Evidence for God from Science

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Suppose you, a Christian, got a call from someone claiming to believe in God. This person denies that Genesis 1 is true. This person says that Genesis 1 appeals to naturalism, and therefore must be a pagan story. This person further says that God would not create in such a way as to allow the account of that creation act to end up in controversy. God would not create using any processes at all.

Basically, this person claims that God had to have created everything in an instant, and therefore that Genesis 1 is just one more pagan creation story.

How would you answer this person?

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The person you refer to appears to believe he knows the mind of God / that which God would or would Not have done in Genesis 1 -- that he would not allow for controversy.
I would focus on salvation. Does this person believe the New Testament? The virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the death, burial and bodily resurrection of Him -- for our sins. A person's salvation Is the Most Important decision of a person's life. It determines the place they will spend Eternity.
"Life" is full of controversy -- it's inevitable. It's where we place our faith in the Truth. John 14:6 "I am the way, the Truth, and the life, no man cometh to the Father, but through/ by Me." That's Jesus Christ talking.

One more comment upon rereading your post. Genesis 1 says that God spoke everything into existence. He did it just as He told us He did. He did it day-by-day. That has given us 6 days to work and a day of rest.

God gave us nature. He created it.

DanielPech wrote:.
Suppose you, a Christian, got a call from someone claiming to believe in God. This person denies that Genesis 1 is true. This person says that Genesis 1 appeals to naturalism, and therefore must be a pagan story. This person further says that God would not create in such a way as to allow the account of that creation act to end up in controversy. God would not create using any processes at all.

Basically, this person claims that God had to have created everything in an instant, and therefore that Genesis 1 is just one more pagan creation story.

How would you answer this person?

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I probably wouldn't feel a need to answer that particular person. Some people have convinced themselves that their biblical interpretation has to be correct, and there's no chance they may be wrong. There are a few young earth creationists that post on occasion here, that are the same way. Almost like their interpretation is equal to scripture itself, and there's no possible way they may be wrong.

In your scenario, if someone called me and made these dogmatic claims, I'd ask myself if I really need to respond.

Sometimes giving an opinion to someone who can't possibly be wrong, is just futile.

DanielPech wrote:.
Suppose you, a Christian, got a call from someone claiming to believe in God. This person denies that Genesis 1 is true. This person says that Genesis 1 appeals to naturalism, and therefore must be a pagan story. This person further says that God would not create in such a way as to allow the account of that creation act to end up in controversy. God would not create using any processes at all.

Basically, this person claims that God had to have created everything in an instant, and therefore that Genesis 1 is just one more pagan creation story.

How would you answer this person?

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Like Rick said, there's not much you can or should bother talking to them about. But to the extent you can or do, it should be noted that their problem isn't really theological at all, except maybe for the specific are of theology called bibliology. Put simply, such a person simply feels no obligation to accept Scripture as an authority, and therefore, it should be acknowledged that, with exception to a few issues in natural theology, there isn't much you can really say about the nature of God anyway. So their whole argument will ultimately undermine itself.

Beyond that, to try to offer something of a substantive answer, I would say that, to the extent the question is meaningful (and frankly, I don't know that it is any more meaningful than "what does blue taste like"--the question is a category error), the closest answer we can provide is that God is a God of order and seems to like to reveal Himself that way. Therefore, it seems fitting for the creation event itself to be orderly, which is to say, through some orderly process.