The days in Genesis 1 are 24 hours long, but I'm not a Christian, and I do not believe the story to be literally true.

Earth is several billion years old, and life has existed for much of that time. The best scientific observations we can make with existing methods support that the world is much older than a Biblical view would suggest.

Man and apes, and all other creatures, shared a common ancestor. If you go far enough back, all organisms share a single-celled prokaryotic ancestor. Again, the best information we can gather empyrically suggests that life has evolved from a very simple form at its beginnings to the more diverse and complex array we see today.

Eve was, in a sense. Mitochondrial DNA suggests much if not all of the human population has a single ancestor or at least comes from a very small stock. There have been times when the human population has been much reduced, and a relatively small number of individuals have provided the vast majority of our current genes. So there may have existed what some call "Mitochondrial Eve," the one woman whose mitochondrial DNA all modern humans share.

Hope that helps!

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1 day = 1 day. This is like asking how long 1 foot is.

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Asking why one day is one day is an interesting question (and of the caliber that my daughter should soon be asking), and one I'm not sure I can answer.

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This is a two parter. The answer for both is, "I don't know." I can personally vouch for 28 years, but then how long is a year? Why?

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Why don't I know? Because I haven't taken the time to worry about it, I guess.

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Yes. See 2-HeadedGiraffe's explanation above.

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This questions assumes there is a reason. Why do you think that there is a reason?

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The Biblical Adam and Eve, I assume? Who knows? I guess they could be real people insomuch as King Arthur was real. As far as facts about them, probably lost to a legend. Evolution would preculde them from being the first two humanoids in existence, however.

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Again, asking why or why not they were real people is a futile exercise. Why is my coffee cup a real coffee cup?

I think each of your questions should contain the word "believe" to be effective. That's what your really trying to ask...

How long are the days in Genesis 1?

The Earth's rotation slows by about 0.005 seconds a year. Using a current frame of reference, it should be easy to compute as soon as you tell me when Genesis was.


Why?

Because that is how physics works. If there is a God, then mathematics would be his (its) fingerprint on creation.


How old is the earth and life?

This is a simple to understand website.
Click Me!


Why?

The website above covers the scientific methodology.


Did man and apes share a common ancestor?

It is very possible. The genetic structure of apes and humans are incredibly similar. Apes all have 24 chromosome pairs. Humans have 23. Possible explanations are fission of a single chromosome into two or fusion of two separate chromosomes. These are both relatively common in nature.
Of the remaining sets of chromosomes, differences between man and ape are primarily inversions and translocations.


Why or why not?

The genetic structure of apes and humans are incredibly similar. Apes all have 24 chromosome pairs. Humans have 23. Possible explanations are fission of a single chromosome into two or fusion of two separate chromosomes. These are both relatively common in nature.
Of the remaining sets of chromosomes, differences between man and ape are primarily inversions and translocations. These are also very common.

Were Adam and Eve real people?

No


Why or why not?

Adam is supposed to be the first man. Everyone knows that the first man was named Pelasgus.
Eve was supposed to come from Adam's rib. Since Adam didn't exist, neither could Eve.

Archimago: Adam was Pelasgus's middle name.

Archimago: Adam was Pelasgus's middle name.

How long are the days in Genesis 1? Why?

*a day is a day, but a better question is "who cares?" Why is a day a day? because it is.

How old is the earth and life? Why?

*The earth is several billion years old. Why? Because the earth is several billion years old. How old life is depends on which life, and possibly what you mean when you say "life". Life on earth as we know it seems to have existed for billions of years.



Did man and apes share a common ancestor? Why or why not?

*Yes. Because they did.

Were Adam and Eve real people? Why or why not?

*No. Because they weren't.

You seem to be asking why these things are true, which a silly question to ask in this context. If you want to know why I believe them, that would bee a more intersting query.

my spelling has gone all to hell

yea I wanted to know why you believe what you say you believe

preponderance of evidence and simple logic.

Okay, I can be as big a grammar Nazi as the next guy, but I think the obvious implication to his questions was what you believe the answers to be and why you believe what you do.

This is a tactic that theologists take when trying to argue creationism. They leave out words like "faith" and "believe" to try to make it sound like there might be factual basis.

I refuse to play that game. I'm not being a grammar nazi (no need to capitalize the colloquial use of nazi, but the way), I'm forcing the true question to be asked.

I agree with David here.

It is, frankly, silly to ask why a day is a day long. The answer is that one day must equal one day (a thing always being identical to itself). Why is a day 24 hours is yet another question (one that is slightly more interesting, but still not that useful in context). Of course, it seems to me that if we want to ask a silly question like: how long were the days in Genesis? then we may also ask: How long were the days in Moby Dick? In either case, a reasonable is is: who the hell cares. There is something unstated in the initial questions that needs to be stated. He makes it implicit that the events of Genesis are true or historically accurate (a view I find farcical at best) and until we pass that bit of madness, then these questions are not very useful.