1. The sequence of events from the creation of the universe, to the present, begin with great explosion that produces the universe, including the earth. The earth cools enough for oceans to form. The first life is plant life, able to photosynthesize, and add oxygen to the atmosphere. All sorts of simple non-plants fill the seas, most wormlike, with soft bodies. Along come the trilobites, hugely advanced, with hard bodies
and most amazingly, with true eyes! This makes them the primary predators
.but, imposes enormous evolutionary pressure on the other organisms. The result is the Cambrian explosion, lots of small organisms with defensive armor and hard exoskeletons, some 521 million years ago. So says modern science.
2. Then, a lot happens in the most recent 500 million years. A lot! There are tons of invertebrates (mollusks and arthropods) and some fish, the vertebrates, appear. The Ordovician Period was also characterized by the intense diversification (an increase in the number of species) of marine animal life in what became known as the Ordovician radiation. This event precipitated the appearance of almost every modern phylum .The end of the Ordovician was heralded by a mass extinction, the second largest in Earth history.
Ordovician Period (geochronology) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
3. Not only was animal life far more diverse, but the organisms were far larger than the diminutive forms of the Cambrian. A Giant Orthocone was a nautilus that resembled a squid in an ice-cream cone They existed 470-440 million years ago in the Ordivician period They had crushing tentacles at up to 6 feet long and ate anything it could, including sea scorpions. It was the top predator of the Ordivician seas. Giant orthocone - Sea Monsters Wiki
a. The development of skeletons favored larger and larger predators. With an estimated size reaching 10 meters and its powerful crushing jaws, Dunkleosteus was the top predator of its time, the Late Devonian.
Dunkleosteus terrelli - Palaeocritti - a guide to prehistoric animals
4. The Carboniferous and Permian, 300 million years ago, saw changes from fish, to amphibians, to reptiles. Walking between the early trees of these periods were the dinosaurs. And some tiny mammals.
5. Does the science agree with the biblical ordering?
20 And God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky. 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
a. water teem with living creatures and great creatures meaning big, and teeming, meaning variety.
Seems the author of Genesis hit the nail on the head.
6. An interesting sidelight is the evolution of the Bible itself. Christians have incorporated a great deal of sciences process. Early in the 20th century, the Scofield Reference Bible was published. This was a new version of the King James Bible with which added a note to Genesis, suggesting what is called the gap theory. It allows that millions of years could have passed between Gods creation of the heavens and the earth, thereby freeing Genesis from the literal six-day process. What it left was a series- the same series- of timeless events; and it is these that match the scientific account of lifes history.
Parker, The Genesis Enigma, p. 160.
a. The Scofield Reference Bible containing the traditional Protestant King James Version of the Bible, it first appeared in 1909 and was revised by the author in 1917 . which advocated the "gap theory," fundamentalists began a serious internal debate about the nature and chronology of creation. Scofield Reference Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
b. The gap theory is not a new theory. It was first introduced in 1814 by Scottish theologianThomas Chalmers in an attempt to reconcile the six-day biblical creation account with the newly defined geologic ages being set forth by leading geologists of that era.
What Is The Gap Theory - Exploring Gap Creationism, The Ruin-Reconstruction Theory
7. Genesis shows remarkable accuracy when compared to the scientific story of lifes evolutionary journey. Here, the Genesis writer envisioned great creatures evolving from those tiny Cambrian forms, eventually making their way out of the sea .Genesis seems to have picked out all the events of the highest order of importance, and put them in the right order .
I dont know the odds against such a parallel- against making a successful guess at the scientific orthodoxy of three thousand year into the future from a knowledge base of nothing- but they must be extraordinarily long.
Parker, Op. Cit., p.163-164.
"...a successful guess at the scientific orthodoxy of three thousand year into the future..."
...or, divine intervention?
2. Then, a lot happens in the most recent 500 million years. A lot! There are tons of invertebrates (mollusks and arthropods) and some fish, the vertebrates, appear. The Ordovician Period was also characterized by the intense diversification (an increase in the number of species) of marine animal life in what became known as the Ordovician radiation. This event precipitated the appearance of almost every modern phylum .The end of the Ordovician was heralded by a mass extinction, the second largest in Earth history.
Ordovician Period (geochronology) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
3. Not only was animal life far more diverse, but the organisms were far larger than the diminutive forms of the Cambrian. A Giant Orthocone was a nautilus that resembled a squid in an ice-cream cone They existed 470-440 million years ago in the Ordivician period They had crushing tentacles at up to 6 feet long and ate anything it could, including sea scorpions. It was the top predator of the Ordivician seas. Giant orthocone - Sea Monsters Wiki
a. The development of skeletons favored larger and larger predators. With an estimated size reaching 10 meters and its powerful crushing jaws, Dunkleosteus was the top predator of its time, the Late Devonian.
Dunkleosteus terrelli - Palaeocritti - a guide to prehistoric animals
4. The Carboniferous and Permian, 300 million years ago, saw changes from fish, to amphibians, to reptiles. Walking between the early trees of these periods were the dinosaurs. And some tiny mammals.
5. Does the science agree with the biblical ordering?
20 And God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky. 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
a. water teem with living creatures and great creatures meaning big, and teeming, meaning variety.
Seems the author of Genesis hit the nail on the head.
6. An interesting sidelight is the evolution of the Bible itself. Christians have incorporated a great deal of sciences process. Early in the 20th century, the Scofield Reference Bible was published. This was a new version of the King James Bible with which added a note to Genesis, suggesting what is called the gap theory. It allows that millions of years could have passed between Gods creation of the heavens and the earth, thereby freeing Genesis from the literal six-day process. What it left was a series- the same series- of timeless events; and it is these that match the scientific account of lifes history.
Parker, The Genesis Enigma, p. 160.
a. The Scofield Reference Bible containing the traditional Protestant King James Version of the Bible, it first appeared in 1909 and was revised by the author in 1917 . which advocated the "gap theory," fundamentalists began a serious internal debate about the nature and chronology of creation. Scofield Reference Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
b. The gap theory is not a new theory. It was first introduced in 1814 by Scottish theologianThomas Chalmers in an attempt to reconcile the six-day biblical creation account with the newly defined geologic ages being set forth by leading geologists of that era.
What Is The Gap Theory - Exploring Gap Creationism, The Ruin-Reconstruction Theory
7. Genesis shows remarkable accuracy when compared to the scientific story of lifes evolutionary journey. Here, the Genesis writer envisioned great creatures evolving from those tiny Cambrian forms, eventually making their way out of the sea .Genesis seems to have picked out all the events of the highest order of importance, and put them in the right order .
I dont know the odds against such a parallel- against making a successful guess at the scientific orthodoxy of three thousand year into the future from a knowledge base of nothing- but they must be extraordinarily long.
Parker, Op. Cit., p.163-164.
"...a successful guess at the scientific orthodoxy of three thousand year into the future..."
...or, divine intervention?
