The Creation - A scriptural interpretation

I've always been fascinated by the Creation story described in Genesis 1-2 (and Moses 2-3 and Abraham 4-5). And quite frankly, I've always been a little uncomfortable with the notion that this has to describe the physical creation of the world. It really just doesn't match what we think happened over the course of the Earth's history, and that's been a major problem between science and religion. I've thought about ways to reconcile the 6 days of creation with current formation theories of the solar system and theories about how the Earth has evolved over time, but in all honesty, I just can't help shake the notion that Genesis 1-2 don't describe what physically happened.

But this doesn't have to be a roadblock for either scientists or religious people! There's lots of ways to reconcile scientific knowledge with the creation account, but let me just suggest one theory that was on my mind today. Just to summarize, the creation story is found in Genesis 1-2. The first part (up until Genesis 2:4) describes the six days of creation, including making man, and the seventh day of rest. Genesis 2 talks about the creation of Adam, the Garden of Eden, and the creation of Eve.

While I was reading the creation accounts today, the idea of the spiritual creation stood out to me. Genesis 2:5 reads:

 5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Or, a little more clearly in Moses 3:5 from the Pearl of Great Price:

 5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, ^acreated all things, of which I have spoken, ^bspiritually, before they were^cnaturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had ^dcreated all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the^eground; for in ^fheaven ^gcreated I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air;

The basic idea is that all things were created spiritually before they were created physically. So when was the physical creation and when was the spiritual creation? I propose that Genesis 1 and the first part of Genesis 2 (the 6 days of creation) could be the spiritual creation. Here's 3 reasons why:

1) The six days of creation come before the part about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the spiritual creation happened first

2) Wording of God - this has been noticed by many, many other people, but the six days of creation are done by "God" and the creation of Adam and everything after is done by the "Lord God," implying a difference between the two sets of creation

3) At least in LDS theology, Jesus Christ was the physical creator of the Earth, while God (Heavenly Father) directed it.

Regarding #2, "God" is usually meant to be Heavenly Father, the one true God, and "Lord God" is usually meant to be Jehovah, or Jesus Christ. Combined with point #3, this implies that Heavenly Father directly created all things spiritually, and Jesus Christ led the physical creation. This makes sense, because (in LDS theology at least) Jesus Christ was a spirit child of Heavenly Father, just like all of us. The one thing that doesn't match this is that the wording in Abraham 4-5 doesn't distinguish between "God" and "Lord God" at all. Everything is written as "the gods" did this or "the gods" did that.

The one major roadblock to this being true is this quote by Joseph Fielding Smith:

“There is no account of the creation of man or other forms of life when they were created as spirits. There is just the simple statement that they were so created before the physical creation. The statements in Moses 3:5and Genesis 2:5 are interpolations [parenthetical explanations] thrown into the account of the physical creation, explaining that all things were first created in the spirit existence in heaven before they were placed upon this earth.

“We were all created untold ages before we were placed on this earth. We discover from Abraham 3:22–28, that it was before the earth was formed that the plan of salvation was presented to the spirits, or ‘intelligences.’ This being true, then man, animals and plants were not created in the spirit at the time of the creation of the earth, but long before” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:75–76).

It's also worth pointing out that the creation account in Abraham is after an account of all of us agreeing to the plan of salvation, which would presumably be after the spiritual creation in Joseph Fielding Smith's view. But, Doctrines of Salvation is not necessarily hard and fast doctrine. Joseph Fielding Smith (who was an avid opponent of evolution) could have mixed in his own opinions in this, without even intending too. And as I joked to my wife earlier today, I don't think Doctrines ever went through peer review...

Nevertheless, there are still a lot of open questions. If all things were created physically prior to Genesis 2, then why did Adam have to be created from the dust of the Earth? Why were all animals created after they should have already been there? Shouldn't Eve have already existed in some physical form before Adam's rib (or 'side, half', if you want a better translation) was removed to make her?

This is something I keep coming back to every few months. It's almost impossible for me not too. I can only hope that one day I'll get to learn about exactly what happened and what everything in these scriptures means. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'll get any concrete answers in this life, but it's still fun and useful for me to think about.