Darwinism Debate in British Schools

Fang-Face says:

Re:What next?
And how far back into Biblical origin would they be required to delve?

The Bible, as a whole, deals with the legendary Abram (called Abraham later in life) and his descendants, but in the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, there is a quick overview of earlier events from the creation of the Universe to the birth of Abram about 2000 B.C.

This period of primeval history is based on two documents, according to those who have most carefully studied the bible: the J-document and the P-document.

The J-document, which is the older, contains dramatic early legends that were current among the people of Israel and Judah. The tales of the J-document may have been written down and reached their present form some time before 700 B.C., […].

The P-document is later and was gathered and put together during the time when the people of Judah (the Jews) were in captivity in the Tigris Euphrates regions in the sixth century B.C. At that time, the dominant tribe of the region was the Chaldeans, and their capital was in Babylon, so that the P-document picked up what we might call Chaldean or Babylonian views of cosmic history — which in turn were based on nearly three thousand years of thought dating back to the Sumerians.

The two documents were combined by reverent editors, concerned to do as little damage to either as possible. The first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis reached the present shape by the time the Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile — say 500 B.C.

–Isaac Asimov, In The Beginning, pg 2-3

All through the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, there is a strong tinge of the Tigris-Euphrates; a Sumerian/Assyrian/Babylonian thread that is unmistakable.

This is not necessarily bad. The people of the Tigris-Euphrates region were the most sophisticated people in the world at the time and had elaborated the closest approach to what we might call science. They were ahead of other civilization in this respect — the Egyptian, the Indian, the Chinese, the Cretan — from the time when writing was invented to the time when the Bible took on its present shape, a period of three thousand years.

What’s more, the Biblical writers and editors were thoughtful men who borrowed selectively, choosing what they considered good and rejecting what seemed nonsensical or unedifying. They labored to produce something that was as reasonable and as useful as possible.

In doing so, they succeeded wonderfully. There is no version of primeval history, preceding the discoveries of modern science, that is as rational and as inspiring as that of the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis.

Nevertheless, humanity does progress.
–Isaac Asimov, In The Beginning, pg 3

To the Babylonians, it seemed to make astrological sense to suppose that each planet was in charge of a particular day (since each planet was in turn the province of a particular god). An eighth day in a week would be a day without a planet-god in charge, and this was unthinkable. The seven-day week it was, therefore, and one day in the week was given over to a religious celebration, and work was suspended either to allow time for the celebration or because the day was considered unlucky.

The Jews in Babylonian exile naturally observed the weekly day of rest, but could not accept the polytheistic justification and had to evolve one of their own.

The writers of the P-document therefore grounded it in the week of creation — six days of divine labor and one day of divine rest. It was a case of the labors of God himself being made to fit the Babylonian week. That is why Creation took six days rather than any other number of days, and it is an explanation that does not involve the Greek concept of perfect numbers.
–Isaac Asimov, In The Beginning, pg 74-75