The history of controversy over evolution and the bible is a history of confusion between biblical and scientific approaches to origins. Taking some cues from John Calvin who, in the 16th century, addressed the emerging controversies over cosmology, the paper examines a variety of differences between biblical and scientific types of literature as they deal with cosmogony. Biblical uses of phenomenal observation, analogical reasoning, numerology, and theological critique are distinguished from the approaches to origins used in modern scientific and historical investigations. Their respective models of origins are not in conflict unless they are mistakenly seen as mapping in the same way and for the same purposes.