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How Have You resolved the Creationism vs Evolution Debate?

Assyrian

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It doesn't fit the definition of an allegory. It doesn't use fictional characters to represent abstract ideas. The use of a few symbolic images in the creation story does not make an allegory. The images represent real things,not ideas.
I think you need to be careful trying to limit Hebrew thought to narrow definitions of allegory based on Greek literature. The OT talks of these non literal passages as riddles and dark sayings, allegory and parable are similar concepts in Greek, but you couldn't think OT was written according to Greek categories.
 
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theFijian

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It doesn't fit the definition of an allegory. It doesn't use fictional characters to represent abstract ideas.
Which is why Abraham appears in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus?

The use of a few symbolic images in the creation story does not make an allegory. The images represent real things,not ideas.

So the parables just address ideas and not real things?
 
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shernren

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But this is what the LORD says:
​​​​​​​​Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? (Job 38:35, ESV)​

The problem with your argument is that the Bible itself makes no distinction between, say, "gravity and optics" and "life and order". It is all upheld by the word of the power of the Son (Hebrews 1:3). Do we have an adequate natural explanation for the night? And for how a lion captures its prey? The Psalmist gives glory to God for them both:

​​​​​​​​You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. ​​​​​​​​The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. (Ps 104:20-21, ESV)​

On one hand, according to you, it would be something of an intellectual contradiction to accept a naturalistic explanation for how night falls as adequate, and also to believe that God acts on it. But on the other hand the Bible indeed demands in its very words that God in fact brings night.

Do you believe that scientists do not have an adequate naturalistic explanation for how night falls?
 
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Old Seer

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Which is why Abraham appears in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus?



So the parables just address ideas and not real things?

And you are eggzackly correct. earth=soul, waters=mind/mentality, greater light=knowledge of what is human, lesser light=knowledge of what is animal/darkness within ones own nature. Waters above=animal mind- as being in a state of mind above others which originates from one's animal side, waters below=the human side-a state of mind that is equal and compatible with/to others, as in-all are created equal. Notice that man is created in the waters "under" the firmament. Stars=the things that are important to you and "highly" regarded, and what lights up you life (modern term). The Creeping thing=catlike-a predator/the predator within, proper man/Christian is not a predator-to remain cages as in ruled over or having dominion over rather then be one. Etc. Take it from there.
 
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Old Seer

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Parables are hypotheticals that relate to real events at a future time, or a personal event. In the case of the 10 talents there are grave consequeces for not doing according to one's abilities in concerns of improving their persons or propagating "the word". This parable is mostly for during the end times where Armageddon awaits non-doers and non-believers. It can also apply to individuals through history, such as Adolph Hitler and his gang. Their doings were so egregious that they cannot be forgiven. They have no prospect of physical resurrection. It is not punishment, but the world hereafter when all is settled cannot take the chance of having such individuals in society.
 
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ACKerr

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See bold entries above within your text.
 
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theFijian

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My questions were rhetorical, don't assume that I believe the same as you
 
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Old Seer

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They can't move about in an environment. A tree has no free will. It determines nothing for itself. It is a life form that has no human and/or animal entity.
 
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Old Seer

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My questions were rhetorical, don't assume that I believe the same as you
I posted anything in your regard, anyway, I can't find it. I make no assumption that you believe as I. I know you don't. Like-wise, make no assumptions that I'm assuming what anyone believes, I know know basics of what others believe, everybody does.
 
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Old Seer

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See bold entries above within your text.

God created the a spirit and a soul, and the soul was without form( Non-human) and darkness was upon the face of the mind. And God said, let them be enlightened and they became so. A God saw that they formed by his knowledge, and God saw the produce of their enlightenment and saw that they were good. The knowledge of good and evil O(greater and lesser light)was the first day.
 
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theFijian

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I do apologise, I did indeed assume that when you said I was 'eggzackly correct' that you were in agreement with me. I did also assume that english was your native language
 
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A

Anthony Puccetti

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I wasn't defining allegory according to Greek categories,but according to dictionary definitions.

Where does scripture refer to the figures and symbols of Genesis as riddles and dark sayings?

In any case,the figures and symbols are are not allegories or parables in themselves,and they do not make the creation story an allegory or parable.
 
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gluadys

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Lewontin was more honest about the implications of the "scientific" view of nature. To view nature scientifically has come to mean viewing it as if only natural mechanisms and processes exist or are involved.


Why would you say that? This is what I continually come up against when speaking to Christians who object to evolution. They actually agree that atheism makes more sense of science than theism does. Why do you give a pass to Lewontin that you don't to Gould? What makes the atheist Lewontin "more honest" than the agnostic Gould? What makes either of them more believable than fellow Christians who support evolutionary science (e.g. Francis Collins, John Polkinghorne, Denis Lamoureux, etc.)?

If you really find the atheistic position more acceptable, why do you not take that position personally?


But neither does Gould's opinion come from the methods of science. The methods do not say that science cannot comment on God's involvement in nature.


Yes, they do. Science uses a limited number of methods that all boil down to an empirical observation. Show me how you would test for God's interaction in nature (aside from supernatural intervention that contravenes ordinary processes).



Well Gould is not saying that belief in natural causes alone is justifiable in the context of science. Even in scientific matters, science simply cannot adjudicate God's possible superintendence of nature; science can neither affirm or deny the role God plays in any natural event or process; science cannot comment on this one way or another.

What science can do, it does: describe the physical facts. It can do no more even if there is more. And it cannot make a judgment call on whether or not there is more.



If we accept a scientific explanation for something as true and adequate,then we are inclined to believe that natural causes alone make it happen.

Obviously some people do; I don't and I don't think Christians should, generally, take that attitude. That excludes God from nature and that is the last thing we should be doing or accepting.


This may be alright in regard to some phenomena,such as the effects of gravity or optics,

No, I disagree. It is NEVER acceptable to exclude God from any part of nature. It is never alright to think that "we have a natural explanation" means in the slightest way that "God has no role in this natural process".

We need to be as forceful as Lewontin but in the opposite direction. He insists that we "not let a Divine Foot in the door" anywhere. We should be just as adamant in refusing to yield a single natural process to "nature alone".

I don't mean by this that the scientific explanations are not adequate. Look as much as you like, you will not find anything to add to the scientific explanation. But the scientific explanation is not an alternative to God; it does not exclude God. It is a description of what God is doing in nature.



No,this isn't about the methods of science,it is about MN,which is not a physical method but a way of interpreting natural phenomena.

If it is not about the methods, then it is not about methodological naturalism. Interpreting natural phenomena to exclude God is not part of MN; it is a distinctive philosophical view quite separate from methods.
 
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gluadys

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They can't move about in an environment. A tree has no free will. It determines nothing for itself. It is a life form that has no human and/or animal entity.

If by "physical" you mean "animate" why not say "animate" in the first place and avoid the confusion.

Interestingly "animate" (from which we get the word "animal") comes from the Latin for "soul" (anima), so by definition an animal is an ensouled being.

But Aristotle also spoke of the "vegetative soul" of plants.

And, in any case we were speaking of "spirit" which is not really the same as "soul".

Personally, I hold that nothing exists physically which does not also and simultaneously exist spiritually. That includes not only all life forms (animal or not) but all non-living entities as well.

I think it misleading to associate "spirit" with categories such as mobility or self-determination. Spirit is a mode of being, not of particular abilities.
 
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Assyrian

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I wasn't defining allegory according to Greek categories,but according to dictionary definitions.
And the categories in English, the ones you read in a dictionary, come down through traditional classical education from Greek and Roman categories.

Where does scripture refer to the figures and symbols of Genesis as riddles and dark sayings?
Does it need to? Did the ancient Hebrew think riddles and dark sayings always had to come with a label saying 'this is a riddle'? Look at Jacob's description of his children Gen 49:27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil... or read about the talking trees in Judges 9. There is no introduction saying by the way I am not speaking literally, this is a riddle and a dark saying.

In any case,the figures and symbols are are not allegories or parables in themselves,and they do not make the creation story an allegory or parable.
No they are just a pretty good indication that it might be, like Benjamin turning into a wolf or trees discussing politics. You could approach it from the angle doesn't God not have the power to turn Benjamin into a wolf and give trees the ability to talk? But that would miss the point.
 
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Old Seer

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You don't understand me:
Spiritual things are spiritual things, material things are material things. The spiritual is your person not the body. You need to look up the usages for animal, animate etc. There's "animal" that referes to a state of mind and "animal" that referesd to the physical. The Apostles refer to the same, but in their case it's a State of mind/being/spiritual. Soul is spiritual---it is one's emotional structure.
 
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Mikecpking

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'Soul' is indeed connected with one's emotions, but its primary meaning is life bound up in the body, or the person (creature) themselves.
 
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