C is for Creatures;
God made them all,
Some rather little,
but others quite tall.
He said unto Adam,
"What names do you think?"
Adam then named them,
quick as a wink..

First, we need to make sure the children understand that the naming of the animals happened on the sixth day of Creation. We know this because we are told in Genesis Chapter I that on day six God created the land animals and Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:24-30).

Genesis Chapter 2 gives us more details about some of the events of Chapter 1. Here we are told that Adam gave names to the animals before Eve was made. Thus, the events of day six include:

1. God created the land animals (cattle, creeping things, beast & birds—Genesis 1:24-25).
   
2. God created Adam from dust (Genesis 2:7).
   
3. God put Adam in the Garden of Eden.
   
4. God warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or he would die.
   
5. God brought the cattle, fowl, and beast for Adam to name (Genesis 2:19-20). Notice it does not list the creeping things—so it seems Adam did not name them.
   
6. Adam gave names to the animals.
   

In this section we are concerned primarily with Adam naming the animals. Now, this particular event is often used by people to claim that the days of Creation could not be six literal 24 hour days. These skeptics say that there is no way that Adam could have named all the animals during this time interval. Since God created the land animals first and then made Adam, obviously Adam had less than one day to name them. After he named them, then God made Eve.

So, on the surface it may seem like too much to accomplish in one day. However, we need to carefully consider the following:

1. How many animals did Adam have to name? For instance did he have to name a couple of hundred types of dogs? The answer is no! All our domestic dogs, as well as wolves, coyotes, dingoes etc., are all the same kind of animal—the dog kind. Notice that when God makes the animals, He makes them “after his kind” --( e.g., Genesis 1:24-25).

   In other words, distinct kinds (or groups) of animals were made to reproduce after their own kind. This is actually another argument against evolution, which requires that one kind of animal change into another over millions of years.

   Explain to the children that the fact that we have numerous varieties of dogs has nothing to do with evolution—they are still dogs! Just as God made Adam and Eve to have millions of descendants, including you and me, who all (unless they are identical twins) look a little different; so did He make the dog kind to produce dogs that all look a little different. This happens because of the enormous amount of information God put in the genes of our cells. This shows how great God is.

   Therefore, in the Garden of Eden when Adam was naming the animals, he would not have had to name all the different types of bears—just bear kind. Thus, Adam would not have had to name nearly as many animals as we think.

   By the way, the same is true for dinosaurs. Although there are hundreds of names for dinosaurs, there were probably fewer than fifty actual kinds of such creatures.

2. When God made Adam, he was not a baby—he was a mature human being. He did not have to learn to talk. Just as man today can program a computer so it can “sort of” talk, God, who is the infinite Creator, would have had no problem programming a language into Adam so he could talk with Him as soon as he was made.

   Today, every human being is born with the ability to talk, but has to be taught a language by his parents. For instance, Adam and Eve would have had to teach their children to talk—so who taught Adam and Eve to talk? God did. He would have made their brain with all the information for language already programmed in.

   This is why God could talk to Adam about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else he would die. Adam knew what this meant because he had the language programmed in his brain that God had given him.

   So, Adam would have had no problem giving names to the animals.

3. Would Adam have had enough time to give the names though? We need to be careful in thinking about this. You see, usually we think this way, "Well, I couldn’t do all that in less than a day, so how could Adam?"

   The point is that the Bible tells us that we have all suffered the effects of six thousand years of the curse because of sin. Adam was perfect when he was made—he would have had a perfect memory—he was very intelligent indeed.

   It would have been easy for Adam to think of a name and remember it immediately. This should help us understand what sin has done to the world. Man is not getting better as evolutionists tell us—we are all running down, degenerating because of sin. That is why we look forward to our new bodies when Jesus comes back to take those who love Him to heaven.

   Incidentally, the artist put something very subtle into this illustration. Look under Adam’s right arm, just above the creature that looks like a wolf. You should see a small gray tail—the tail of the hippo. What is the significance of this? Notice the Behemoth (from Job 40:15) in this picture. We have pictured Behemoth as a dinosaur, as the description from Job 40 fits this animal. We are told that Behemoth moved his tail like a “cedar tree.” Some Bible commentaries say that Behemoth was an elephant or hippopotamus, but compare the hippo tail to that of Behemoth! The hippo tail does not fit the description of Job 40.
   

Student Exercise

Research project: Go to a library and look up the Guiness Book of World Records. Look for examples of people with photographic memories who can do large calculations without a calculator, can do great physical feats, or who are brilliant musicians, artists, etc.

Get the children to draw a picture of Adam (or photocopy the picture for “C”), and then list somewhere on the page the various talents they discovered from the Guiness Book of World Records that people possess. They could draw a line from each talent to Adam’s head (brain). Explain that Adam could have done all of this plus much, much more. If people today can do such marvelous feats, just imagine how much the first perfect man could have done.

Another example you could use to help children understand this is the memory of a computer. Show them that as soon as we type the information in a computer and put it into the “memory banks,” we can recall it at any time.

Now man’s brain is much, much, much more complicated than the most intricate computer. If man can make a computer with a memory and man is made by God, then obviously God can make man’s computer (the brain) to be so much better than the best manmade computer. The problem, though, is that man’s brain suffers from the effects of sin. It is no longer a perfect computer, and it doesn’t function as well as it used to.

Excerpt from A is for Adam. Used with permission from Answers in Genesis
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