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Translation and interpretation is not simple. People do not begin to study the rules of interpretation until they go to bible college. I understand the literal bible is simple but there is a lot more to the Bible than that. Even your statement: "we believe Him". Do we really know God, do we really understand Him?The Biblical account of the Creation comes from an eye witness account of someone who was actually there. We either believe Him or we don't. It's about as simple as that.
A day can be around 24 hours, it can be 1,000 years it can be around 5 or 6 billion years. Depends on what you are looking at. The main thing is that God declares the end from the Beginning so we look back on time but from God's perspective He is looking forward.So evening and morning in Genesis 1 is definitely an unknown day length. Should we even consider it being a measurement?
That's God speaking to Job. Job didn't actually eyewitness anything. It's just God telling Job about it, after the fact.What do you make of this?
"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
(Job 38:4-7).
So, because God told Job that He laid the earth's foundation, then He was there. Was God mistaken or lying when He said that to Job?
You believe what God literally says, or you don't.So evening and morning in Genesis 1 is definitely an unknown day length. Should we even consider it being a measurement?
What! What other interpretation is there to what God has literally said? If He said that He laid the foundation of the earth, do we interpret that to say that He actually didn't? Or do we dream up an interpretation that has little to do with He actually said to Job?Translation and interpretation is not simple. People do not begin to study the rules of interpretation until they go to bible college. I understand the literal bible is simple but there is a lot more to the Bible than that. Even your statement: "we believe Him". Do we really know God, do we really understand Him?
If God said, "Where you there?" means that He was there, so He was an eye witness to what happened. He can make something happen and be an eye witness to the results at the same time. Common sense, thou art a gem!!That's God speaking to Job. Job didn't actually eyewitness anything. It's just God telling Job about it, after the fact.
But also, it's still worth noting that the text is written in an ancient near east framework. Who laid it's cornerstone, on what were its bases sunk, who stretched a measuring line across it etc. that's poetic language written in an ancient near east framework paralleling creation to the building of a temple.
So it probably shouldn't be thought of as if Job time traveled and saw the big bang or anything like that.
God ask Job the same thing, his days or God's days?You believe what God literally says, or you don't.
If God said, "Where you there?" means that He was there, so He was an eye witness to what happened. He can make something happen and be an eye witness to the results at the same time. Common sense, thou art a gem!!
I agree. You can believe evolution exists, but it's not good to actually worship it or put it above God.Can you be Christian and believe in evolution?
Sure, but you don't have to. You can assume evolution without believing in it. Let's talk about the utility of the theory of Evolution.
I am a Christian and worked evolution. I used the evolution model to implement AI programs. They are called evolutionary algorithms. You don't have to believe in evolution to work with it. If you search US patents in the last ten years, you will find many applications of evolution models. The theory of evolution has practical values. The US economy benefits from it. You cannot deny its utility.
Unlike other branches of hard sciences, there is not as much mathematical justification for Evolution. Nevertheless, it is a useful paradigm.
The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer
If the theory works in daily practical life, there is no need to reject it. There is no need to believe in it either in the sense of spiritual faith.
See also
So you don't believe that God is a real person who can be an eye witness to anything. Ok, I get it.Huh? Job wasn't there. That's a rhetorical question. He's saying, were you there? No, you weren't there, so stop questioning me.
Sincere question, have you read Job before?
It's God asking Job a rhetorical question to make a statement about His power and authority. But Job never actually witnessed anything.
Unless you're talking about God being an eyewitness.
It's kind of unreasonable to say "the Bible gives an eyewitness account of creation" and then to turn and say that the eyewitness wasn't actually a person but God himself.
Well of course God witnessed creation. He was the creator. But God isn't the author of the text.
Then again, God doesn't secondarily witness anything.
It would be like me baking a cake and saying, "I was an eye witness to me baking the cake!".
Well that doesn't make any sense.
Eye witness accounts are also first hand. That's what it means to make an account as an eyewitness, that is, a first-hand account. So unless you think that God wrote the book of Job, which He did not, this also wouldn't be an eyewitness account.So you don't believe that God is a real person who can be an eye witness to anything. Ok, I get it.
We did not know about DNA until 1968. I read the book by James Watson and Francis Crick. The double helix.Knowing about animal husbandry isn't the same as knowing about DNA
There are as many religions as there are people because we are all unique individuals.This is why there are maybe hundreds of thousands of religions
My point here is that I think this is false. Most explanations -- and all explanations deployed by science -- are in terms of proximate causes. Why did the car stop running? Because I ran out of gas. That is an explanation, the kind of explanation that science offers. By ruling out that kind of explanation from the discussion, you've ruled out the entirety of science, and yet you argue as if science were offering your explanations. It doesn't.It's not that everyone means the wrong thing by the word "why," but that common usage isn't the best starting point for a discussion such as this. While common usage can allow "why" to have a broader sense and does include "how" and "what," there is a clear aspect of "why" that is unique to the word itself that is a better fit with the notion of an explanation than its broader semantic range.
Yes, I get that this is your claim. That's clear. What isn't clear is why anyone should think your claim is true. It is a fact that one cannot distinguish scientific work done by theists from that done by atheists. You have yet to offer any evidence for these supposed effects on scientific understanding of matter.Whether they are aware of it or not, answers to theological questions have a great deal of influence over how people think. But the effects are subtle, because they are often adopted theological beliefs that are largely unchallenged in broader cultures and only become obvious if the individual is put into a culture that predominantly holds different theological beliefs. My suggestion was not a suggestion that your understanding should follow, but that if you don't recognize the dependence perhaps you haven't fully considered the implications of believing in an omnipresent, omnisicient God on "ordinary" matter and such.
You seem to be missing the point. My answer to your second question may change, but whatever that answer is, it has no bearing on what I think DNA and electrons are.Don't they? Do you believe that DNA and electrons exist independently, or that they are created and continually sustained by God alone?
Sure. And that's why DNA isn't mentioned in the Bible. Because the Bible was written at an earlier time.We did not know about DNA until 1968. I read the book by James Watson and Francis Crick. The double helix.
Let proposition P1 = Information creates itself.It has never been shown that a coding system and semantic information could originate by itself
Gitt has it wrong. In fact, information theory shows that every new mutation in a population increases information. And that theory is what tells us how to make the internet work and how to send reliable radio signals over billions of kilometers of space with very low-powered transmitters. All of this is impossible according to Gitt's assumptions. If you'd like to see the numbers for increase in information by random mutations, I can show you a simple example.Why evolution is impossible
Dr. Gitt, a former professor of information systems, explains, “The basic flaw of all evolutionary views is the origin of the information in living beings. It has never been shown that a coding system and semantic information could originate by itself [through matter]. … The information theorems predict that this will never be possible. A purely material origin of life is thus [ruled out]” (In the Beginning Was Information, 2005, p. 123)..
Genesis 1:24 And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done.A purely material origin of life is thus [ruled out]”
Flew apparently was completely unaware that evolution is not about the origin of nucleic acids. However, we do observe how existing DNA is formed and developed in evolution. Maybe you should have checked with a biologist instead of a philosopher.One of the world’s most famous atheists, Professor Antony Flew, admitted he couldn’t explain how DNA was created and developed through evolution
Sorry to disappoint, but...The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 led to the understanding of how information in the form of a code was necessary for life. But such complex information cannot originate from material simply falling into place; it has to come from an intelligent Creator.
If you suppose that God built into the universe, the rules that would bring forth the needed components of DNA by natural processes. But that's as far as the facts will take you.Study DNA and other wonders of God’s creation, and you will find evidence of intelligent design.
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