|
of this question. Some Mistakes of Moses (c.1890)http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/some_mistakes_of_moses.htmlexcerpt (as this work in in the Public Domain, I am quoting more than 4 paragraphs) We are next informed by the historian of creation, that after
God had finished making the firmament and had succeeded in dividing
me waters by means of an "expanse" he proceeded "to gather the
waters on the earth together in seas, so that the dry land might
appear."
Certainly the writer of this did not have any conception of
the real form of the earth. He could not have known anything of the
attraction of gravitation. He must have regarded the earth as flat
and supposed that it required considerable force and power to
induce the water to leave the mountains and collect in the valleys.
Just as soon as the water was forced to run down hill, the dry land
appeared, and the grass began to grow, and the mantles of green
were thrown over the shoulders of the hills, and the trees laughed
into bud and blossom, and the branches were laden with fruit. And
all this happened before a ray had left the quiver of the sun,
before a glittering beam had thrilled the bosom of a flower, and
before the Dawn with trembling hands had drawn aside the curtains
of the East and welcomed to her arms the eager god of Day.
It does not seem to me that grass and trees could grow and
ripen into seed and fruit without the sun. According to the
account, this all happened on the third day. Now, if, as the
Christians say, Moses did not mean by the word day a period of
twenty-four hours, but an immense and almost measureless space of
time, and as God did not, according to this view make any animals
until the fifth day, that is, not for millions of years after he
made the grass and trees, for what purpose did he cause the trees
to bear fruit?
Moses says that God said on the third day, "Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the
earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose
seed was in itself after his kind; and God saw that it was good,
and the evening and the morning were the third day."
There was nothing to eat this fruit; not an insect with
painted wings sought the honey of the flowers; not a single living,
breathing thing upon the earth, plenty of grass, a great variety of
herbs, an abundance of fruit, but not a mouth in all the world. If
Moses is right, this state of things lasted only two days; but if
the modern theologians are correct, it continued for millions of
ages.
It is now well known that the organic history of the earth can
be properly divided into five epochs -- the Primordial, Primary,
Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. Each of these epochs is
characterized by animal and vegetable life peculiar to itself. In
the First will be found Algae and Skull-less Vertebrates, in the
Second, Ferns and Fishes, in the Third, Pine Forests and Reptiles,
in the Fourth, Foliaceous Forests and Mammals, and in the Fifth,
Man."
How much more reasonable this is than the idea that the earth
was covered with grass, and herbs, and trees loaded with fruit for
millions of years before an animal existed.
There is, in nature, an even balance forever kept between the
total amounts of animal and vegetable life. "In her wonderful
economy she must form and bountifully nourish her vegetable progeny
-- twin brother life to her, with that of animals. The perfect
balance between plant existences and animal existences must always
be maintained, while matter courses through the eternal circle,
becoming each in turn. If an animal be resolved into its ultimate
constituents in a period according to the surrounding
circumstances, say, of four hours, of four months, of four years,
or even of four thousand years, -- for it is impossible to deny
that there may be instances of all these periods during which the
process has continued -- those elements which assume the gaseous
form mingle at once with the atmosphere and are taken up from, it
without delay by the ever-open mouths of vegetable life. By a
thousand pores in every leaf the carbonic acid which renders the
atmosphere unfit for animal life is absorbed, the carbon being
separated, and assimilated to form the vegetable fibre, which, as
wood, makes and furnishes our houses and ships, is burned for our
warmth, or is stored up under pressure for coal. All this carbon
has played its part, and many parts in its time, as animal
existences from monad up to man. Our mahogany of to-day has been
many negroes in its turn, and before the African existed, was
integral portions of many a generation of extinct species."
It seems treasonable to suppose that certain kinds of
vegetation and certain kinds of animals should exist together, and
that as the character of the vegetation changed, a corresponding
change would take place in the animal world. It may be that I am
led to these conclusions by "total depravity" or that I lack the
necessary humility of spirit to satisfactorily harmonize Haeckel
and Moses; or that I am carried by pride, blinded by reason, given
over to hardness of heart that I might be damned, but I never can
believe that the earth was covered with leaves, and buds, and
flowers, and fruits before the sun with glittering spear had driven
back the hosts of Night.
THURSDAY.
After the world was covered with vegetation, it occurred to
Moses that it was about time to make a sun and moon; and so we are
told that on the fourth day God said, "Let there be light in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let
them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years; and let
them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night; he made the stars also.
...According to the sacred records God created, on the first day,
the heaven and the earth, "moved upon the face of the waters," and
made the light. On the second day he made the firmament or the
"expanse" and divided the waters. On the third day he gathered the
waters into seas, let the dry land appear and caused the earth to
bring forth grass, herbs and fruit trees, and on the fourth day he
made the sun, moon and stars and set them in the firmament of
heaven to give light upon the earth. This division of labor is very
striking. The work of the other days is as nothing when compared
with that of the fourth. Is it possible that it required the same
time and labor to make the grass, herbs and fruit trees, that it
did to fill with countless constellations the infinite expanse of
space?
We are then told that on the next day "God said, Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life,
and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
heaven. And God created great whales and every living creature
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and
every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And
God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."
Is it true that while the dry land was covered with grass, and
herbs, and trees bearing fruit, the ocean was absolutely devoid of
life, and so remained for millions of years?
If Moses meant twenty-four hours by the word day, then it
would make but little difference on which of the six days animals
were made; but if the word day was used to express millions of ages
during which life was slowly evolved from monad up to man, then the
account becomes infinitely absurd, puerile and foolish. There is
not a scientist of high standing who will say that in his judgment
the earth was covered with fruit-bearing trees before the moners"
the ancestors it may be of the human race, felt in Laurentian seas
the first faint throb of life. Nor is there one who will declare
that there was a single spire of grass before the sun had poured
upon the world his flood of gold.This is only a tiny excerpt from "The Mistakes of Moses". See the above link for the entire work. |
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(553 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
