And looking to the
fact that, after all, when the days of Genesis _are_ explained to mean
periods of very unequal but possibly enormous duration, that explanation
is not only quite useless, but raises greater difficulties than ever, I
should think it most likely that the "day" of the narrative should be
taken in the ordinary sense. But of this hereafter.
On the other hand, with regard to the terms "creation,[1]" "created,"
"Let there be," and so forth, I find ample room for the most careful
consideration and for detailed study before we can say what is meant.
Even then there remains a feeling of profound mystery. For at the very
beginning of every train of reflection and reasoning on the subject, we
are just brought up dead at this wonderful fact, the existence of
_matter_ where previously there had been _nothing_. The phrase "created
_out of_ nothing" is of course a purely conventional one, and, strictly
speaking, has no meaning; but we adopt it usefully enough to indicate
our ultimate fact--the appearance of matter where previously there had
been nothing. Nor is the difficulty really surmounted by alleging such a
mere _phrase_ as "matter is eternal," for we have just as little mental
conception of self-existent, always--and _without beginning_--existent
matter, as we have of "creation out of nothing.
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