In reading the book Genesis, it is hard to discern what to believe. Since there are two stories of creation, I do not know which one is correct or if either is correct because they differ in such great aspects. To make them match, you must bend the meaning of the words or look at the original translation. In a way, Genesis contradicts itself by doing this, thus leaving it to the reader to decide which one is correct.
In the first story of creation, God produces the heavens and the earth. Then God said, ?Let the land produce vegetation?.? (Gen. 1:11). God creates the plants and animals on the third day and on the sixth day, he creates man in an image of his likening. If you say in Gen. 1:11, God gave the land the ability to produce vegetation instead of saying: instantaneously the land produced vegetation, the two stories parallel each other better. According to the second story of creation, God creates man first, ?The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being? (Gen. 2:7) to work the soil so the vegetation may grow. In contradiction to the first story it says, ?No shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground.? (Gen. 2:5). God says, ?I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it? (Gen. 1:29). This quote could mean that man had the seeds for the plants from the earth and there were no plants before, the first story might match up with the second.
In this way, the bible makes it hard to believe that this is the way the earth was created. In the first book alone, it has two possibilities to what might have happened. The rest of the Bible could be the same way. I do not know this; I have yet to read the book. It is clear as mud to me on how it happened, because it describes two stories and both are not necessarily accurate. It is amazing to see how many people blindly believe in this book without actually reading it. Not saying that reading the Bible is a bad to do, but one would be advised to be knowledgeable and subjective in to what they are faithful. I did not know that there were two creation stories, and after reading it, I do not know what to believe.