Why are some Christians anti Evolution?

[AV1611VET]

And again, I have to ask...why?

So whether He created it, then "sped it up" (BNR32FAN), or created it "sped up" (AV1611VET), you still have to ask why?

 

[Bradskii]

I didn’t see you ask this before, but who cares what they might think? Why would that have any relevance at all to the truth? Try to keep in mind your asking me what I believe the Bible teaches, I’m not trying to make you believe anything. So if you don’t want to believe it then don’t and if you don’t want to hear about it then don’t ask.

The point being, as was discussed earlier in a couple of posts, is that we can see you are definitely an intelligent and reasonable person. Your posts are coherent and well written. But you have a dog in this fight. We're not arguing over opinions. We're arguing over your fundamental beliefs, not science v creationism.

The fact that most Christians find no problem in reading Genesis as metaphor is beside the point as far as you are concerned. You are commited to this position. Heart and (perhaps literally) soul.

 

[BNR32FAN]

And again, I have to ask...why?

I don’t know maybe because that’s how rocks are made. Maybe He did want the earth to appear older than it is, it wouldn’t surprise me. If He did then I would imagine it was probably for the same reason that Jesus spoke in parables.

 

[AV1611VET]

I don’t know maybe because that’s how rocks are made. Maybe He did want the earth to appear older than it is, it wouldn’t surprise me. If He did then I would imagine it was probably for the same reason that Jesus spoke in parables.

Some things can't perform God's will unless they're old.

Adam, for example, was given a job, a wife, and told to have children.

Something that couldn't be done, had Adam been created a baby.

Raisin bread can't be raisin bread without aged grapes.

 

[Bradskii]

If the quote at the bottom of your posts is meant to be the answer...it wasn't. We know what the bible says. We know that some people think that God made everything to look old. The whole universe in fact. And if it wasn't for His benefit and it wasn't for ours, then why did He do it?

You gave the answer a few pages back. You don't know why. And that pretty much precludes any reason for further discussion. Because this is all about the 'why'.

 

[AV1611VET]

You gave the answer a few pages back. You don't know why. And that pretty much precludes any reason for further discussion. Because this is all about the 'why'.

That's science for you.

Tell someone what someone did, when he did it, why he did it, where he did it, what order he did it in, how long it took him to do it, why it took him that long, and who the eyewitnesses were, and what does the scientist say?

"Tell me more, or you're just wasting my time."

 

[BNR32FAN]

The point being, as was discussed earlier in a couple of posts, is that we can see you are definitely an intelligent and reasonable person. Your posts are coherent and well written. But you have a dog in this fight. We're not arguing over opinions. We're arguing over your fundamental beliefs, not science v creationism.

The fact that most Christians find no problem in reading Genesis as metaphor is beside the point as far as you are concerned. You are commited to this position. Heart and (perhaps literally) soul.

I feel like I have to be. I don’t see any evidence supporting Genesis being metaphorical. A metaphor is typically used as an analogy or something similar to a parable in order to support a certain teaching. What lesson would Genesis be metaphorically teaching? There’s nothing to connect it to in the entire book. Jesus spoke metaphorically all the time and those of us who believe can understand His analogies. Genesis being metaphorical is like coming out of nowhere. There’s no lesson being taught other than the creation of the earth. Because there’s nothing to connect it to in order to conclude that it is metaphor then I have to expect that it is literal because there’s no hidden message there. I am the door, that’s metaphorical we all know Jesus is the way to salvation, anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will never die is metaphorical. If we receive Christ within us we will have eternal life. What’s the analogy that Genesis 1 is referring to?

 

[ottawak]

Because it says so in verse 1

“Then God spoke all these words, saying,”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20:1‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

In the third person; it's not God saying "Then God spake all these words, saying." What follows is in the first person, because it's the quoted speech of God. "I am the Lord thy God..." and so on. in English we would use quotation marks, but Hebrew doesn't have them, so the only indication of quoted speech is the change of voicing. The voicing switches back to third person at 20:11, closing the quote. Now to settle this, one would have to know more about biblical Hebrew than both of us put together. But my point is, that what you offer as "proof" is really only conjecture and at that is built upon a theory of divine inspiration that not all Christians subscribe to. So, the verdict is, not proved.

 

[BNR32FAN]

If the quote at the bottom of your posts is meant to be the answer...it wasn't. We know what the bible says. We know that some people think that God made everything to look old. The whole universe in fact. And if it wasn't for His benefit and it wasn't for ours, then why did He do it?

You gave the answer a few pages back. You don't know why. And that pretty much precludes any reason for further discussion. Because this is all about the 'why'.

Where did I say that? Which post?

 

[ottawak]

No ya just need to know how to read. My 8 year old can read that passage and tell you how long it took God to create the universe without my help.

And what makes you think that the text should be fully accessible to an 8 year old?

 

[AV1611VET]

I feel like I have to be. I don’t see any evidence supporting Genesis being metaphorical. A metaphor is typically used as an analogy or something similar to a parable in order to support a certain teaching. What lesson would Genesis be metaphorically teaching? There’s nothing to connect it to in the entire book. Jesus spoke metaphorically all the time and those of us who believe can understand His analogies. Genesis being metaphorical is like coming out of nowhere. There’s no lesson being taught other than the creation of the earth. Because there’s nothing to connect it to in order to conclude that it is metaphor then I have to expect that it is literal because there’s no hidden message there. I am the door, that’s metaphorical we all know Jesus is the way to salvation, anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will never die is metaphorical. If we receive Christ within us we will have eternal life. What’s the analogy that Genesis 1 is referring to?

Excellent post.

 

[BNR32FAN]

In the third person; it's not God saying "Then God spake all these words, saying." What follows is in the first person, because it's the quoted speech of God. "I am the Lord thy God..." and so on. in English we would use quotation marks, but Hebrew doesn't have them, so the only indication of quoted speech is the change of voicing. The voicing switches back to third person at 20:11, closing the quote. Now to settle this, one would have to know more about biblical Hebrew than both of us put together. But my point is, that what you offer as "proof" is really only conjecture and at that is built upon a theory of divine inspiration that not all Christians subscribe to. So, the verdict is, not proved.

If we can’t even agree that the Bible is the inspired word of God then why are we having this discussion? Now we’ve come from Genesis being a metaphor to the Bible isn’t the inspired word of God and if that’s the case then according to you it’s just an old book. I mean are you a believer or not? If so then how can you say you believe anything the Bible says about God if you don’t believe it’s His inspired word? The Bible even says it’s the inspired word of God. If you can’t believe when the Bible says that God specifically said something then why believe any of it? Do you believe bits & pieces?

 

[ottawak]

I feel like I have to be. I don’t see any evidence supporting Genesis being metaphorical. A metaphor is typically used as an analogy or something similar to a parable in order to support a certain teaching. What lesson would Genesis be metaphorically teaching? There’s nothing to connect it to in the entire book. Jesus spoke metaphorically all the time and those of us who believe can understand His analogies. Genesis being metaphorical is like coming out of nowhere. There’s no lesson being taught other than the creation of the earth. Because there’s nothing to connect it to in order to conclude that it is metaphor then I have to expect that it is literal because there’s no hidden message there. I am the door, that’s metaphorical we all know Jesus is the way to salvation, anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will never die is metaphorical. If we receive Christ within us we will have eternal life. What’s the analogy that Genesis 1 is referring to?

The poverty of your list of possible alternatives to a literal and inerrant Genesis is astonishing.

 

[Bradskii]

I don’t know maybe because that’s how rocks are made. Maybe He did want the earth to appear older than it is, it wouldn’t surprise me. If He did then I would imagine it was probably for the same reason that Jesus spoke in parables.

So if He made them that way then they are literally millions of years old. Because yeah, that's how rocks are made. You might not be appreciating that for God, making something instantly and making something over a period of a million years is exactly the same thing. It's only a million years if we are here to count them. It's only a long time for us.

So to say God made it instantly and God made it over a long period of time is exactly the same thing. Telling people a couple of thousand years ago when making clay pots and bronze swords was the limit of their technology and stars were just pretty lights in the firmamemt that the Universe (what, the land that we live on and the sun and moon?) was created from a singularity a few billion years ago would have got you a lot of blank stares. So hmmm...let's explain it in a way that they will understand. Let's divide it up into time scales that people can appreciate. Keep it simple. Explain who did it and why but let's leave out the technical stuff that will go straight over their heads.

But you want to read it from the position of someone from the bronze age who wouldn't know a scientific fact if he fell over it.

 

[Bradskii]

...why he did it...

You've already said that you have no idea why He did it as He did. What else is there to say?

 

[ottawak]

If we can’t even agree that the Bible is the inspired word of God then why are we having this discussion? Now we’ve come from Genesis being a metaphor to the Bible isn’t the inspired word of God and if that’s the case then according to you it’s just an old book. I mean are you a believer or not? If so then how can you say you believe anything the Bible says about God if you don’t believe it’s His inspired word? The Bible even says it’s the inspired word of God. If you can’t believe when the Bible says that God specifically said something then why believe any of it? Do you believe bits & pieces?

Have I not been civil with you? Now you have to put lies in my mouth? You impugn my faith in Christ? For shame! I have never denied the divine inspiration of scripture. I believe it as all Christians do even Chistians who subscribe to a different theory of divine inspiration than either of us. But you, in your arrogance, denounce anyone who does not agree with your interpretation of scripture to be dismissing the Bible as "just an old book." What hubris!

 

[AV1611VET]

You've already said that you have no idea why He did it as He did. What else is there to say?

Why He did it.

He did it out of love, so as to share His glory with us.

Isaiah 43:7b ... for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

 

[Bradskii]

I feel like I have to be. I don’t see any evidence supporting Genesis being metaphorical.

But there is a gargantuan, a tsunami, a galactic (literally) amount of evidence that shows it cannot be taken literally.

And you should look up the meaning of metaphor (as being used in this discussion): A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn't literally true, but helps explain an idea. Metaphors.

So as nobody back then was going to have the foggiest idea of the actual means by which God made the universe, He used figures of speech that described an action in a way that wasn't literally true, but helped explain an idea.

 

[Astrid]

I feel like I have to be. I don’t see any evidence supporting Genesis being metaphorical. A metaphor is typically used as an analogy or something similar to a parable in order to support a certain teaching. What lesson would Genesis be metaphorically teaching? There’s nothing to connect it to in the entire book. Jesus spoke metaphorically all the time and those of us who believe can understand His analogies. Genesis being metaphorical is like coming out of nowhere. There’s no lesson being taught other than the creation of the earth. Because there’s nothing to connect it to in order to conclude that it is metaphor then I have to expect that it is literal because there’s no hidden message there. I am the door, that’s metaphorical we all know Jesus is the way to salvation, anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will never die is metaphorical. If we receive Christ within us we will have eternal life. What’s the analogy that Genesis 1 is referring to?

This time, I have to say I agree with you.
The 6 day thing, A and E, flood, I think whoever
wrote most likely meant it as accurate history.
" Metaphor" does not ring true for me


Did you ever think about this detail? Polar ice dates as
vastly older than the genesis story, like most everything else,
of course but-
A flood would have floated it off, broken it all
up and melted it.
Do you suppose God then replaced it, with all the
intricate details of age in place, for the second time?

 

[Bradskii]

Why He did it.

He did it out of love, so as to share His glory with us.

You're answering your own question. I guess it's a way to guarantee an answer you like. But yet again, the question was why He did it as He did.

You've said on at least two ocassions that you don't know. Yet again...what else is there to be said?