The Literal Genesis Account of Creation

Actually, you have the order wrong.The story in Genesis 1 is actually the younger of the two tales. The Genesis 2 tales are combinations of much older stories.The question though of "why did the redactors of the Bible include two mutually exclusive and contradictory stories of Creation" is a great one.as I pointed out back in Message 224 in this thread, and many other times at EvC, we really do need to understand just why the redactors (and Moshe, even if he did exist did not write the "Books of Moses") include both tales?There are several reasons. One is that the two tales show the evolution of the concept of God by the Hebrews. The earlier God found in Genesis 2 and later is very much like other Gods of the period. It is a personal God, very human, approachable, somewhat bumbling, very anthropomorphic. It is definitely God made in man's image.The God found in Genesis 1 though is quite different. Here we find a supremely confident, assured God, one that creates by an act of will alone, that moves methodically, step by step through the acts of creation.But that God is also transcendent, aloof and separate from that which is created.So why did they include the two stories?We will never know the exact reasons but based on what is included in the rest of the Tanakh, custom likely played a part. Remember, these are the tales that defined a peoples and so including folk tales was an essential part.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I would say nice try if there was any possible way to connect all that jabberwocky with what is actually in Genesis 1:2. In this case we are definitely not talking about a desert, desert-like or most particularly, arid. Let me point out a word that actually is in Genesis 1:2, it is "waters".Do any of you actually READ the Bible?Again, look at what you present.You claim "Thus both the etymological history and contextual usage of the phrase fail to support the view of an unorganized universe. ", yet even the very sources you quote imply just that.Nudder question.Do any of you actually READ what you write?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

There has NEVER been a time on Earth when it was totally covered by water. In fact, water was a fairly latecomer to the Earth, millions and millions of years after land. Nonsense. A totally false statement. Land, dry land was all of the Earth long before any water could even exist on Earth.Stop just spouting nonsense.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

No, I am saying that the Genesis creation myths are factually wrong.How many times must I repeat that?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

You still miss the point.The first half of Genesis 2:4 is the ending summary of the younger tale that begins at Genesis 1:1.Genesis 1:1 through the first half of Genesis 2:4 is one story.Another story starts at the second half of Genesis 2:4.The tale that begins at the second half of genesis 2:4 is the older tale. It is a compilation of several myths that likely began as an oral tradition.The story that begins at Genesis 1:1 and runs through the first half of Genesis 2:4 is the newer, younger tale. It was written by different people with different traditions many hundreds if not thousands of years after the older tale that starts at the second half of Genesis 2:4.Other than both tales being creation myths, there is NOTHING common between them.Just as Genesis 1:1 is the introduction, the first half of Genesis 2:4 is the summation of the story.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Yup. Because it is the summary of what came before. They aren't. There is no connections between the story in Genesis one and the earlier stories. You're mixing up stories again. In the tale found in Genesis 1 through the first half of Genesis 2:4, man is not made from dust but from an act of will?

quote:

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Genesis 1:26-27

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26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

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27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

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I do. They are simply different myths, both factually wrong. Well, sorry but that is exactly what you have been getting from me. There is literally not one tale, but two or more, and they are all factually wrong.Sorry, that is the literal truth.Have you ever read the Bible?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion