Sorry for the delay in responding, first work got in the way and even I sleep sometimes! Bit tired and groggy still (no longer allowed to drink coffee, so waking is a chore some mornings!), so, once more, please forgive any formatting errors or misunderstandings.
You wrote, “God may have pulled the biggest practical joke on us of all time.” I’m not following you. What would the “joke” be? That He really did create “all this” in less than a week?
Let us say, for a second, that the universe and all that was in it were created in 6 24 hour periods, about 6000 years ago, with a rest of 24 hours before God created man. Sure, He could certainly do so. He is, after all, the Creator.
Yet why does all the evidence we can find - millions of man years of work by the most gifted minds - show everything as much, much older? Would the Lord headfake us like that? Plant false clues to lead us astray? I just can’t see that.
Sure, he has been known to be evasive from time to time - “I am who I am” springs to mind - but I can’t think of a single instance when either God himself or our Saviour lied.
“From your response, I take it that you don’t believe there was an Adam.”
No where have I said that, or indeed implied it. The fall is a fundamental part of the creed, one I believe with all my heart. I just wish to discuss that in the next chapter.
Your responses, and others, are REALLY helping with Genesis 2, showing me areas I still need to examine.
Thank you for that! Some, I honestly doubt I’ll be able to answer. No one person can comprehend everything, but the research is fascinating in its own right.
Hm. I sincerely mean nothing personal, but maybe you shouldn't be formulating such strong views about creation if you've got the fundamentals so wrong. The Creator did not rest before making Man.
If you affirm at some time in your theory that God created Adam from the dust, then I have to ask: Did God create him with the appearance of age? If so, was that somehow deceptive? Was he leading anyone astray by creating him with the appearance of age? Was Adam's having been created with the appearance of age a "headfake"? Did God create anything else with the appearance of age, as He did with Adam, and Eve?
You're right that God has never lied. But He has "deceived" people, in a sense. Jesus spoke in parables in order that some might understand, and others not understand (see Matthew 13).
Or consider Luke 24, where Jesus makes that He's unaware of the crucifixion, and then in verse 28 Jesus acts as though He's going to the next village, when all along He knew He'd be going with the two disciples to Emmaus.
Anyway, I just don't see how you'll be able to affirm Adam and "the fall," while at the same time affirming evolution. I just do not see how it can be done.