Do you believe in evolution or are you a creationist?

We may be devolving.

With respect, then would it follow that plants and vegetation were “created“ (day 3) a thousand years before the sun (day 4)? 

Genesis 1:3-5 declares, "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day,' and the darkness He called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day." 

This is called appealing to what you need to prove. The story doesn’t wash. Ask yourself why the account in Gen 2 differs in order than in Gen 1. 

We know the sun predates the earth by many millions of years, and predates life on earth by billions more. We know there would be no life on earth without the energy of the sun. Genesis was obviously written by men who knew nothing about the cosmos or the nature of life, or even the rotation of the earth. 

Hi Don Barzini.
Yeah, your question makes sense after what I answered. I guess I don't hold God to any time table at all. And I guess I don't take any of the creation in necessarily literal ways as written in the Bible. I think it all could have just happened. Maybe the Big Bang Theory. As far as God and a Higher Power, 'Creation' in all its details, it isn't that important to me in my beliefs. So, I probably now realize I am perhaps not logical, per se, in how creation details affect my belief.
:)
If my reply here makes any sense, it'd be a miracle, ha!
:)


This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at March 21, 2019 12:35 PM MDT

It does. You spot the commonality between the Big Bang described in science and the moment of “Creation”. Both are similar in initial principle: that nothing existed before, then suddenly there was something; and neither can be disproven. 
The problem lies in what follows:

A)Six “days“ of creating, or;
B) billions of years of time, of gravity, of cosmic masses colliding, then cooling and forming for millions more; life emerging, and nearly dying out and re-emerging time and again, with species rising and falling by natural selection over millions of years. 

The former offers no tangible proof and relies on supernatural magic for explanations;
The latter has literal mountains of evidence. This doesn’t directly dismiss a God, but doesn’t require one to explain. 

Excepting what caused the Singularity to go "bang" and why the infant universe didn't collapse back into a singularity under its own gravity within three Planck units of time. Einstein postulated "antigravity" but couldn't get the math to work, and neither could Dirac who was rather better at it.
"Why" is almost always a religious question, "what" rarely is. This post was edited by Slartibartfast at March 21, 2019 12:36 PM MDT

The Big Bang, to my thinking, is What We‘ve Got, given the data at hand, compared to the less credible alternative of magical deity. 

People are driven (by pride?) to know why; that there must be a larger purpose, lest we think ourselves merely random like the rest of the cosmos.
Fancy that.  

It's more a question of causation. What caused the singularity to explode and why did gravity not pull it all back together when it was "the onky force in town"?

Thanks, Don Barzini. Especially that last sentence, well-said.
:)

How wonderful you are with words......I could not have put it any better.... How sad is the world we live in and what a waste of life for so many of the worlds population...:(

Sad in that no matter what religious belief is instilled in you, (no one starts believing this Theist tripe in a vacuum) you are assured to have millions of believers of another theology who will be taught to hate you for it. 
To me, even more sad in the distortion of reality, the promotion of fear, guilt, and shame and the abdications of personal responsibility. Look what world faith has wrought. 

With respect also, (and if I'm following you correctly), personal responsibility is still of prime importance to me along with my belief.
:)

I gather that you exercise a personal form of belief (which is what Jesus advocated). But ask yourself, what are you responsible for and to whom?  

On the whole, the major monotheisms all claim to solely absolve “sinners” of their faults (both real and imagined) through following their particular dogma (confessions and acts of contrition, for instance), and the much touted afterlife” means this mortal world is but a warm-up run for the all-important next one. Why care at all about what is left behind if this is so?
Food for Thought. 

Yeah, my faith is sort of weird, I think. I don't, at this point, necessarily know or have 100% faith in an afterlife per se. With my life, and me as a person, for me, I try to live daily a loving life -- loving myself and loving others and respecting others. The day-to-day life of this life, not the afterlife, is my focus.
I don't pretend to be the greatest believer in any way, that's for sure. And I don't pretend to know what may be next.

I have immense challenges in just staying/living in the present, living a day at a time, sometimes just a minute at a time. And staying in the present without projecting irrational fears into my life is how 'my' Higher Power/God helps me along on my journey. I in no way, harbor all my belief and efforts in life as some sort of warm-up to an afterlife. (I love your use of that word here, warm-up -- and I've never quite bought that perspective  which so many others seem to profess.)

Boy, I'm going too far - - I'll stop.
this is the most I've posted on something like this. thanks for being nice and respectful with me. A bit of scary stuff for me to share stuff like this. This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at March 20, 2019 9:22 PM MDT

Be assured you aren’t alone in working hard to maintain, in the moment, or day-to-day, what have you. As flawed and fragile humans, we all run this race. And we all need aid to get through it. 

This, I feel, is the ground upon which the forces of religion and belief ply their trade: to alleviate fears (of death, particularly) to lay out a guide for living, create hope and comfort in an uncertain world and attempt (or claim) to answer the great mysteries. 

I think a rational and adaptable assessment of reality should be primary in any worldview, whether it includes a religious component or not. Therein, to my eye, lies the biggest problem with how belief is practiced. 
Best to you. 

Your use of the word 'fossilized' is a priceless pun.