The word "day" has a broad meaning. Look it up. It has many definitions besides "24 hours". So why believe literally that God created the earth at the same time as the rest of the universe and before the star that we orbit around was created (which is nonsensical) and in 6 standard present time earth days. I use the term ‘present time’ earth days because originally in the early development of our solar system, the earth’s days were only 6 hours long until a planet or large asteroid collided with the earth and the moon was formed from the debris. After the moon was formed and began slowly pulling away from the earth, the gravitational pull between the two bodies slowed the earth’s days to 24 hours, more or less.
The early days of our solar system were quite chaotic then which is why we still have so many asteroids and so much other debris in space. The planets themselves are formed from stellar debris from the stars they orbit around, which in turn are slowly formed from nebular debris.
These are facts, as well as viable theories. Google them or watch some nature, science and astronomy shows on TV now and then. They are informative and explain so much about how nature and our universe work in a logical and rational manner.
Then there are numerous other words and phrases that fundamentalists take literally as well such as God literally rather than figuratively, ‘speaking’ the universe into existence. They seem to forget when the Bible was written and who its illiterate audience was. If the writers of the Bible tried to explain in modern day terms how God actually created the universe no one back then would have known what they were talking about.
Of course, personally I believe that the writers of the Bible were inspired by their belief in God, rather than supernaturally inspired by God directly.
That is not the nature of God. God does not override our free will, no matter what.
God does not magically put his thoughts into our heads and tell us what to write.
I believe in God, yes, but I also believe in the accumulated knowledge of modern day scientists. We don’t have TV, computers and space exploration because scientists are stupid. If fundamentalists ran the world for the last 2000 years we would have hardly advanced technologically or humanistic- ally since then. We would be superstitious barbarians living in mud huts.
By the way- DO fundamentalists ever watch science, nature and astronomy shows on TV? It sure doesn’t seem like it, which is a shame. These shows are quite fascinating and if you keep an open mind, as I do, they are even quite uplifting. I think to myself- "amazing! So that’s how God did it".
