Life filled all the environments of Earth’s dry land in creation’s sixth season interpreted by nature. The structured circular poetry conveys an outline of the evolution of all creatures. Without the overburden of unbiblical perfection theologies, the ancient text matches the evidence perfectly.
Genesis 1
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good (NIV).
A poetic structure filled the land of day 3 with animals on day 6. The poet listed animals relevant to a human viewpoint. That meant livestock came first. The “ground” animals are mentioned at the end of the day to circle back to the beginning of day 3. Like the stars on day 4, the myriad of wild animals come as almost an afterthought.
Unlike other creation stories, the poet merely said, “God made all the animals.” He never tried to explain how God made them. No biblical text says anything about an instantaneous creation or sculpting animals from clay.
God made animals from the dirt of the ground in Genesis 2. Standard science says the same thing but in more detail. Molecules abundant on Earth combined until the first RNA formed. Soon after, a membrane encapsulated those molecules, and DNA soon spiraled within. Just like the poet, science describes these events using an “unknown process.” Both say that all animals today trace their lineage from the “dirt of the ground.”
Paleontologists have found that, after plants filled dry-land, the aquatic gastropods and arthropods ventured out to eat them. Evolutionary adaptation provided a way for some of them to change enough that they did not need to return to the water; they became land creatures. New “kinds” multiplied to fill every niche environment. Amphibians did the same thing in pursuit of the snails and bugs. These became reptiles-like creatures whose lineage diversified into the lineages of every kind known. Geologically speaking, the proliferation of life happened in a very short amount of time.
Generalization let “kind” embrace whatever each lineage entailed. Outside the Bible, God accumulated evidence of His creation. Enough of it is buried and fossilized for us to imagine long-ago worlds. All we have to do is decipher that manuscript written in stone. Science becomes our translator. It unlocks all the wonderful details Genesis 1 outlines.
A rush of diversification filled the dry-land, just as there was a rush to fill the ocean. The circle of days 2 and 5 restated the theme of Genesis 1: God created everything above and everything below. Days 3 and 6 tell us everything between is his creation too. Life on Earth is one, as its Creator is one.
To be continued:
