Good Morning, Canuckus,
Nothing is easy.
Quiz those whom you "engage" as to their understanding of the order in which numbers are purposefully arranged, Genesis 2 following Genesis 1, and all...
The Bible is God's self-revelation to humanity, without which there is much we would have never known.
Because of man's innate proclivity to deny truth, reiteration has always been a mainstay of instruction.
"Have ye not known? have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?" Isaiah 40:21
"Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not;" Isaiah 43:8,
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears;" Isaiah 43:17,
As an aside,
a vital truth being cast asunder at present in our culture and around the globe throughout the "civilized world," (encompasses those whom God created, now rapidly devolving into savage, technologically aware, previously enlightened, creatures loving darkness) which vitally needs this emphasis of repetition is Matthew 19:4-6: "And He [Jesus] answered and said unto them, 'Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female?'"
and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
God's revelation in Genesis was gradual, each additional truth building upon His previously revealed truth, 1) "So God created mankind in his own image,
2) in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" ( Genesis 1:27 ).
and regarding the animals of your engagee's concern:
In Genesis, Chapter 1, day by day, God created the universe and its contents. God created the universe out of nothing ... in describing the Creation, brevity and ellipsis (omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding) are deliberately employed just as in many other topics.
On day 1: God created the universe, light, and Earth.
On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
On day 5: God created birds and fish.
On day 6: God created animals, and then people.
On day 7: God ceased creating, - demonstrating the necessity of rest.
Genesis 1:25 "God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind
Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Specificity - Detail - Clarification:
Genesis 2:7 "Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:8 "And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
Genesis 2:19 "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
Religious truths, claims, and duties require constant reiteration. The work of the wise instructor can be put into three words -
"clarify," "simplify," and "repeat." As I'm sure you are aware, Historical observation and experience have proven the necessity of such perpetual repetition.
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
1. Which was created first, mankind or the animals???
2. That's what I thought... A rather easy question with an answer right on the first page....
But then the guy I was engaging with came back with Genesis 2:19...