Brandino-
The creation stories of Genesis were intended for those who already knew another creation story, namely, this one:
www.theologywebsite.com/etext/egypt/creation.shtml
In this creation story gods and goddesses created other gods and goddesses until the very last day of creation, when they created mankind and all the other animals almost as an afterthought. But, like the story in Genesis, the entire process took 1 week.
Every egyptian god and goddess had a visible representation. It might have been a celestial object, such as the sun or moon. It might have been an animal, such as the hawk. Or, and this was what occurred most of the time, it might have been a combination of at least two different species of animals, such as a being with the head of a jackal attached to the body of a man. There were over 40 different gods and goddesses in their pantheon, with every one of them having a visible form.
The first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:3) methodically 'stripped' every celestial object, every part of this planet, and every animal of its divine representation. The sun, moon and stars were merely objects which gave them light, the various parts of this planet were merely various forms of the earth, and the animals around them were merely other species of animals. The only Being which could be seen as a deity was above and apart from all that he had created. As such his image could never be painted on a wall or chieled out of stone. Moses had completely demythologized all that his people had previously been taught.
The second creation story (Genesis 2:4-25) also countered egyptian mythology. Rather than mankind's being seen as just another animal created with the others, we were to be seen as set apart from all other species of animals. We could converse with God directly, we were given the authority to name all the other species, we were given a specific place where we could live comfortably, and even our helpmate was created in a unique manner.
We were also given another power that no other animal has even today. We were given the power to deliberately disobey God's instructions to us in favor of our own arrogance. It is because we acted on this ability at some point in prehistory that, alone of all the species of animals, we can identify certain actions as good, while other actions are evil. Moses described the moment when we lost our innocence in his story of The Fall of Man. He used the egyptian narrative of Ra fighting Sebau the serpent-fiend, defeating him, chaining his forelegs together while cutting off his hindlegs, and thus forcing him to crawl on the ground as the means of explaining it, but the people to whom it was written 'got the message' that Moses was conveying to them.
As for The Great Flood, that story was known to people in such divergent places as Asia and North America. That something did occur is definite. What exactly happened has been theorized as the flooding which occurred following the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age, an asteroid's hitting the ocean with sufficient force to send tsunamis which wiped out all the coastal villages, and even the planet's wobbling on its axis so as to empty the sea basins, much like a glass of water would be emptied if a person held it and then shook it violently from side-to-side.
But the story of Noah in Genesis was not intended to focus on a specific flood. It was intended to focus on God's taking steps to save those who had remained faithful to him, even though he realized that he must destroy the entire planet. Noah and his family were loyal to God, and they were credited for their loyalty by being saved while all others perished. We see this today as only being fair, but at the time when this was written it was a radical concept. The other religions of that day believed that the gods and goddesses simply wiped out everyone if they chose to wipe out anyone. Loyalty to them was not rewarded.
As for homosexuality, it, like adultery, fornication, and other forms of sexual union not between a husband and wife in the traditional sense, was seen as narcissism. The strength of a society lay not in magnificent palaces and temples, but in the family unit. So long as it was strong and cohesive, the society which it was the foundation of would itself be strong and cohesive. But to whatever extent that family unit was weakened,, the entire society would also be weakened. And homosexuality was one of the means of weakening the family unit, in that it conspired to provide pleasure without the accepting of responsibilities concurrent with that pleasure.
As for evolution, that theory depends on this planet's not having an extinction level event since the one which wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But there have been ELE's since then according to scientists:
1. A meteor impact crater in Chesapeake Bay, USA, has been dated to 35 million years ago. It measures 53 miles in diameter. An evolutionary apologist claimed that it only made a big splash, but in that case it would not have left a crater that measures 53 miles across.
2. A meteor crater in Tajikistan, Russian Republic, has been dated to 10 million years ago. It measures 32 miles in diameter. Evolutionists like to pretend it isn't there, but it is.
3. The supervolcano that Yellowstone National Park, USA, sits on top of has erupted three times in the last 2 million years.
4. Mt. Toba, the supervolcano on Sumatra, Indonesia, erupted 70,000 years ago with enough force so that its ash has been found in Greenland.
What do these all have in common? After the initial destruction, which would have been catastrophic, they all ejected sulfurous gasses and ash to the very edge of our atmosphere. This ejecta would have then enveloped the earth, blocking the sun's rays from its surface. The result would have been a planetary drop in temperature to that of a presentday walk-in freezer. And there it would have remained year-round for years, if not decades.
When asked about these events, evolutionists have said, "If some had not survived, they couldn't have evolved to the point where we are today, and we wouldn't be here." That is called a 'circular argument.' The survival of all advanced species of animals, including man's ancestors, in a worldwide situation known to be lethal to all, canot be said to have occurred merely in order to defend a theory. How did they survive years of temperatures which we know even today to kill all who suffer prolonged exposure to it? Reality dictates that they didn't. If that destroys a theory, then the theory was not based on facts, but instead on supposition.
As for Christianity's being the outgrowth of mythologies, that argument falls apart based on facts. Jesus' birth, where he grew up, where he preached, and where he died are all specific places. The time in which all this occurred is also a specific time. We can say that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, preached in Galilee and Judea at least between the years of 30 and 33 AD, and was crucified just outside the walls of Jerusalem in 33 AD on the order of Pontius Pilate. Even the tomb in which his body was laid was specifically identified as that of Joseph of Arimathea, which meant that there were records kept which showed exactly where that tomb was located.
But the mythologies either gave no location for the events which occurred in their stories, or gave locations which no one could have access to at the time that the stories were being read. They also either gave no period of time in which the events occurred, or gave periods of time that were centuries removed from those who read the stories. IOW, nothing they said could either be proven or disproven. Unlike them, much of New Testament was written well within the lifetime of eyewitnesses to the events, and the places where the events took place could be journeyed to by anyone who read of their occurring at those places. If the authors had been lying, or even embellishing, they would have been caught easily.
God bless-
And if you are part of the debate, you'll also have the opportunity to help others realize what the truth is as well.
