Anyone who believes this is laboring under very serious misconceptions. First of all, there is nothing in Beresith (Genesis) that points to any particular age of creation.
Plus, Ancient Hebrew had a very limited vocabulary (fewer than 9000 words) so many words had multiple meanings.
For example,
a) "yom" can mean a regular day, but it also has many other meanings, including "period of time." This is a valid interpretation for Genesis. Interpreting "yom" as a 24 hour day invites conflict -- it does not bring understanding. There is ample proof in physics, astronomy, cosmology and mathematics, that our universe took a very long time to unfold. Our creator is not a "trickster" -- therefore, people who believe this are simply mistranslating the text.
b) The words and phrase "evening and morning" also refers to "ending of one [period] and beginning of another." This phrase must be viewed in its proper context. It did NOT refer to the coming of night and the dawning of a new day, as used in Genesis.
c) Likewise, "ha adam" simply means "the man" and "adamah" means "from the Earth" . This was not meant to be understood that we were made out of dirt.
The Torah concerns our entering into a SPIRITUAL relationship to our Creator -- NOT a our physical development. It was never intended to be a science text, or to signal the end of our knowledge.
There is a great deal of symbolism also -- such as the extreme ages of the patriarchs which were "borrowed" from the Babylonian culture's assigning great ages to their noteworthy kings.
The great rabbi Maimonedes wrote in the 12th century, "Guide for the Perplexed," that a "literal" reading should never be assigned to the Torah when it disagrees with physical reality. While I see many fundamentalists on this forum deny the overwhelming evidence for evolution (for instance), their ignore-ance of the facts does not alter the reality.
Famous Christian scholars such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas have concurred.
Literalism, especially when so "fundamentally" flawed, invites confusion rather than spiritual growth.
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