Origin of the First Religion
What does the origin of religions have to do with our own origins or where we came from? The answer we need for this question is because religion has shaped our individual cultures; mostly for the bad from incorrect forms of worship and false religions. Different parts of the world have different religions and it is interesting to see how religion has affected the development and living conditions from where we originated. This article is not an attempt to analyze all forms of religions and their exact origins. The concentration is mainly from the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Refer to the page titled Age Chart – Adam to Joseph at any time while in this article.
Our Original Parents
In the introduction paragraphs of this website, I discussed our ancestors. Our primary ancestors are Adam and Eve, our original parents. Look at Genesis 3:20 and it plainly states that Eve is the mother of all living. It did not say the mother of some as secularists or those that distort the Scriptures would lead us to believe. Evolutionists and secularists usually don’t believe that Adam and Eve ever even existed anyway. Even Christians that try to mix some or all of evolutionary ideas with the Scripture should have trouble with Genesis 3:20. The Scripture is very straightforward in its meaning. We did not originate from any other source or by natural causes. No other form of man existed before Adam and Eve. Also, our original ancestors Adam and Eve did not live millions or billions of years ago - thousands is the correct answer.
Adam and Eve were created in the Image and Likeness of God and so are we (Genesis 1:26-27). We are distinct and totally separate from the rest of God’s living creatures. Refer to Genesis 2:18-20. We see from these verses how Adam, the man, is totally different from other creatures and we also see the creation of a helper for Adam called Eve, the woman. They are to be man and wife. See the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:3-6 concerning marriage.
Our Original Parents actually had the First Religion
Before sin entered the world through man's disobedience (Genesis 3), Adam and Eve had fellowship with Our Creator God (Elohim) on what should have been a daily basis. This sounds to me like a form of religion in which both worshiped Elohim even though it was a fellowship. This was a positive and correct form of religion. Also this was a perfect form of communication with God we have lost because of man's sin.
Our Other Ancestors
The next ancestors I cover are how the nations got their start in Genesis 10. This involves the three sons of Noah. After reading Genesis 10 called the Table of Nations, you should have a general idea from which of the three sons of Noah you primarily originated. We can also be mixed from these three sons. Refer to the page in this website titled Table of Nations.
False Religion
Now we need to discuss false religion. Religion is generally defined as man attempting to honor and believe in some form of deity or higher power. Some forms of religion consist of worship of the spirit world and even ancestor worship. Religion can also have a pattern of worship in something not living as in the case of idol worship of an inanimate object (Habakkuk 2:19;Romans 1:22-23). Over centuries, man has tried to worship nature as well – see Romans 1:24-25. These last two verses in Romans show how we tend to place more importance over God’s creation than Him as God the Creator. We owe our very existence to and origin from God our Creator.
A Classic Example of Nature Worship
Many modern day environmentalists who go to the extreme and many activists who want to protect the earth at all costs can be considered as “nature worshipers.” Others are duped into following this cause not knowing that they are supporting a religion. Again see Romans 1:24-25. This form of religion is not new and existed in ancient civilizations.
Fall of Man – did he create the First False Religion?
In Genesis 3, the fall of man is covered. First, you have to understand that God’s Creation was perfect (Genesis 1:31). In this last verse of Genesis 1, God says “It was very good.” Would a God who is capable of creating everything from nothing (ex nihilo) be anything less than perfect (Matthew 5:48 and James 1:17)? If everything was perfect, then Adam and Eve were once perfect. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s simple commandment to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. By eating of this tree, they became evil and so did we – sorry, there is no one good except God Himself (Romans 3:23).
The Image and Likeness of God
Let us analyze what it means to be created in the Image and Likeness of God. God has His Divine Will and can choose what, where and when He desires to do something. That simply means since we are created in His Image and Likeness that we can also choose because we are given our own wills. Of course, we don't have the abilities that God has. It should be obvious to all that not all choices we make are good. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and were more interested in doing their own thing. Have you ever heard the expression, “Do your own thing as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else?” The problem is when our original parents sinned we followed in sin also (Psalm 51:5). You might not call this disobedience a religion in the grand sense but Adam and Eve were more interested in themselves than in God. Sound familiar today? Basically after eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their eyes were opened and they knew good and evil (Genesis 3:22-23). They wanted to be their “own gods.” Now who were they worshiping? Themselves! They became their own religion.
Problems Continue
Right after the Fall of Man we read in Genesis 4 about the first murder. Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve killed their second son Abel in a jealous prideful fit of rage over a sacrifice to God of all things. What was Cain’s problem? Pride and self-worship sound like good answers. The descendants of Cain seem to fit in nicely with the ideas of pride, anger, self-worship and self-reliance in successive verses in Chapter 4.
The Reasons for the Global Flood
In the previous paragraph I discussed the first murder and the descendants of Cain. Mankind became so perverse and violent that only one man and his family was left that found favor in God's eyes (Genesis 6). This is difficult to imagine that only eight were saved by water on an ark (I Peter 3:20), but that is the precise language from the Scriptures. All the rest of mankind and animals that were not taken on the ark were blotted out and the earth itself was destroyed (Genesis 6-9).
Since we are told that mankind was perverse and filled with evil and evil thoughts continually, there is the distinct possibility that many false religions existed. Satan worship must have been top on the list. Immorality and sexual perversion was rampart. Couple this with demon possession due to the free reign of Satan and his fallen angels and the problem was incredible. All this happens when people willing refuse to believe in God and to follow his commandments. The willingness to not believe in the One True God, our Creator, is why we have so many false religions and cults today. Some might ask about atheists. Atheism can be called a type of religion because of the faith it takes to believe in no God even when confronted with huge amounts of evidence and the Word of God (Romans 1:19-20). My question is, why would conditions be any different during antediluvian times than today? It was so bad back then that the entire world was destroyed by the global flood and all that breathed perished (except Noah and his family). Jesus, when ask by His disciples about the sign of His coming and the end of the age, said in Matthew 24:37, "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."
The Tower of Babel
Various articles can be accessed at Answers In Genesis by following this link here.
Genesis 11 is the account of the Tower of Babel. We learn that the whole world had one language. That language had to be an early form of Hebrew. Nimrod is a grandson of Ham through Cush his son therefore a great grandson of Noah. Nimrod is described as a mighty hunter and is portrayed as an evil leader. The people refused to follow the commandment to spread out and populate the earth. They wanted to remain in the area called Shinar and worse still they wanted to build a tower that descends to the heavens claiming that they could stay in the area. They wanted to make a name for themselves or to say they wanted to be cohesive and famous. Their false religion was astrology. This involves the worship of the planets, sun, moon and stars coupled with the zodiac and many other occult practices. They were interested in good luck and fortune associated with the position of various heavenly bodies and they used them as signs for good and evil. You may have been to a Chinese restaurant and have seen a zodiac placemat. Good fortune and luck go with their beliefs. This type of religion or belief system was not the original reason for the establishment of the sun, moon and stars as signs and for seasons and time telling. Today it is generally associated with eastern religions and other cult/occult practices. A reading of Genesis 1:14-19 tells us that God created the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day for signs and seasons and this form of astrology must have developed from this idea – again a form of worship of nature over God the Creator of nature.
Astrology is not to be confused with the science of astronomy, the study of the heavens.
So what happened at the Tower?
God dispersed the people much to their chagrin. This was exactly the opposite of what the people wanted and He did it by changing the language of the people. Different language groups of peoples developed. Each group had its own family characteristics and genes which explains why we see various types of people in the world and whole families of similar characteristics and appearance in their own areas. God didn't necessarily change the people, just their respective languages. They are not races as my page titled "Races - Are They For Real?"explains and we should not forget as I said previously we all descended from Adam and Eve. The idea of building a tower and much of the same type of religion went with the dispersion from the Tower. It followed along with many people groups with their common language. Variations of this original ancient astrology religion thus developed all over the world.
What about the Hebrews?
Shem, one of Noah’s sons, had a great grandson named Eber and along with his son Peleg both refused to be involved in the Tower of Babel and its false religion of astrology. They maintained the Hebrew language and were not dispersed greatly as others. You can read this lineage of Shem in Genesis 11. Some attribute Eber and Peleg as the fathers of Modern Hebrew. See this article in Hebrew 4 Christians.
What about Evolution and an Old Earth?
The idea of evolution is not new. Some think it all started with Charles Darwin but that is not the case. Various forms of beliefs in evolution and an old earth have been proposed well before Charles Darwin.One form of evolution is that all things continue or change at a somewhat uniform rate since the world came into existence (2 Peter 3:4). This is called Uniformitarianism and totally disregards the Global Flood Account as recorded in Genesis 6-9.
Uniformitarianism also denies the Biblical Creation Account. Did you read that verse in 2 Peter? Even the idea of Uniformitarianism isn't new! Peter described it exactly! The word cataclysm (Greek word kataklysmon and Hebrew word hamabul) is used to describe the global flood as destruction of the earth and all living that breathed the breath of life except Noah and his family (8 total) and the animals. This account is left out of secular man's beliefs. In other words, they willfully ignore the Scriptures (II Peter 3:16).
An old earth being millions of years old and an old universe being billions of years old are absolutely necessary for those who believe in evolution. The Bible Believing Christian who has read and understands the first eleven chapters of Genesis should never compromise the Gospel by believing in any form of uniformitarianism, evolution or an old earth. The genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are accurate and show a complete dating from Adam to Abraham given in years and this time frame is in total opposition to the old earth idea. Refer to the page titled "Age Chart - Adam to Joseph." Trying to insert longer ages with large amounts of years into the Scripture is a violation of God’s Inerrant Word. We can see that the earth has to be thousands of years old and around 6000 years at that. Evolutionists say that science proves an old earth through the fossil evidence but they are mixing historical science with observational science and calling it truth. The word science means knowledge. Not all man-made science statements are true science. An article by the founder of the Institute for Creation Research shows the errors of relying on fossil evidence to prove evolution and an old earth by clicking here.
The Bible gives us the historical record of age and to dispute the record is tantamount to calling the Scriptures false and God a liar. To say that we descended from a lower form of life also violates the written record of Adam and Eve being created in God’s Image and Likeness. Furthermore, the Bible clearly states that no death had occurred until the fall of man in Genesis 3. See Romans 5:12 and Romans 5:14 concerning death and when it started. As I stated previously, God created a perfect world (Genesis 1:31) and to die is not considered perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Who wants to die? Who wants to suffer? If Adam and Eve had never sinned and we had never sinned as well then we today would live forever. Check out the Tree of Life that grew alongside the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:8-9). Eating from the Tree of Life meant living forever (Genesis 3:22-24) and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil meant death (Genesis 2:15-17).
So what does a belief in evolution mean? The theory of evolution along with the belief of an old earth is a religion! It is a form of philosophy and man's secular worldview that is not based on any observable scientific evidence. It is based entirely on man’s imagination and total disregard of Scripture as revealed to us by our Loving Creator God. Please don't forget this includes belief in an old earth as well. It is totally impossible to fit long ages into the first eleven chapters of Genesis or anywhere into the Creation account found in the first two chapters, period! It is a question of God’s authority as given in the Scriptures or man’s fallible ideas trying to impose his own authority. Belief in evolution is a philosophy and is not based on science because it cannot be proved. Someone will say that a belief in creationism is a philosophy and is not based on science. Christians should never treat creationism as a philosophy because we have the Word of God. Evolutionists have no written records about the beginning to substantiate their fanciful theories. Let me propose if God created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo), then He must have been responsible for the creation of science - remember that science means knowledge. God has all knowledge and we have little so that is what we use science for - we make discoveries.
Both evolution and the Bible insist for us to choose one over the other. We cannot have both or even a little mix of each. These two beliefs are totally polar opposite to each other.
Science does not oppose God or His Word.
But wait, those aren't really 24-hour Days in Genesis 1!
The Hebrew for day is yom. Yom is used over 2000 times in the Old Testament. The form of writing in Genesis 1 is no different than anywhere else as we understand the meaning of day. It is true that the word day can mean other lengths of time and that is common in virtually all languages in the world. The special wording for each day of creation is that yom is used with erev and boker which means evening and morning and along with each day out of six being numbered as one to six. That is abundantly clear as to the meaning. These are actual 24-hour days and nothing else needs to be added or taken away from the meaning. There is actually a seventh day mentioned in Genesis 2. This is our 6-day work week with one day of rest and a look at the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 tells us that specifically when mentioning the six days of creation and a seventh for rest. The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath Day Holy (seventh day) and the other six are included in these verses.
Early Idol Worship
Whether idol worship occurred any time before the Global Flood around 1656 years after the beginning of creation is not clear but very suspect. What is certain after the Flood is recorded in Joshua 24:2. Terah, the Father of Abraham was an idol worshiper and his birth and death are recorded in Genesis 11:24-32.
What does the origin of religions have to do with our own origins or where we came from? The answer we need for this question is because religion has shaped our individual cultures; mostly for the bad from incorrect forms of worship and false religions. Different parts of the world have different religions and it is interesting to see how religion has affected the development and living conditions from where we originated. This article is not an attempt to analyze all forms of religions and their exact origins. The concentration is mainly from the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Refer to the page titled Age Chart – Adam to Joseph at any time while in this article.
Our Original Parents
In the introduction paragraphs of this website, I discussed our ancestors. Our primary ancestors are Adam and Eve, our original parents. Look at Genesis 3:20 and it plainly states that Eve is the mother of all living. It did not say the mother of some as secularists or those that distort the Scriptures would lead us to believe. Evolutionists and secularists usually don’t believe that Adam and Eve ever even existed anyway. Even Christians that try to mix some or all of evolutionary ideas with the Scripture should have trouble with Genesis 3:20. The Scripture is very straightforward in its meaning. We did not originate from any other source or by natural causes. No other form of man existed before Adam and Eve. Also, our original ancestors Adam and Eve did not live millions or billions of years ago - thousands is the correct answer.
Adam and Eve were created in the Image and Likeness of God and so are we (Genesis 1:26-27). We are distinct and totally separate from the rest of God’s living creatures. Refer to Genesis 2:18-20. We see from these verses how Adam, the man, is totally different from other creatures and we also see the creation of a helper for Adam called Eve, the woman. They are to be man and wife. See the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:3-6 concerning marriage.
Our Original Parents actually had the First Religion
Before sin entered the world through man's disobedience (Genesis 3), Adam and Eve had fellowship with Our Creator God (Elohim) on what should have been a daily basis. This sounds to me like a form of religion in which both worshiped Elohim even though it was a fellowship. This was a positive and correct form of religion. Also this was a perfect form of communication with God we have lost because of man's sin.
Our Other Ancestors
The next ancestors I cover are how the nations got their start in Genesis 10. This involves the three sons of Noah. After reading Genesis 10 called the Table of Nations, you should have a general idea from which of the three sons of Noah you primarily originated. We can also be mixed from these three sons. Refer to the page in this website titled Table of Nations.
False Religion
Now we need to discuss false religion. Religion is generally defined as man attempting to honor and believe in some form of deity or higher power. Some forms of religion consist of worship of the spirit world and even ancestor worship. Religion can also have a pattern of worship in something not living as in the case of idol worship of an inanimate object (Habakkuk 2:19;Romans 1:22-23). Over centuries, man has tried to worship nature as well – see Romans 1:24-25. These last two verses in Romans show how we tend to place more importance over God’s creation than Him as God the Creator. We owe our very existence to and origin from God our Creator.
A Classic Example of Nature Worship
Many modern day environmentalists who go to the extreme and many activists who want to protect the earth at all costs can be considered as “nature worshipers.” Others are duped into following this cause not knowing that they are supporting a religion. Again see Romans 1:24-25. This form of religion is not new and existed in ancient civilizations.
Fall of Man – did he create the First False Religion?
In Genesis 3, the fall of man is covered. First, you have to understand that God’s Creation was perfect (Genesis 1:31). In this last verse of Genesis 1, God says “It was very good.” Would a God who is capable of creating everything from nothing (ex nihilo) be anything less than perfect (Matthew 5:48 and James 1:17)? If everything was perfect, then Adam and Eve were once perfect. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s simple commandment to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. By eating of this tree, they became evil and so did we – sorry, there is no one good except God Himself (Romans 3:23).
The Image and Likeness of God
Let us analyze what it means to be created in the Image and Likeness of God. God has His Divine Will and can choose what, where and when He desires to do something. That simply means since we are created in His Image and Likeness that we can also choose because we are given our own wills. Of course, we don't have the abilities that God has. It should be obvious to all that not all choices we make are good. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and were more interested in doing their own thing. Have you ever heard the expression, “Do your own thing as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else?” The problem is when our original parents sinned we followed in sin also (Psalm 51:5). You might not call this disobedience a religion in the grand sense but Adam and Eve were more interested in themselves than in God. Sound familiar today? Basically after eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their eyes were opened and they knew good and evil (Genesis 3:22-23). They wanted to be their “own gods.” Now who were they worshiping? Themselves! They became their own religion.
Problems Continue
Right after the Fall of Man we read in Genesis 4 about the first murder. Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve killed their second son Abel in a jealous prideful fit of rage over a sacrifice to God of all things. What was Cain’s problem? Pride and self-worship sound like good answers. The descendants of Cain seem to fit in nicely with the ideas of pride, anger, self-worship and self-reliance in successive verses in Chapter 4.
The Reasons for the Global Flood
In the previous paragraph I discussed the first murder and the descendants of Cain. Mankind became so perverse and violent that only one man and his family was left that found favor in God's eyes (Genesis 6). This is difficult to imagine that only eight were saved by water on an ark (I Peter 3:20), but that is the precise language from the Scriptures. All the rest of mankind and animals that were not taken on the ark were blotted out and the earth itself was destroyed (Genesis 6-9).
Since we are told that mankind was perverse and filled with evil and evil thoughts continually, there is the distinct possibility that many false religions existed. Satan worship must have been top on the list. Immorality and sexual perversion was rampart. Couple this with demon possession due to the free reign of Satan and his fallen angels and the problem was incredible. All this happens when people willing refuse to believe in God and to follow his commandments. The willingness to not believe in the One True God, our Creator, is why we have so many false religions and cults today. Some might ask about atheists. Atheism can be called a type of religion because of the faith it takes to believe in no God even when confronted with huge amounts of evidence and the Word of God (Romans 1:19-20). My question is, why would conditions be any different during antediluvian times than today? It was so bad back then that the entire world was destroyed by the global flood and all that breathed perished (except Noah and his family). Jesus, when ask by His disciples about the sign of His coming and the end of the age, said in Matthew 24:37, "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."
The Tower of Babel
Various articles can be accessed at Answers In Genesis by following this link here.
Genesis 11 is the account of the Tower of Babel. We learn that the whole world had one language. That language had to be an early form of Hebrew. Nimrod is a grandson of Ham through Cush his son therefore a great grandson of Noah. Nimrod is described as a mighty hunter and is portrayed as an evil leader. The people refused to follow the commandment to spread out and populate the earth. They wanted to remain in the area called Shinar and worse still they wanted to build a tower that descends to the heavens claiming that they could stay in the area. They wanted to make a name for themselves or to say they wanted to be cohesive and famous. Their false religion was astrology. This involves the worship of the planets, sun, moon and stars coupled with the zodiac and many other occult practices. They were interested in good luck and fortune associated with the position of various heavenly bodies and they used them as signs for good and evil. You may have been to a Chinese restaurant and have seen a zodiac placemat. Good fortune and luck go with their beliefs. This type of religion or belief system was not the original reason for the establishment of the sun, moon and stars as signs and for seasons and time telling. Today it is generally associated with eastern religions and other cult/occult practices. A reading of Genesis 1:14-19 tells us that God created the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day for signs and seasons and this form of astrology must have developed from this idea – again a form of worship of nature over God the Creator of nature.
Astrology is not to be confused with the science of astronomy, the study of the heavens.
So what happened at the Tower?
God dispersed the people much to their chagrin. This was exactly the opposite of what the people wanted and He did it by changing the language of the people. Different language groups of peoples developed. Each group had its own family characteristics and genes which explains why we see various types of people in the world and whole families of similar characteristics and appearance in their own areas. God didn't necessarily change the people, just their respective languages. They are not races as my page titled "Races - Are They For Real?"explains and we should not forget as I said previously we all descended from Adam and Eve. The idea of building a tower and much of the same type of religion went with the dispersion from the Tower. It followed along with many people groups with their common language. Variations of this original ancient astrology religion thus developed all over the world.
What about the Hebrews?
Shem, one of Noah’s sons, had a great grandson named Eber and along with his son Peleg both refused to be involved in the Tower of Babel and its false religion of astrology. They maintained the Hebrew language and were not dispersed greatly as others. You can read this lineage of Shem in Genesis 11. Some attribute Eber and Peleg as the fathers of Modern Hebrew. See this article in Hebrew 4 Christians.
What about Evolution and an Old Earth?
The idea of evolution is not new. Some think it all started with Charles Darwin but that is not the case. Various forms of beliefs in evolution and an old earth have been proposed well before Charles Darwin.One form of evolution is that all things continue or change at a somewhat uniform rate since the world came into existence (2 Peter 3:4). This is called Uniformitarianism and totally disregards the Global Flood Account as recorded in Genesis 6-9.
Uniformitarianism also denies the Biblical Creation Account. Did you read that verse in 2 Peter? Even the idea of Uniformitarianism isn't new! Peter described it exactly! The word cataclysm (Greek word kataklysmon and Hebrew word hamabul) is used to describe the global flood as destruction of the earth and all living that breathed the breath of life except Noah and his family (8 total) and the animals. This account is left out of secular man's beliefs. In other words, they willfully ignore the Scriptures (II Peter 3:16).
An old earth being millions of years old and an old universe being billions of years old are absolutely necessary for those who believe in evolution. The Bible Believing Christian who has read and understands the first eleven chapters of Genesis should never compromise the Gospel by believing in any form of uniformitarianism, evolution or an old earth. The genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are accurate and show a complete dating from Adam to Abraham given in years and this time frame is in total opposition to the old earth idea. Refer to the page titled "Age Chart - Adam to Joseph." Trying to insert longer ages with large amounts of years into the Scripture is a violation of God’s Inerrant Word. We can see that the earth has to be thousands of years old and around 6000 years at that. Evolutionists say that science proves an old earth through the fossil evidence but they are mixing historical science with observational science and calling it truth. The word science means knowledge. Not all man-made science statements are true science. An article by the founder of the Institute for Creation Research shows the errors of relying on fossil evidence to prove evolution and an old earth by clicking here.
The Bible gives us the historical record of age and to dispute the record is tantamount to calling the Scriptures false and God a liar. To say that we descended from a lower form of life also violates the written record of Adam and Eve being created in God’s Image and Likeness. Furthermore, the Bible clearly states that no death had occurred until the fall of man in Genesis 3. See Romans 5:12 and Romans 5:14 concerning death and when it started. As I stated previously, God created a perfect world (Genesis 1:31) and to die is not considered perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Who wants to die? Who wants to suffer? If Adam and Eve had never sinned and we had never sinned as well then we today would live forever. Check out the Tree of Life that grew alongside the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:8-9). Eating from the Tree of Life meant living forever (Genesis 3:22-24) and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil meant death (Genesis 2:15-17).
So what does a belief in evolution mean? The theory of evolution along with the belief of an old earth is a religion! It is a form of philosophy and man's secular worldview that is not based on any observable scientific evidence. It is based entirely on man’s imagination and total disregard of Scripture as revealed to us by our Loving Creator God. Please don't forget this includes belief in an old earth as well. It is totally impossible to fit long ages into the first eleven chapters of Genesis or anywhere into the Creation account found in the first two chapters, period! It is a question of God’s authority as given in the Scriptures or man’s fallible ideas trying to impose his own authority. Belief in evolution is a philosophy and is not based on science because it cannot be proved. Someone will say that a belief in creationism is a philosophy and is not based on science. Christians should never treat creationism as a philosophy because we have the Word of God. Evolutionists have no written records about the beginning to substantiate their fanciful theories. Let me propose if God created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo), then He must have been responsible for the creation of science - remember that science means knowledge. God has all knowledge and we have little so that is what we use science for - we make discoveries.
Both evolution and the Bible insist for us to choose one over the other. We cannot have both or even a little mix of each. These two beliefs are totally polar opposite to each other.
Science does not oppose God or His Word.
But wait, those aren't really 24-hour Days in Genesis 1!
The Hebrew for day is yom. Yom is used over 2000 times in the Old Testament. The form of writing in Genesis 1 is no different than anywhere else as we understand the meaning of day. It is true that the word day can mean other lengths of time and that is common in virtually all languages in the world. The special wording for each day of creation is that yom is used with erev and boker which means evening and morning and along with each day out of six being numbered as one to six. That is abundantly clear as to the meaning. These are actual 24-hour days and nothing else needs to be added or taken away from the meaning. There is actually a seventh day mentioned in Genesis 2. This is our 6-day work week with one day of rest and a look at the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 tells us that specifically when mentioning the six days of creation and a seventh for rest. The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath Day Holy (seventh day) and the other six are included in these verses.
Early Idol Worship
Whether idol worship occurred any time before the Global Flood around 1656 years after the beginning of creation is not clear but very suspect. What is certain after the Flood is recorded in Joshua 24:2. Terah, the Father of Abraham was an idol worshiper and his birth and death are recorded in Genesis 11:24-32.