They are not visible if the sun is not able to shine on them. The vantage of this verse is from within the earth. "the holy spirit is floating over the waters". If light is not able to penetrate within the earth because of the gas filling the atmosphere, we can't see the gas.
Your claim is that the darkness is because of light being blocked by methane and carbon dioxide gas.
I would presume the darkness was carbon dioxide, methane, etc filling the atmosphere as is shown in Science.
Now you are telling me that it was too dark to see the invisible gas? That is not an explanation.
The days still flow. In day 4, it is speaking in past tense. The verse is about why we have seasons not that he created stars and the moon.
Let's look at the text and see if your explanation is plausible. I'll use the KJV. Please indicate if you would prefer something else.
14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
I can see how one might interpret versus 16 and 17 as you suggest. They could be interpreted as undated descriptions of something God has already done. However there are some serious problems with that interpretation. Serious enough to let me know that you are trying to force science onto non-science.
If verse 14 describes the creations of the seasons on day four, then surely that verse and verse 15 are describing the creation of the sun and moon. It is also clear that the language 'rule over day and night' does not mean create light and darkness. The moon does no such thing, it is merely prominent at night. Apparently some poet simply described the sun and the moon as being prominent during the day and night. Nothing wrong with that, but it does refute your interpretation.
I'd also have to suggest that verse 14 is an awfully poetic way of saying that God tilted the earth on day four. You'd almost think the writer was clueless about the cause of the seasons.
In short I think it is pretty difficult to read the text of verses 14 and 15 and not come away with the conclusion that those verses describe the creation of at least the stars and sun. Most likely the moon itself as well. All on day four. All after plant life was created.
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. Galileo Galilei
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