Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the creation of life and biological diversity, part 14.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

To step back a moment and review where we've been. We're examining the interpretation of the creation

stories of Genesis as being Jewish monotheistic myths. And you'll remember that we were using

the folklorist's definition of myth, as given by Alan Dundas, is a traditional,

sacred narrative that seeks to ground present-day realities in primordial events.

And I've argued that we should not attempt to demonstrate that these Genesis narratives

are Jewish creation myths on the basis of their similarities to other ancient near-eastern myths. We saw that the biblical stories are quite different

from the Babylonian and Egyptian creation myths and that the attempt to prove some

sort of dependence between the biblical accounts and the Babylonian-Agyptian

accounts is fraught with conjecture and uncertainty.

Rather, the claim that Genesis 1 to 11 shares with ancient Near Eastern myths a common literary type or genre is to be

grounded in the commonality of themes and etiological motifs that are found in various myths.

And you remember we defined etiology as concerning the attempt

to show that present day events or realities or phenomena are to be explained by grounding

them in prehistoric realities and events.

Genesis 1 to 11 shares with myths in general and with ancient Near Eastern myths in particular

the grand etiological themes of the origin of the world, the origin of mankind, the origin of certain

natural phenomena, the origin of various cultural practices, and the origin of the prevailing

religious practice of the day.

Now, of these different etiological themes,

...