God said, “Let the waters under the heavens

.... be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear....  Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed. Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees that bear fruit whose seed is in itself (Genesis 1:9).  We continue observing how well the Genesis creation story fits with what is currently know from science. We saw earlier that science affirms that the earth started off as a dark water world (Genesis 1:1). Today science understand that land appeared as a result of volcanic activity and plate tectonics. From the internet “About 300 million years ago, Earth did not have seven continents, but instead one massive supercontinent called Pangaea, which was surrounded by a single ocean.” Our text also explains that the waters were gathered into one place!  And of course, the theory of continental drift explains our current atlas.

On this third creation day then, land appears and starts to bring forth seed bearing vegetation, seed-bearing plants, trees etc. These things could include any plant species that ever existed and certainly includes “the relatively primitive plant species scientists have identified as the first land vegetation” (Ross 'The Genesis Question' p. 39). The text doesn't say all land vegetation appeared at this time, but in any case, as Schaeffer points out (Genesis in Space and time), there is no claim that the Bible gives complete knowledge, only that what it gives is true!

The phrase “whose seed is in itself” is significant. Not only does life appear at this point, it is self propagating life. This is one of several radical discontinuities that proceeds to human life, the pinnacle of creation (1:27). So far we have something out of nothing, and here not just life out of non-life, but self propagating life! In terms of this latter discontinuity, the cell that makes up the building blocks of life are turning out to be far more complicated than Darwin supposed. And evolution's small and gradual change over time, has not even begun to explain the complexities that are being revealed (i.e the flagellum). Stephen Myer (Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design) quotes Darwin's thesis that we should look to things we understand, to explain things we don't. Darwin used this idea to jump from observed small changes over time, to huge changes over geological time. Using Darwin's thesis, Myer points out that the only source we know of that produces complex information, is intelligence. He suggests therefore, that only intelligence can account for the mystery of the origin of the digital information encoded along the spine of the DNA molecule.

I mentioned earlier Science's resistance to paradigm shifts (M1). Myer, in his preface, documents the resistance here.  He tells that some of the early proponents of Intelligent Design were cancelled, not because of lack of scientific rigour, but because they dared to question the status quo.

Father, there was a time that Your wisdom was also foolishness to me (1 Corinthians 1:18).  I uttered things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me (Job 42:3). But today I see great and marvellous are Your works, and Your ways past finding out (Revelation 15:3; 11:33). Help us Lord, not to loose our child like sense of wonder. It's Your glory Lord to conceal a matter, but ours to suss it out (Proverb 25:2). Help us not to be afraid of new ideas,   and give us please openness, honesty, wisdom and integrity, in Jesus Name Amen