For literalists, Genesis 1 causes big problems beyond timing. For instance, in verse 27 God created “mankind” not just Adam and Eve including “male and female.” In Verse 29, God suggests we should be vegetarians. “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” He never once says I give you beasts, fish, and fowl for food, only that that mankind “may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Good thing I’m not a literalist. I like my protein the good old fashion way.
Even though I’m not a literalist, a careful reading of Genesis confirms one thing. Our planet, our oceans, and the other creatures that inhibit God’s creation are not ours to do with as we please. Our planet belongs to all its inhabitants not just mankind. God gave the plants to all of his creation for food. “And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” — Genesis 1:30.
The world is not ours to control, but to live as a part of it. Every now and then the earth and the weather rise up to remind us of that fact. We need to adjust our thinking, literalist or no, to further and preserve God’s creations — All of them, not just mankind.
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