The Gap Theory (Fossils Young / Earth Old) genesis 1:3/ 1:1

Of course this relies on carefully interpreting Genesis to fit in with what we know - for instance the assumption that the Sun, Moon and Stars existed before the 4th day which is not stated in the actual text. Worse it requires distorting what we know to fit in with Genesis. Fruit trees, for instance, appear long after the first land plants.But the most amazing thing is the assumption that the author required assistance to work out that the beginning occurred before the other events !

You didn't address my point that Genesis 1 does not say that the sun moon or stars existed before the fourth day. You just made the same sort of speculations. Now a plain reading of Genesis 1 does NOT attribute daylight to the sun (nor does it recognise that moonlight is reflected sunlight) so the text alone gives us no reason to assume that the light created in the first day has anything to do with the sun at all.

Does it matter ? If the point is to determine what the author of Genesis understood of the nature and origins of our universe we can't simply assume that if we knew something then he knew it. We have to take the text as it is rather than reading our knowledge into it.[This message has been edited by PaulK, 04-29-2004]

In other words Genesis couldn't mean what it seems to say - because if it did it would be wrong. Not much of an argumnet.And I see that you agree with the idea that the author of Genesis was too stupid to figure out the the beginning had to come first without help.