>Genesis 1:24 "And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures
>according to their kind." Once again nothing about reproduction
>was mentioned. The land produced creatures according to their
>kind. This is not the same as saying animals reproduced according
>to their [kind].
Furthermore, look in most NASB translations and you will find a footnote
attached to the word "their" in 1:24, saying "Literally, _its_. Putting
its into the verse we get "And God said, 'Let the earth produce living
creatures
according to its kind." where I have gone back to using "earth" instead of
"land" for reasons which shall become apparent presently. What is the
antecedent of "its"? It seems more logical to say the earth than the
creatures, since "earth" and "its" are both singular. What does it mean
for a creature to be the same kind as the earth? Could it be that it is
made of the same elements as the earth? Or simply made of matter? The
Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible goes so far as to say "the
creatures are the offspring of the earth, as it were." So here we have a
case of literal translation yielding a reading which is at least as
compatible with evolution as the comon young-earth creationist reading.
I am totally in agreement with Glenn: there is no reason whatever for
inferring that "after its(or their if you must) kind says anything at all
about reproduction. IMO it seems to mean "according to the specification
God had in mind."
Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX)