1. Christian Creation Story
Look at the days. What problems are there with taking it literally?
Day 1: Light & dark, day and night
Day 2:
Seas
& sky
Day 3: Dry land and plants
Day 4: Sun
moon stars seasons
years (time)
Day 5: Fish
and birds
Day 6: Animals and humans
Day 7: God rested

2. There are different ways of understanding the creation story: not just the literal. Read the info on the posters, and for each poster, complete your table.
Problem
Literal way of understanding this
Metaphorical way of understanding
What is your answer to the question?
How can the light come before the sun?
Why does all-powerful God have to rest?
How can everything be made in 7 days?
Is God the creator of it all?

3. Which Came First?
According to the story, light was separated from the darkness on Day 1. However, the sun, which is where we get our light from, was not made until day 4? How can a day exist on Day 1, if time did not exist until Day 4?
Answer 1:
Some believe God can do absolutely anything (omnipotent). If God is omnipotent he can make light appear without the sun, he made the sun to look after the light.
Answer 2:
The story of creation is a poem that tells of a wonderful creation made by God, told in seven verses. This part of the story could have a spiritual meaning eg that God decided that there would be a clear difference between good and evil, or between His truth and light, from darkness.
Write down the 2 answers. Then explain what you think.

4. Does God Need to Rest?
God is supposed to be able to do absolutely anything. The word for being this powerful is omnipotent.
But if God is omnipotent, would he really feel tired and need to rest?
Write down the 2 answers. Then explain what you think.
People already believed in a day of rest, when this story of creation was written down. So they wrote it into the story. It is good to have a day when you don’t work and when you spend time with family.
God did sort of “rest” as an example to us – but not because He had to. He wanted us to spend the seventh (Sabbath) day, enjoying and praising Him for His work of creation, like He did.

5. Was It Really 7 Days?
God can do anything, and did put everything on earth exactly as it is today, in 7x24hrs. Animals were placed on earth, fully grow. The Bible does not talk about things “changing” or evolving.
In the Hebrew language (the Bible was first written in Hebrew) the word used for ‘day’ was ‘yom’ - this word also means ‘age’. So this story is not meant as a diary account over seven days, but as a poetic way of saying that God created the earth over several long ages. There is a surprising match with the scientific view when you see it this way.
Write down the 2 answers. Then explain what you think.

6. Was It Really God who created it?
God made…oceans, stars, trees, animals… and “God saw that it was good”.
Does this mean that God can do anything, He was the one who put the first mammals and fish etc fully grown. He made plants grow before there was sunlight. This is because God can do anything.
Other people say that God made everything – but not “by miracle” but by evolution, Big Bang and all the other ways that science has discovered. However, since nothing can start from nothing, he did make the beginning possible, and designed the universe to develop as it would.
Write down 2 different ways of understanding how God is the creator.

7. Now that you have completed your table, conclude:
How right/ wrong is the Creation story?
Is it literally, scientifically correct?
Is it metaphorically true?
Is it not true in any way at all?
What is the best way to understand the Creation stories?
**Is this Creation story similar to reading fiction? How/ why?

8. Big Bang & Evolution
So the Creation story tells us that a good God is the reason why there is a world.
But science tells us exactly how it all happened.
The Big Bang: how the universe with all the stars and planets appeared
Evolution: how life on earth appeared and became the way it is today.
Draw 2 pictures to explain the difference between what the Big Bang theory is about, and what Evolution is about.