"The first man, Adam, was made a living being. The last Adam, a life-giving spirit." Inspired by these words from 1 Corinthians 15, we consider what must a Catholic believe regarding the account of the six days of creation, and especially the creation of Adam and Eve, and the fall.
All that the Bible intends to teach, must be true and without error -- this includes even those historical and scientific truths which the human authors intended to relate through the Scriptures. However, we might be surprised to realize that certain difficult passages have been interpreted in very unique ways by the Church Fathers and Doctors over the ages. We consider specifically the account of the six days of Creation, which St Augustine insists is not a matter of six 24 hour periods, nor even less six million years - rather, the "six days" is a metaphor by which Moses is writing of the "six ways" that God revealed the work of Creation to the angels.
In fact, St Augustine's theory of creation maintained that the universe was created all in one moment, but in a much simpler form - and that the universe developed through the (billions of) years with various species of animals coming forth at different times etc. While this is not the theory of evolution, it is a very advanced and even "scientific" theory which completely avoids the typical modern criticisms against the Christian doctrine of creation.
We discuss further why, even though we need not believe the world was created in six days, we must still believe that God created man, and that there were two specific first parents from whom the whole human race has come. Further, it was the fall of the first man, Adam, which placed us all under the burden of original sin.
Listen online [here]!
