On the sixth day, the Lord caps off his creative abilities by creating land animals and mankind. According to the Bible, “since the creation of the world his (God’s) invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made…” (Romans 1:20; parenthesis in quote mine). The most visible problem between believers and natural scientists lay in the fact that the account of creation, as we find it in the first chapter of Genesis, glorifies and honors God for his awesome power and intelligence. On the other hand, naturalism seeks to take all that away by actively removing God from history.
One of the ways in which ancient historians attacked their enemies was to refuse to acknowledge them in their own writings or teachings. Thereby, they would effectively remove their enemy from any participation in any event that might be passed down to others in their community. At the end of the day, no knowledge of a person, vis-à-vis his words or deeds, equaled non-existence (cp. Romans 1:28).
As the sixth day was beginning, God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so” (Genesis 1:24). Here, we have three kinds of animals brought into existence: cattle, vis-à-vis beasts of burden, or those which he normally domesticates, or cares for, because of their hides, so he may cloth himself or prepare huts for dwelling in etc. The second kind of animal God mentioned was the creeping thing, with includes all smaller animals, like rodents etc. (cp. Psalm 104:20). The third kind of animals, the beast of the earth are normally larger animals that aren’t normally domesticated for the use of mankind, connivers, and beasts that eat vegetation, but live in the forest and field away from man.
Once again, God, who is on the earth, and responding to God who spoke from beyond the heavens, made the beasts, the cattle and the creeping things of the earth, each after their own kind, and God saw that it was good, vis-à-vis he was pleased with his work (Genesis 1:25). In other words, nothing more needed to be done to fulfill God’s purpose, so the animals didn’t have to evolve from simpler lifeforms to become as they are today, as the model, Theory of Evolution, demands.
Then God spoke from above the heavens, consulting with God on Earth, 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 creeps upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26).
Therefore, God created (H1254), which is the same word found in Genesis 1:1, mankind in his own image. Moreover, God created (H1254) mankind male and female (Genesis 1:27)! Thus, it becomes evident that the creation account of Genesis 1 cannot be reconciled with man’s own theory of how mankind and the rest of the lifeforms upon the earth came to exist. The creation of mankind had a specific purpose (a word that is absent in the description of the Theory of Evolution), and he was created specifically and apart from the animal kingdom. We’ll discuss this further in chapter three, but for now, God created mankind, vis-à-vis brought him into existence, at a specific point in history. Chapter two describes the process in more detail, but in the final analysis he, emphatically, cannot have arisen from simpler lifeforms, if what we find in the record of creation contains any truth at all. It is all, or nothing at all. Either, “In the beginning God…” or “In the beginning…” Bang! Either, in the beginning there is purpose, responsibility, morality etc. or in the beginning everything is relative, no absolutes, what is good is nothing more than opinion and a good opinion is no better than the wickedness, which might describe the opposing opinion.
Next, God taught mankind what his purpose was and what was good for food (physical food and food for thought). This wasn’t done, when God created the other lifeforms. They didn’t have to be taught, because they were programmed with instinct to know what was good for them and what was not. Mankind, although greater in intelligence than other forms of life, must be taught almost everything that concerns his life and survival. God blessed mankind, meaning God would not permit him to completely perish from the face of the earth (Genesis 1:28). He also commanded man to be fruitful, multiplying to the point, where he fills the earth. Moreover, God commanded him to bring the earth under his control and take authority over all the works, which God had made.
God also told him what was good for him to eat, which implies there were poisons among the vegetation that God created. Moreover, God told mankind that these same things were given to animals for food, so, as a rule of thumb, what didn’t harm them would also nourish mankind. God created a very dangerous environment; hence mankind’s need to bring it all under his control. This particular command would be unnecessary, if all things were harmless and couldn’t hurt man, if he misused a thing in question (Genesis 29-30). Finally, as the sixth day was coming to a close at sunset, God looked over all he had created and said it was wholly (H3966) good (H2896), meaning it lacked nothing. He didn’t need to do more to fulfill his purpose in what he had created (Genesis 1:31).
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