam in his long life of 930 years begat many sons and daughters. There can be but little doubt that Cain married one of those numerous daughters. But someone will say, ...

PhotonQ-Homer' s Evolution Theory (Photo credit: PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE ) In 2012, a Gallup poll found that 46 percent of U.S. adults believed " God created humans pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so." Thirty-two percent believed humans evolved with God's guidance, and 15 percent believed humans evolved with no divine guidance at all. The responses to this question, which Gallup has included 11 times on polls since 1982, have been remarkably stable over a 30-year period of time. The findings , showing a public evenly split over the issue of human evolution , have been corroborated in several other national surveys. These surveys portray a deeply divided and polarized public. Even among the majority who believe that God created humans, the chasm separating creationist and evolutionist views appears to be gargantuan. Are Americans really this divided over human origins? As a social scientist, I am skeptical about these find...

English: Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עברית: חטא עץ הדעת - ד"ר לידיה קוזניצקי (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "For since by man came death , by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." ( 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 ) These verses, coupled with others throughout the Old and New Testaments , teach a very important principle not fully appreciated by those Christians who would hold that man evolved from lower animals or even that his tenure on earth was preceded by millions of years. For if the earth is old, then death is part of the natural order of things, and billions upon billions of organisms have lived and died, struggling for existence, surviving only if they were "fit." Taken at face value, however, the Bible indicates a far different scenario. Evidently, at the beginning, all living creatures (i.e., conscious life as opposed to plants and non-conscious "animals") were cr...

The logo for the BioLogos Foundation (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Christians are accustomed to treating evolution as an account of the world’s origins that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and something that a person could only believe in the absence of God or in the absence of faith. But this is not quite fair. There are now many Christians—Christians who treasure the Bible and who affirm the truths of the historic Christian faith—who do believe that the evidence for evolution is too compelling to ignore. It is telling that, as far as I can see, the vast majority of Christian scientists (not to be confused with Christian Scientists ) hold to evolution. In the face of modern science, those of us who still cling to a literal six day creation may seem to be increasingly stubborn and outdated. Certainly the world perceives us this way. So, too, today, do many in the church. There is very real pressure to conform. The stakes are high. As Christians we believe that God is honored w...

Enlarge Hulton Archive / Getty Images An engraving depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden , by Albrecht Durer, 15th century. Let's go back to the beginning — all the way to Adam and Eve, and to the question: Did they exist, and did all of humanity descend from that single pair? According to the Bible (Genesis 2:7), this is how humanity began: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib. Polls by Gallup and the Pew Research Center find that four out of 10 Americans believe this account. It's a central tenet for much of conservative Christianity , from evangelicals to confessional churches such as the Christian Reformed Church . But now some conservative scholars are saying publicly that they can no longer believe the Genesis account. Asked how likely it is that we all descended from Adam and Eve, Den...