eliever in revelation, thinking that the agreement between science and
the Bible must be minute, has yielded to the temptation to twist the
biblical record into a new meaning with every fresh discovery of
science. Many scientists were repelled by this arbitrary method, and
when they saw that agreement could not be had by legitimate methods,
and knew of no other way out of the difficulty, they too frequently
assumed a hostile attitude toward revelation. A method leading to such
disastrous results cannot be considered altogether satisfactory.

Granting, however, for the sake of argument, the possibility of
interpreting "day" metaphorically, the troubles are by no means ended,
for it is impossible to discover clearly defined periods in the
geological records such as are presupposed in the biblical record. But
there is a more serious {47} difficulty. The order in which the
different living beings and the heavenly bodies are said in Genesis to
have been created does not seem to be the same as that suggested by
geology and astronomy. For example, according to Genesis, fishes and
birds appeared together on the fifth day, preceding all land animals,
which are said to have been created on the sixth day. According to
geology, fish and numerous species of land animals, especially reptiles
living on land, preceded birds.[11] Moreover, according to Genesis,
the sun, moon, and stars were created after the earth, a view which is
altogether inconsistent with the modern scientific view of the
universe, and of the part the sun plays in plant and animal life upon
earth. True, this last difficulty is avoided by some by giving to
certain Hebrew words a meaning which they do not ordinarily have. For
example, it is said, "Let there be" (verse 14) means "Let there
appear"; "God made" (verse 16) means "God made to appear," or "God
appointed," to a specific office. With this interpretation, it is
stated, Genesis says nothing about the formation or creation of the
luminaries. They may have existed for a long time, only on the fourth
day they were made to appear--the vapor around the earth having
previously hidden them--and were appointed to the offices mentioned in
verses 14 to 18. No one will claim that this is a natural {48}
interpretation of the biblical language. If the writer meant "Let
there appear," he could have found a suitable word in Hebrew, as also
to express the idea "appoint." The language of Driver is not too
strong: