Origin Interview Paper

7/31/2019 Origin Interview Paper

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Patricia Rice

February 3, 2012

22066268Origin Interview

I conducted an interview of three people to determine their view of the origin. As instructed, I

asked each person their views of these questions: How long are the days in Genesis 1? Why? How

old is the earth and life? Why? Did man and apes share a common ancestor? Why or why not?

Were Adam and Eve real people? Why or why not?

My first interviewee is a twenty-two-year-old college student who is also a devout Christian. When

asked the questions above, the student begins to search for the Bible and several bible

commentaries. After about an hour, she was prepared to fully answer the questions as best she

could with references to boot. How long were the days in Genesis 1 and why? The days in Genesis

1 were the same as now, 24hrs in a day. In Genesis 1:5 "God called the light Day, and the darkness

he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." In this scripture the word

"day" is used to explain the part of the solar day of twenty-four hours which is light. In John 11:9

Jesus says, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" Therefore making the solar day that God

talked about in Genesis twenty-four hours. Day and night were not actually divided until Genesis

1:14 which were for signs, seasons, days, and years; however, still not changing the number of

hours within a day. How old is the earth and life? The Bible is clear that Adam, the first man, lived

only 6000 years ago. Adam was created on the sixth day of God's Creation Week, so according to

the Bible the earth must be only 6000 years old according to Gen. 1:27. Did man and apes share a

common ancestor? No, according to Genesis 1:24-25 "let the earth bring forth the living creature

after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind...God made the beast

of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after his kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth

after his kind. Then, God created man in HIS image and gave him dominion over these other living


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creatures. Apes fall under the category of living creatures so there is no way that humans could

have a common ancestor with an animal. Were Adam and Eve even real people? Yes, in the case

of Genesis, the intention of its author clearly was to write a historical account. This is shown by the

way in which the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul regarded Genesisthat is, they quoted it

as being truth, not symbolic myth or parable. It was plainly not the authors intention to convey

allegorical poetry, fantasy, or myth. And so what God, through Moses, said about creation in

Genesis should not be interpreted in these terms. Throughout the New Testament the first male and

female are mentioned several times. References are Mark 10:6, 1Cor. 15:22, 1 Tim. 2:13.

The second person I interviewed, an elder in his church, has been in ministry for over ten years.

When asked the questions listed above, the elder described the length of a day in Genesis 1 as

equivalent to the twenty-four-hour day process as we know today. When I asked for the reason for

his belief, oddly, he did not give any scripture references or any other references. The elder stated

that he does not belief that God changed the length of the days since the beginning of time until the

present. He believes that the earth and life upon it is 8,000 years old because of calculations give

by the pastor of his church, unfortunately, he never provided any biblical reference to support the

pastor's calculation for age of the earth. The elder does not believe that man and apes share

common ancestors and when I asked why he stated "God created every other life form prior to

creating man." The creation of mankind was the last of Gods six day creation and he believes the

reason for this is twofold. First, God spoke all other creation into existence; however, He created

man by His own hands and breathe life into man. God created man in His own image and made

man a living soul. This removes the possibility of the man and apes sharing any ancestors. Second,

this act by God removes any possibility of man taking credit for creating himself or any other form

of life. The elder was adamant in his belief that Adam and Eve are real people and not just fictional


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characters. The elder bases this belief first, upon Scripture, though he provided no references, and,

second, according to him, most all other religious sects will agree that Adam and Eve are real

people even if they disagree with the theological view of Adam and Eves role in imputing of sin

and the sin nature on mankind.

My third and finally interview person is a co-worker and she is a Catholic/Baptist, her views of the

origin are different from the first to interviewees. She believes the twenty-four-hour days that we

know today have been that way since the beginning of creation. She does not believe that it relates,

necessary, to Genesis 1. She feels that the earth and life on earth has existed for millions of years.

She did not give any concrete reasons for this belief other than she believes that dinosaurs lived of

earth millions of years ago. The interviewee does not believe humans are relatives of apes and

gives God credit for creation; however, she believes after creation God left mankind own its own.

As for Adam and Eve being real people, she views them as characters in a book of many stories of

fantasy and allegory. Her final statement was the Bible is a book written by many of men and

anything that man made or wrote cannot be the complete truth.

This concludes my interview of the origin and how my three interviewees view the origin. Two

where Christians who shared similar beliefs of creation; however, only one used biblical references

to support her beliefs. I challenged the Elder to do biblical research to support what he believes and

offered him the references I got from the first interviewee. The third person, a Catholic/Baptist, grow

up extremely poor with a mother who suffered from depression, a broken home, and from time to

time in the custody of the state. Her view of God is distorted due to her circumstance in life.Toher, I offered to read and study with her about what scripture has to say concerning Adam and Eve and of

the promises God made to us. I talked to her about Gods gift of a Redeemer and salvation. Sadly, she

was not interested. She is comfortable with the opinions she has already formed. I pray that something I


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said got into heart and that she will seek to find the truth about God.

Documents

Origin Interview Paper