Subject: Re: Liberals vs conservatives
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 13:40:33 +0800
From: Nigel Mitchell 
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian,nz.soc.religion
On Wed, 10 Nov 1999 8:46:50 +0800, Darren R Middleton wrote (in message < >):

> G’day Nigel,
> 
> Unfortunately I won’t be there, but I was wondering if you would ask Dr
> Barr a question for me?
> If so, inquire if it is his belief that no world class scholar in any
> major university that he is aware of thinks that the writer of Genesis
> intended the word “day” to mean anything other than a 24 hour day?  ;-)

Hi, Darren.
Did that quote originate with Barr? I thought 
it came from someone else.

If you are interested in my answer to the question, 
it would be:
1.
There were several authors of Genesis, not just 
one.
2.
I have no doubt that the authors of Genesis 1 
did not intend the word “day” to mean 
anything other than a 24 hour day. I would be very 
surprised if any world class scholar in any major 
University thought differently.
3.
I am equally sure that the authors of Genesis 
did not believe that they were writing an 
historical account of what actually happened. They 
were writing an Israelite version of the 
Babylonian Creation myth, and thereby expressing 
their faith in the one God who created all that 
is, and who chose them to be his people.
4.
The idea that the ‘days’ in Genesis 1 
are thousands of years long is an unfortunate 
pseudo-literalism which is neither credible nor 
helpful. The quotation to which your question 
alludes, which is mentioned at just about every 
Creationist lecture, is a red herring. It is not 
relevant unless you think that the author(s) of 
Genesis believed that he/they was/were writing 
about actual historical events. A casual observer 
need only look at the alternative Creation myth 
in Genesis 2 to see that this is not the case.

(we all know you disagree with this, Graeme, but 
you can’t prove anything different, so we 
will take youir blatherings about ‘liberal 
rubbish’ as read, if that is OK)

cheers
N+