Thank you for the suggestion of rewriting or scrapping the first few chapters of Genesis, “Should the first few chapters of Genesis be rewritten or better still, scrapped altogether?”
Thomas Jefferson in his bible, at least that is what I have been told, cut out or ex-out all miracles of the bible. For him, the world then and now may seem that it is incongruent with our modern science.
For one’s consideration of Genesis 1 and I have written on that point that the biblical description of Earth is more scientific accurate than one realizes. Here are some points for one’s consideration:
A. The Bible declares that there is water in the earth’s crust. Geologists now thinks there are water in the earth’s crust/manta.
“The finding, published in Science, suggests that a reservoir of water is hidden in the Earth’s mantle, more than 400 miles below the surface. … It extends deep into the Earth’s interior as the oceanic crust subducts, or slides, under adjoining plates of crust and sinks into the mantle, carrying water with it. “Is there An Ocean Below Your Feet? – Smithsonian Science …https://ssec.si.edu › stemvisions-blog › there-ocean-below-…”
B. The Bible declares that the landmass rose out of the waters. Geologists agree that through tectonic shifts or continental clashes caused the landmass to rise out of the water due to the discovery of sea life on mountain tops.
For example, “The summit of Mount Everest was actually the seafloor 470 million years ago! That’s right, the rock that comprises the “summit pyramid” or uppermost part of Mount Everest is gray limestone that was deposited on the northern continental shelf of northern India during the early to middle Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era, long before India began its northward journey towards Eurasia and the eventual collision of tectonic plates that uplifted the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. Called the “Qomolangma Limestone” by geologists, the summit rocks are well-bedded limestone (grainstone) with fragments of common Ordovician marine invertebrate shells, such as trilobites, brachiopods, ostracods and crinoids. The Qomolangma Limestone has been altered by heat, pressure and fluids that have altered the original limestone, so it is now a low-grade metamorphic rock. These rocks have been brought to the roof of the world through continual uplift caused by the collision of India and Eurasia (still on-going today), deep erosion of the Greater Himalaya, and fault displacement along the South Tibetan detachment that has tectonically placed the summit rocks over higher-grade metamorphic rocks below.”
https://www.montana.edu/everest/facts/summit-limestone.html
C. The Bible declares that the landmass was one and the climate was a warm one. Paleontologists and geologists would agree that the continents were once one land formation that broke apart. Paleontologist have discovered tropical roots on Antarctica which reflected a warm climate. The discovery is not disputed.
What is contested is the time frame whether over millions of years or in the “days” as described in Genesis 1. The order of events in Genesis 1 is quite similar to geologists and paleontologists to the need of light, the presence of water for life, the rise of life from simple to complex forms of life, and to man.
SUMMARY: The verdict is still out on the Genesis account as scientists are still discovering our Universe and World. Let’s not be so hasty to “white out” or rewrite parts of Genesis. We may have to make a correction if one did.
For more perspectives: