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Given the history of how humans tell stories, having animals talk is invariably a literary device. These other things - virgin birth, healing the sick, and resurrection from the dead are not in this same category.A talking donkey.
A virgin birth.
The blind and crippled healed.
A man walks on water.
A man crucified dead and buried but raised on the third day.
That same man walking through walls and being lifted up back into the heavens until he disappeared from sight.
I will say the same to you, come on man. Do you believe those things?
If you have already noticed, that Genesis covers a vast period of time. From the creation event up to the era of Moses.
In Genesis you have priesthood (Melchizedek), you have sacrifices, altars. Sin is in the world. We have the law given to Noah. We have covenants.
We have clean and unclean animals in the ark, Noah. We even have a rest day on the seventh day in Genesis. So it is highly likely that the text, was written by folk after the law of Mt Sinai. Unless of course the law was in effect before Moses?
We essentially have a problem in understanding what the purpose of this book of Genesis serves.
Is it a scientific journal regarding the creation of the universe?
Is it a strictly, historical record of every generation of humanity through history?
Is the book of Genesis, a simple religious account written for a very simple audience, thousands of years ago?
The Old Testament is wholly a Jewish text that grounds a Jew in their religious ancestry. The intervention of God in Israel's vast history in choosing, their nation as God's representative nation among all the nations.
So Genesis is compact, simply written, scientifically incomprehensible. Historically not accurate or even precise.
Noah's flood occurred but not a world wide flood.
Abraham existed and was chosen by God.
The genealogy is not accurate, the people mentioned may not be direct descendants, as in the son of preceding person. The Hebrew language did not have words for grandfather or even great grandfather.
The Genesis text is a summary, an overview, of Jewish history. For that purpose it was written. The Genesis text is also deeply symbolic. The tree in the center of the garden may not have been a tree at all. The garden may have represented something more pure. Be very careful when stepping through Genesis, a soft touch is necessary.
Given the history of how humans tell stories, having animals talk is invariably a literary device. These other things - virgin birth, healing the sick, and resurrection from the dead are not in this same category.
What needs to be SPLIT INTO TWO SEPARATE PILES is Christians.
In one pile - are those who say : "Everything in the Bible is literally true, and anyone who doesn't believe that is deceived by atheists, of the devil, and shouldn't call themself a Christian".
In the other pile are Christians who acknowledge that there are some things figurative not literal, that the SUN did not stand still when Joshua commanded it, that Samson picking up a donkey' s jawbone and killing a THOUSAND enemies before setting it back down is hyperbole - yet in this pile are those who DO INDEED differentiate between virgin birth, walking on water, resurrection, healings and other miracles.
Sigh.
One pile does not insinuate that the other pile is not Christian, one pile does.
Which pile are you in?
No, you are a bad Christian if you behave immorally, not when you just do not accept one specific view about Bible.Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?
What needs to be SPLIT INTO TWO SEPARATE PILES is Christians.
In one pile - are those who say : "Everything in the Bible is literally true, and anyone who doesn't believe that is deceived by atheists, of the devil, and shouldn't call themself a Christian".
In the other pile are Christians who acknowledge that there are some things figurative not literal, that the SUN did not stand still when Joshua commanded it, that Samson picking up a donkey' s jawbone and killing a THOUSAND enemies before setting it back down is hyperbole - yet in this pile are those who DO INDEED differentiate between virgin birth, walking on water, resurrection, healings and other miracles.
Sigh.
One pile does not insinuate that the other pile is not Christian, one pile does.
Which pile are you in?
My definition of pile one included statements from this very thread - "deceived by atheists" "shouldn't call themself a Christian" "of the devil" - these phrases were posted in this thread.
I believe the history of creation given in Genesis is written in story form. We read about the fruit of the "Tree" of Life - but elsewhere we are told that this is the Word of God (John 1:1-4), and Jesus also likens it to water (John 6:63; John 4:14). In Revelation, it's a river (Revelation 22:1) and the "Tree" of Life is in the middle of the river.Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?
Where did 3 billion come from? I was always taught Earth's age is 4.6 billion years old in school. Later the number was changed to 4.5 billion with no given explanation.
You can prove cats have always been obligate carnivores since the first feline species was made. Who can deny the purpose of triangular teeth and why four are long enough to cut through prey animals?
Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?
No, just confused but willing to admit it, unlike most: )Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?
Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?
. I know quite a few atheists who became atheists BECAUSE they realized that the main ideas of young earth creationism were wrong and or that evolution/ common descent was an accurate description of lifeThe universe is about 14 billion years old...
I might have misspoken...
but yes,,,the earth is not 6,000 years old.
And it's a shame that Christians have to be taken for such fools for believing this.
Mainstream scientists just report what Nature says about itselfYeah let's trust scientists over our Creator, that's a great advice, what could go wrong. If God said it then it is and I don't need people to tell me otherwise. If you believe in God believe in His word. If you don't are you are picking what you want to believe or not, I have a bad news for you.
If it weren’t for fetal cell DEATH you wouldn’t have fingers or toes . Fetal hands start as paddles .I believe that you and others that don't believe in Genesis are missing out on a beautiful picture. Like looking at the Sistine chapel through a cardboard tube. I think you are missing out on how scripture harmonizes with itself. When I read about the garden of Eden I see it as a foreshadowing of the New Heavens and New World. When I read that Jesus is the second Adam I know it is referring back to how Adam fell into sin and how Jesus did not. When God killed an animal to clothe Adam and eve I know it is a picture of being clothed in the blood of Jesus.
I don't see any proof of evolution.
I see creatures which look similar to one another. You probably see those and say "Common ancestry"
I look at them and says "The same God made them all out of the same material"
The evidence there didn't change, but the way it is interpreted can do.
Scientist date a fossil and give an age.
I say they don't have all the facts, that they are doing tests without all the information. They have also assumed things Inaccuracies in radiocarbon dating
Also who says that the facts they have now were the same at creation, the fall or the flood? It's quite obvious that some laws governing the world changed. At creation animals only ate plants, something changed there.
Then you have the age of the earth which does not have to match the age of creation. It says the earth was void, who says it didn't sit there for an extended period of time before God created on it? The Bible doesn't say. So its also possible for the rock to be a billion years old and the creation to be 6-15 thousand years old.
The Bible says that there was no death before sin, that man sinned and then death came in. Evolution requires a lot of death, millions of years of death. This is a very big problem with evolution and the Bible.
Of course, you are free to think whatever you like.
Mummified and mineralized tissue is not fresh . The technique Mary Schweitzer found was due to a then-new-to-science natural preservation technique.No they don't the dinosaurs were there. Not very complicated. Why are there still fresh dinosaur tissue if it was 65 million years ago? Why are there many buried near the surface? and it goes on and on.
obviously you don’t read much mythology as these are literary devices in other older (some extinct) faithsGiven the history of how humans tell stories, having animals talk is invariably a literary device. These other things - virgin birth, healing the sick, and resurrection from the dead are not in this same category.
. I know quite a few atheists who became atheists BECAUSE they realized that the main ideas of young earth creationism were wrong and or that evolution/ common descent was an accurate description of life
And they thought all Christians believed in a young earth? Arrrgggghhhhh..... I know quite a few atheists who became atheists BECAUSE they realized that the main ideas of young earth creationism were wrong and or that evolution/ common descent was an accurate description of life
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