18.
According to the first the Creator is an optimist. He views all his works and declares them “good.”
According to the second the Creator is a pessimist. He sees in his works both “good and evil;” the good continuing to diminish, and the evil continuing to increase.
To establish the credibility and divine origin of Genesis it is necessary not merely to harmonize its theories with science, but to reconcile its statements with each other. The latter is as impossible as the former. Dean Stanley, in his Memorial Sermon on Sir Charles Lyell at Westminster Abbey, made this frank admission:
“It is now clear to diligent students of the Bible that the first and second chapters of Genesis contain two narratives of the creation, side by side, differing from each other in most every particular of time, place, and order.”
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.
In disproof of the credibility of the so-called patriarchal history of the Pentateuch, a few of its many incredible and contradictory statements will be presented here.