The Lord: So, around fifteen billion years ago I got around to creating the universe. Within the first one billionth of a second, I had the fundamental forces established, such as nuclear forces, gravitation, and electro-magnetism.
Moses: O Lord, what is a billion?
The Lord: Ah, a billion is a one followed by nine zeroes.
Moses: O Lord, what then, is a zero?
The Lord: Hmm.
The Lord: In the beginning, I created the heavens and the earth...
To which you replied:
If thats the conversation you imagined then your lord is Gamow
I have no idea who that is. I can only assume you mean to say I am worshipping the devil. I have had favorable reactions to this in the past. The point I'm trying to illustrate through this little anecdote is the folly of trying to use scripture as a *scientific* text. I have tried to do so in a way which is respectful to science as well as faith. I am unsurpised, however, that you would characterize me as an idolator. Some people in this debate are so disagreeable, that they will try to see the worst in everything.
The bronze-age Hebrews did not have the technical language to express the same scientific concepts that we do today. I've always imagined the Lord communicating to Moses as He would a child. Why? Not because Moses was unintelligent, but because he would be expected to take things back to his people, who would in turn pass down oral history down through generations. Moses would never have been able to explain even Newton's laws, his people would never have been able to grasp the scientific concepts as we understand them today. When considering Genesis, we have to consider that the Lord was speaking with His audience in mind.
Furthermore, to belabor these minor detail misses the entire point. Genesis proclaims *that* the Lord made the universe, not *how* the Lord made the universe. For example, the famous British Orthodox Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz (1872-1946) wrote:
God the Creator and Lord of the Universe, which is the work of his goodness and wisdom; and Man, made in His image, who is to hallow his week-day labors by the blessedness of Sabbath-rest -- such are the teachings of the Creation chapter. It's purpose is to reveal these teachings to the children of man -- and not to serve as a text book of astronomy, geology, or anthropology. Its object is not to teach scientific facts; but to proclaim highest religious truths respecting God, Man, and the Universe. The "conflict" between the fundamental realities of Religion and the established facts of Science, is seen to be unreal as the soon as Religion and Science each recognizes the true border of its domain.