We’ve Missed The Point Of The Creation Story

Originally published at https://rethinknow.org.

So many Christians choose to die on the hill of defending a literal 7-day creation story in Genesis 1. And maybe that’s true, I don’t know, I wasn’t there. Maybe it was a literal 7 days or maybe the 7 symbolizes perfection and completion (as common in Jewish writing). But I don’t think that’s the point of the story.

I know that even talking about this is causing some of your blood pressure to rise. The Bible is true! And I agree the Bible is true, but that doesn’t mean every passage is literal. Before you close the tab, hear me out.

I’m not trying to convince you that Genesis 1 isn’t to be read literally. Frankly, I don’t care if you believe in a literal 7-day creation story or not. That’s not the point. Rather I want to focus on the bigger picture of what is happening in this story. A picture we often miss in pursuit of literal or not.

We’ve Focused on the Wrong Thing

In the pursuit to defend a literal 7-day creation the church has lost sight of the depth of the story found in Genesis 1–2. We can argue all day on the details of how the world came to be. But the bottom line is we don’t know. God didn’t give us the nitty-gritty. To think that the Creation story is the end all be all of how the world…