Words are important, and to understand scripture you need to pay attention to what the words actually say.

Words Are Important

Did God forget He had already created fruit trees?

HUMANIST QUESTION: Chapter 1 reports that the fruit trees were created before the man, while chapter 2 indicates they were made after him.

If you read what scripture says, without adding other ideas to it, it is easy to see there is no contradiction. Genesis chapter two does not say God is creating fruit trees. It is talking about God making a place for Adam and Eve to live... the Garden of Eden. Let's start our study with Genesis chapter one:

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ...and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day. - Genesis 1:11-13

From the above we see that fruit trees were spoken into existence by God on day three of creation. So what does chapter two say?

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. - Genesis 2:7-9

What does chapter two say God did? He planted a garden for Adam and Eve to live in. He did this by causing plant life... and specifically "every tree that is pleasing to sight and good for food "to grow there. The context is that of creating Adam and Eve and then providing for their needs (food in this case).

BTW, is this something God could do today? Could He pick a place on earth and make "every tree that is pleasing to sight and good for food" to grow there?” Yes, of course He could. Would that be a new creation? No. Those same kinds of trees already exist in other places. What God is doing is supernaturally making a functional place... “planting” a garden that is suitable for people to live in and that provides everything they need to live.

So there is no contradiction.

Next accusation:

Genesis 1:20 says the fowl were created out of the waters; Genesis 2:19 alleges they were formed from the ground.

Get the answer here.