Then apparently the majority of christians are not "true christians" because the majority of christians accept evolution.
I did not say that you should go and pick and choose which verses to take literally and which verses not to. If you believe god created the universe, he does that for you.
If god created the universe and nature, then nature is gods creation.
Science is the study of nature.
Thus, science is the study of gods creation.
If gods creation disagrees with a human interpretation of the bible, which is incorrect? Gods creation or human interpretation of the bible?
I would assume god does not lie to us, thus if gods creation disagrees with our falible interpretation of the bible, I would guess that it would be our interpretation that needs changing.
A quote I stole from Lucaspas Sig,
"If sound science appears to contradict the Bible, we may be sure that it is our interpretation of the Bible that is at fault." Christian Observer, 1832, pg. 437;
Many agree with this quote.
Tell me, do you believe the earth is flat? Do you believe the sun and planets revolve around the earth?
At one time, both of these things were believed because of a literal interpretation of the bible (and still are believed by small groups). Yet many seem to accepts what gods creation tells them, that those verses should not be taken literally.
Just the same, I am not saying you should arbitrarily pick and choose what you take literally, I am saying that you should look at all the evidence in gods creation and let that evidence tell you what you should not take literally.
Just as the evidence suggests certain geocentric verses of the bible not be taken literally, the evidence also suggests that creationist and young earth verses in the bible should not be taken literally. This of course does not diminish any of the other verses, nore jesus, or original sin, etc., and has allowed many christians to delve deeper into the verses that they used to take literally and get further inspiration from.
jay_swift said:
I'm very impressed with your post in response to mine, Arikay! Very deep indeed.
If I don't believe the literal interpretation, then I don't think I would be a real Christian. If I got to pick and chose which parts of the Bible were true and which were for the sake of the overall story, then what's stopping me from saying The Commandments were wrong? (There might be some theory that contradicts a passage) Plus if I buckle under every hard question about the Bible, do I really believe what it says?