Was the World Created in Six Days?

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In his telling work titled Chance or Purpose: Creation, Evolution and a Rational Faith, Christoph Cardinal Schonborn reminds us of St. Thomas Aquinas's warning that humanity should “not try to defend the Christian faith with arguments that make it ridiculous, because they are in obvious contradiction with reason” (Schonborn 37). It is amidst this statement, that it seems relevant to point out that if we accept the Biblical story of creation as being literal, than the world would be in existence for just about 6,000 years! Does that seem accurate? Frankly such an assertion amidst modern scientific findings would at best, be absurd. In fact such an assertion would mean that the creationists would also have to deny the findings of countless historians and archeologists who have made incredible discoveries regarding the civilizations that sprung up in the region of Mesopotamia between 4,000 and 10,000 BC.

In fact the Roman Catholic Church closely adhered to the advice of Aquinas in the findings of the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1909. When the Commission was posed with the question “Whether in that designation and distinction of six days, with which the account of the first chapter of Genesis deals, the word (dies) can be assumed either in its proper sense as a natural day, or in the improper sense of a certain space of time; and whether with regard to such a question there can be free disagreement among exegetes?” they replied “In the affirmative.” With this act of affirmation, the Commission did not contend something new, nor did they present an amendment to accepted theology; instead through the affirmative response, the Commission merely re-asserted a long held understanding of the Story of Creation that Aquinas himself referenced in his Summa Theologiae. It seems to be in conformity with theology and reason to accept the Story of Creation as a figurative narrative regarding the nature of human origin and the earth itself.

For to deny the validity of the findings of science in regards to the age of the world, would be to present Christianity as a truth-denying faith rather than a faith that by its very nature seeks to exemplify the very essence of truth. For we must as Augustine of Hippo stressed apply our God-given human reason to understanding whether a Biblical passage need be interpreted either literally or figuratively.