Genesis 1:1-31 NWT
1 In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of [the] watery deep; and God’s active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.
3 And God proceeded to say: “Let light come to be.” Then there came to be light. 4 After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness. 5 And God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day.
6 And God went on to say: “Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.” 7 Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. 8 And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day.
9 And God went on to say: “Let the waters under the heavens be brought together into one place and let the dry land appear.” And it came to be so. 10 And God began calling the dry land Earth, but the bringing together of the waters he called Seas. Further, God saw that [it was] good. 11 And God went on to say: “Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds, the seed of which is in it, upon the earth.” And it came to be so. 12 And the earth began to put forth grass, vegetation bearing seed according to its kind and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in it according to its kind. Then God saw that [it was] good. 13 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a third day.
14 And God went on to say: “Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years. 15 And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.” And it came to be so. 16 And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars. 17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth, 18 and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness. Then God saw that [it was] good. 19 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day.
20 And God went on to say: “Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens.” 21 And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good. 22 With that God blessed them, saying: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins, and let the flying creatures become many in the earth.” 23 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day.
24 And God went on to say: “Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.” And it came to be so. 25 And God proceeded to make the wild beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good.
26 And God went on to say: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth.” 27 And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
Awake! - September 2006
Does Science Contradict the Genesis Account? page 19-20
A careful consideration of the Genesis account reveals that events starting during one "day" continued into one of more of the following days. For example, before the first creative "day" started, light from the already existing sun was somehow prevented from reaching the earth's surface, possibly by thick clouds. (Job 38:9) During the first "day", this barrier began to clear, allowing diffused light to penetrate the atmosphere*.
*footnote reads: In the description of what happened on the first "day" the Hebrew word used for light is 'ohr, light in a general sense; but concerning the fourth "day", the word used is ma-'ohr', which refers to the source of light.
On the second "day", the atmosphere evidently continued to clear, creating a space between the thick clouds above and the oceon below. On the fourth "day", the atmosphere had gradually cleared to such an extent that the sun and moon were made to appear "in the expanse of the heavens" (Genesis 1: 14-16) In other words, from the perspective of a person on earth, the sun and the moon began to be discernible. These events happened gradually.
The Genesis account also relates that as the atmosphere continued to clear, flying creatures - including insects and membrane-winged creatures - started to appear on the fifth "day". However, the Bible indicates that during the sixth "day", God was still in the process of "forming from the ground every wild beast of the field and every flying creature of the heavens." - Genesis 2:19
Clearly, the Bible's language makes room for the possibility of some major events during each "day", or creative period, to have occured gradually rather than instantly, perhaps some of them even lasting into the following creative "days".
They're really reaching with this article.
"Light was somehow prevented..." Somehow, huh? Genesis says, " And God proceeded to say: 'Let light come to be.' Then there came to be light. After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness." Doesn't sound gradual to me. They're just trying to rationalize how light was created before the sun was created:
Day One: And God proceeded to say: “Let light come to be.” Then there came to be light. Day Four: And God went on to say: “Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years. And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.” And it came to be so.
Moving on:
"This barrier began to clear..." What barrier? The "expanse", possibly? The "expanse" was divided on the second day and a distinction made between the heavens and the earth.
"...atmosphere evidently continued to clear..." Evidently, but without evidence.
"In other words, from the perspective of a person on earth, the sun and the moon began to be discernible." Why would the account be written as if someone was there when no one was there? There wasn't anyone on earth to see this supposed gradual dispersing of clouds to allow sunlight in. The account was written by Moses(according to the WTS anyway) who supposedly was inpsired by God to record the creation account.
This article is written so as to keep the belief in the creation account without appearing as nutty as the fundies who insist that it was created in literal days. They convienently omit the fact that they supported the idea of each creative day being 7,000 years each, meaning that, in previous WT doctrine, the earth is less than 50,000 years old. The evidence weighed in too heavily against their former position, so they had to recreate their position distancing themselves from the fundies yet presenting their "evidence" in a way that can be accepted by the R&F who want to believe and will not read this material with a critical mind.