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The Broken Gift, Daniel Friedmann, 2013, ISBN 9780978457228 It may seem impossible to reconcile the scientific and religious conceptions of Man's creation. Did Man, in his present form, come into existence as part of a week-long process several thousand years ago? On the other hand, did it happen as part of a much longer process over hundreds of millions of years? It starts with the definition of the word "day." On the planet Venus, a day equals 243 Earth days, whereas, on the International Space Station, a day lasts for about 90 minutes. There are three different measurements of time to consider. God communicates with us using Creation Time, The universe operates on Divine Time. Human time is what we measure with our Earthly clocks. The author goes into a lot of detail in the book, but one Creation Day equals 7,000 Divine Years. According to psalms as interpreted in the Talmud, one Divine Day equals 1,000 Human Years. Therefore, one Divine Year equals 365,000 Human Years. To turn one Creation Day into Human Years, multiply 7,000 times 1,000 times 365.25 (the number of days in one Human year), and you get 2.56 billion years. Multiply that by the six "days" of Creation in Genesis, and you get approximately 15 billion years. Where was the Garden of Eden? According to ancient Jewish commentaries called the Midrashim, clues place it in Ethiopia, the Arabian Peninsula, India and/or Egypt. How is that possible? The land masses are constantly moving via plate tectonics. Several hundred million years ago, the continents were much closer together, so it is very possible for the Garden of Eden to be in, seemingly, four different places. There is no evidence for a worldwide Flood. The geological evidence does not support it. There is not enough water on Earth and in the atmosphere to cover all the land. Perhaps it was a local Flood, affecting only the Biblical area. This is certainly an eye-opener of a book. For anyone who might be concerned, how can attempting to answer some of the major questions of the Bible be considered anti-Christian? This will give the reader quite a mental workout, and it is very much recommended. Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose blog, Dead Trees Review, emphasizes small press and self-published books.
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