He just “upgraded” the brains of the existing humans. So we are the result of a 2-step process, not just 1-step.
Could be.
Even many evolutionists have used the idea of slow and gradual change, and then something big happens to give the life-form a change.
See punctuated equilibrium (things are pretty constant for most of the time and then a big change) and the “hopeful monster” theory.
The evolutionists see it happening by chance and environment, but so many mutations have to happen at the same time it points to a Designer.
Genesis is not a science book, but it gives some pretty interesting descriptions of how everything was created which match much of what we see in science. I wonder how many creation stories have humans being made first and then the world is created for them?
The word “day” in the Hebrew can also refer to an “age”. Like “back in the day of the dinosaurs...”
I’m open to most theories when it comes to God’s creation.
Our pastor is along the lines that I think, but he is also open to the idea of actual 24-hour days and gives scripture for that. He said something like “And, while I think the fossil record makes sense the way we commonly understand it, if God wanted to - He could have made the earth LOOK that old from the very beginning. He created Adam “old”, as a full-grown mature adult.” I thought that was an interesting take on it.
I hadn’t thought of the similarity between my idea and punctuated equilibrium. Your mention of “many mutations” reminds me of an argument against a natural origin of Covid-19.
I didn’t know about the “hopeful monster” theory.
I did know that “day” in Hebrew could mean a long period of time. And in this connection I would quote the Bible: “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”.
Your pastor’s thoughts mirror mine: God COULD have created the world in just 1 week, but done so in such a way that no matter what tests we did, we would think it had taken billions of years. But I hadn’t thought of the analogy of Adam being created as a “ full-grown mature adult”.