Einstein taught us in the early 1900s that time is relative. And so we can extrapolate that the 6 “days” of creation were not the 24 hour days we are used to.  A measure of time like this would be variable depending on gravity, speed/acceleration, and point of reference.  The first “day” of creation could have taken billions of years and the “days” leading up to the creation of man from the Cambrian explosion could have taken 542 million years.

This creation from beast to man was something more complex than a magical appearance.  Yes God created “ex nihilo” (out of nothing in Hebrew), this was another claim confirmed by big bang physicists and explained Lawrence Krauss in his book “A Universe From Nothing” (even though he was ironically trying to push God out of the equation with this claim).

But why couldn’t God create with evolution?  The mechanisms of evolution call for such beautiful diversity and give every part of creation an important niche or role to play.

Is the idea of descending from beasts to much of a egotistical demotion for the religious man to swallow?

The bible does agree that mankind is meant to be above creation.  The endowment of a spirit to mankind, refered to as the “ruah” in the Hebrew text, is considered an entirely different creation than common animal life or “nephesh.”  Perhaps this creation was something intangible or spiritual, but then again we might be once more selling God short that he is not able to create something spiritual within the universe he created.

Even scientists will admit that this universe is something of a mystery and often the truth is much more surprising than fiction.

But just maybe, the biggest surprise is that God’s creation reveals itself, and learning more about the science of nature can teach us more about the nature of God.