What are the arguments against Theistic Evolution? What specific scriptures do you think contradict Theistic Evolution?

@Richard_Wright
Richard,

My more recent posts may contradict earlier posts, but this is a work in progress, so take the whole thing with a grain of salt. Your assertion that the formless void describes the earth’s early watery surface is interesting. One difficulty with matching up the early chapters of Genesis with natural history, is that the scientific consensus (if there is one) as to the earliest natural history is a moving target. For instance, if we assume that the early earth was dry and water was deposited later by comets and asteroid impacts, then we can create one concordance and pat ourselves on the back until we read the following articles that dispute that the hadean earth was dry.

http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/main/htmlversion/archean2.html
So, that is a problem if you decide that early Genesis is concordant with scientific consensus A, B and C and then you wait 30 years and the college textbooks change to D, E and F.

So, for the sake of argument, let’s think about Genesis 1 as if it were visions or dreams being reported by a recipient of these dream/visions. From a viewpoint of 6 feet in height, the horizon is 3 miles in every direction. In order for our prophet to report to us that the Spirit of God hovered over a formless void, we require a circular area of liquid water 6 miles in diameter. In order for our prophet to report that the waters above and below to not yet be separated, we require for it to be raining. In order for our prophet to report that light became visible, although no sun and moon were visible, we require the voice of God and for it to be overcast at dawn.

The only thing that we require for our prophet to report to us that the waters below were separated from the waters above is for it to be foggy/raining, the voice of God and then for it stop raining/fog to lift. True our prophet thought that he was seeing a vault which held up the waters of heaven when he looked up at the overcast sky, and that he probably had this preconception (just like everyone he knew) before he was presented with this dream/vision. Apparently God did not disabuse him of this notion.

Thanks for granting the land masses. The plants are a bit more problematic. While it is true that cyanobacteria are not plants, it appears that photosynthesis developed first in cyanobacteria and then was passed to algae and on to plants. Evolution of photorespiration from cyanobacteria to land plants, considering protein phylogenies and acquisition of carbon concentrating mechanisms - PubMed This means that in order for our prophet to report he creation of plants to us, we require the voice of God, and that observed a sweep spanning from single celled bacteria with no nuclei all the way to seed bearing trees. This at first glance appears to pose a problem in that the evolution of plants overlaps with fish, birds and animals. This is resolved simply by the visions being differentiated by subject matter. Today’s nature program is on the subject of “plants”.

Note that we are not talking about when the sun, moon and stars came into being, but instead we are talking about when they became visible to our prophet. Our prophet is reporting what he sees, so it is what he sees that is important. The only thing that we require from our prophet on day 4 to report the creation of the sun, moon and stars is the voice of God and that the clouds part. On day 1, it was overcast, and light was visible although the source of light was not.

Fish evolved first, and then dinosaurs which evolved into birds.

I make the assumption that day 5’s nature episode is on the subject of livestock type animals and mammals in general.

Then, God made a bunch of people (not just two, although that came later).

So, somewhere it was dark and raining and there was at least 6 square miles of liquid water at some time in the past, and the sun came up. Then there was an overcast day when it was raining, and it stopped raining that day. Then there was an overcast day when a rock stuck up out of an ocean. Then there was a day when it was overcast until the clouds parted. Then there was a day when plants started to evolve. Later on, there was a different day when fish started to evolve, and thereafter birds evolved from dinosaurs. Then after that, on a different day, large mammals evolved. Then people evolved. And, did I mention that God made it happen? Did I also mention that a man with no knowledge of science watched portions of God causing all of this and then tried to explain it to all of his friends, who also had no knowledge of science whatsoever? And yes, within the retelling of the story there is embedded meaning about the relationship between God, the world and mankind.