We thank you for our position on your earth. Help us to be responsible to you and to others.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
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There's lots of things we could talk about with regard to the sixth day. God created animals. Each type was to reproduce 'after its kind'. The idea of species is a human one. If anything it's a classification that's much more exact than it needs to be, and unfortunately has caused many arguments in regard to evolution. Cattle were to produce cattle. This ties in with what science knows about genetics. That new species of cattle can develop is what God intended. But they're still cattle (which is also what God intended.) This was what Darwin's work centred on.
God also made man, and gave him “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth”. This is a major blessing, but it also has a lot of responsibility. It means we have to look after God's creation, for him – not just us!
There are lots of environment groups that miss that point. "The earth is the Lords..." is an important point to remember. Ecology is the study of living organisms, and their environment. In lots of ways in contradicts evolution. Evolution proposes that if a species becomes extinct then an opportunity will arise for a new species to develop. Unfortunately that is complete rubbish. The dominant species in the area will simply take over. The above idea has led to the lack of care for our environment – people don't care if something is destroyed, as long as they are all right.
What do you understand by "God created man in his own image"?
There is also another interesting point. God gave "every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Adam was a vegetarian (and so were all the animals on the world). It was not until after they left Eden that he ate meat. The lion with the lamb is something we will look forward to in the kingdom.
And God's perfection will be re-established on the earth!