Such as what? I think there are various facts that show otherwise.
It should be noted that I
do believe in the literal 24 hour periods, but in a sense that is a tad different from how others may think it. I personally think this is a bit too convenient:
Gerald Schroeder - Articles - Age of the Universe
Possibly. Exodus 20:11 is the usual justification, plus the fact, as buffalo keeps telling us, that the word for day, ‘yom’, occurs dozens of times in the bible, and where it can be detected, almost always refers to 24-hours.
I myself think that Genesis is wholly metaphorical.
Interestingly, the first use of ‘yom’ in the Bible “God called the light day” does not mean a 24 hour day. ‘Yom’ in Gen. 1:5 “And there was evening and there was morning, one day” has an equivocal or different meaning than the day of “God called the light day.” So, already this one verse contains two different meanings of the first uses of ‘yom’ in the Bible. Yom also in Gen. 2:4 “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,” doesn’t appear to mean a 24 hour day especially as this occurs immediately following the seven day creation narrative of Gen. 1-2:3.
As I noted earlier in this thread I think it was, the fathers of the Church had different opinions concerning the meaning of ‘yom’ or day in Genesis 1. Some interpreted it as 24 hour days and others did not. St Augustine, one of the greatest expositors of Holy Scripture in the history of the Church, though he thought the interpretation from other fathers of the days of Gen. 1 as 24 hour days was legitimate, proposed his own interpretation. With all his genius and sanctity, interpreting precisely what the inspired sacred writer meant by ‘day’ was a mystery to him. Augustine would have had no problem believing the days were 24 hour days as at this time he and other fathers of the Church believed creation was only about 6000 years old reckoning from the ages of the Patriarchs the Bible gives us. Even so, he saw the days of Genesis 1 as a mystery.
I think the days of the creation narrative have multiple meanings at the same time either intended by Moses himself or at least by God. A day can be interpreted as God-days, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4; cf. also 2 Peter 3:8)), and symbolically as a 24 hour human day, or possibly the other way around.
If the present day science concerning the geological age of the earth is even remotely correct, than I believe a 24 hour interpretation of day in Gen. 1 is definitely symbolic of God-days or an indefinite period of time, or the days of Gen. 1 are literally God-days but symbolic of human 24 hour days.
