i think i figured it out

[sodapop112]

A long time ago when people didn't understand things they made up gods (such as the Norse god Thor) to explain things. Thor explained how thunder worked. he didn't actually explain it, but nearly all Norse people belived in him. When Jesus was alive people still didn't understand many things. So he and other people created your god to explain it. Now scientists are figuring out things, slowly disproving intelligent design. One day they might figure out how life started, hopefully resolving christians ignorance of the facts once and for all.

 

[Logic_Fault]

A long time ago when people didn't understand things they made up gods (such as the Norse god Thor) to explain things. Thor explained how thunder worked. he didn't actually explain it, but nearly all Norse people belived in him.

Seems reasonably likely that this was the case.

When Jesus was alive people still didn't understand many things. So he and other people created your god to explain it.

If he lived. There's little to no evidence that he existed at all.

Now scientists are figuring out things, slowly disproving intelligent design. One day they might figure out how life started, hopefully resolving christians ignorance of the facts once and for all.

There will probably always be someone who simply will not accept fact no matter how obviously correct it's shown to be. We can still hope though.

 

[ChemicalKali]

Well yes, basically. I can understand why they would do that, seeing as they didn't have the tools we have now to explain things yet their desire to know how would probably be a strong as it is in us. Thus they insert god wherever something is unexplained.

Just imagine how thick the book of genesis would be if itexplain how the earth and universe really came to be, aswell as the mechanism for how life came to be so complex. The book would be thicker than the bible itself and too complex for people of the day to understand as they would not have the necessary background knowledge.

On a side note intelligent design isn't slowly being disproved as it never had any proof to begin with.

 

[AV1611VET]

A long time ago when people didn't understand things they made up gods...

That's not quite true, Sodapop --- people back then were just as intelligent (more, in my opinion) than we are today, and ignorance is no excuse.

 

[Valkhorn]

That's not quite true, Sodapop --- people back then were just as intelligent (more, in my opinion) than we are today, and ignorance is no excuse.

What with all the lasers and time machines and space ships they had back then.

 

[Chalnoth]

That's not quite true, Sodapop --- people back then were just as intelligent (more, in my opinion) than we are today, and ignorance is no excuse.

While highly likely, as our genetic code hasn't changed much in the last 10,000 years, let alone 2,000, today we know a whole heck of a lot more. You can be as intelligent as you like, but if you don't have knowledge, you will pretty much always reach wrong conclusions.

 

[Morcova]

You can be as intelligent as you like, but if you don't have knowledge, you will pretty much always reach wrong conclusions.

Kind of like when someone equates intellect with knowledge.

 

[CCGirl]

A long time ago when people didn't understand things they made up gods (such as the Norse god Thor) to explain things. Thor explained how thunder worked. he didn't actually explain it, but nearly all Norse people belived in him. When Jesus was alive people still didn't understand many things. So he and other people created your god to explain it. Now scientists are figuring out things, slowly disproving intelligent design. One day they might figure out how life started, hopefully resolving christians ignorance of the facts once and for all.

I agree. I would also add that governments promoted these beliefs to control the populace. They dont like people thinking.

 

[Beastt]

Just imagine how thick the book of genesis would be if itexplain how the earth and universe really came to be, aswell as the mechanism for how life came to be so complex. The book would be thicker than the bible itself and too complex for people of the day to understand as they would not have the necessary background knowledge.

I agree with everything else you said but I think this might warrant a bit of clarification. If you look to Genesis now, you'll note that it doesn't go into mechanisms. It just makes blanket statements, (i.e. "God did this", "God did that".) It rarely goes into much detail about how it was done. But, where it does provide details, it gets itself into trouble and exposes the conjecture of the authors. For instance, Adam was said to have been formed from a lump of dust, breathed upon by God. Then Eve was created by putting Adam to sleep and extracting one of his ribs. This seems to expose the belief of the time that women were inferior to men and is a complete diversion from the processes of evolution. Theists prefer to cover for such short-comings by claiming the Bible to be non-literal, even in places where it was taught quite literally by the church for tens of centuries. Little by little science is showing the Bible to be wrong and whenever this happens, believers scramble for non-literal readings of the portions demonstrated to be incorrect. The Bible's references to geocentrism are perhaps one of the better examples of this. Taught and violently defended for over 16-centuries by the church, there is no longer any reasonable room to dispute heliocentrism so Christians today are taught that these verses in scripture must be read to say other than what they actually say, (non-literal reading). The Bible's accounts of creation are undergoing a similar transformation from literal to non-literal to cover for the increasing demonstrability of evolution.

This system works so poorly for some parts of Genesis that nearly all the text must be abandoned in order for the non-literal reading to completely cover all of the obvious mistakes in the conjecture of the authors. It usually leads to the complete abandonment of the 6-day chronology upon which the entire account is built.

But my point is that the Bible could well say that God caused the tiny components of life to gather together into a workable form he called "life" and then allowed that life reproduce life with slight variations leading to eventual changes between offspring and parents. It wouldn't be necessary to go into great detail about genes, DNA, DNA replications, mutations etc. Of course that would require that the authors actually held some understanding of how life occurred, how the planet and universe formed and how nature actually works. And one must only read a small portion of Genesis with an open mind to realize that they had less than a clue.

Hats off to the opening poster. Such a conclusion, in my opinion, requires some well-developed critical thinking skills for one so young.

 

[Lincoln0010]

As this is a Christian website, and as I myself call myself a Christian, I don't mind saying...

Most Christians will not disagree with you that people made up gods for themselves... It is even recorded in the Bible! Take the golden calf, for instance.

Perhaps what we would disagree about would be the cause for them doing that. I think from a Biblical standpoint, it would be said that there is something in a man that causes him to seek a higher "spiritual" truth... call it conscience... whatever...

 

[Beastt]

As this is a Christian website, and as I myself call myself a Christian, I don't mind saying...

Most Christians will not disagree with you that people made up gods for themselves... It is even recorded in the Bible! Take the golden calf, for instance.

Perhaps what we would disagree about would be the cause for them doing that. I think from a Biblical standpoint, it would be said that there is something in a man that causes him to seek a higher "spiritual" truth... call it conscience... whatever...

I would call it a desire to understand the workings of nature in the hopes that such understanding might lead to some form of control. That's what the classic representation of the volcano gods were all about. Once people determined that a god caused the volcano to errupt, the next step was to try to appease the god to reduce the potential for erruption. This offered them the security of believing they had managed some level of control over the devastation which resulted from erruptions. The same goes for gods attributed to storms, droughts, earthquakes, range fires and tsunamis.

But while the assumption of gods have always failed to provide the desired level of control, science has offered demonstrable mechanisms behind natural disasters and provides a level of warning, if not actual control over them. But it's unlikely science will ever defeat death and every man will eventually die. The result is the Christian God, (and many other gods), which are said to promise ever-lasting life. Problem solved. The only drawback is that there is no reason to find this explanation and resolution to be any more appropriate or effective than tossing a virgin into a volcano to avoid an erruption.

 

[Jig]

So, you figured it out, huh?

A long time ago when people didn't understand things they made up gods (such as the Norse god Thor) to explain things. Thor explained how thunder worked. he didn't actually explain it, but nearly all Norse people belived in him.

I'll partially agree with that. What made them turn to a higher power or god for answers? This is the same with cultures all over the globe. Why not some other supernatural explaination. This "religious" urge doesn't fit well within Darwinistic beliefs. How can religion and specifically morality and ethical values be a by-product of natural selection? Maybe, just maybe, their urge to seek out a higher power is an instinct based on truth.

When Jesus was alive people still didn't understand many things. So he and other people created your god to explain it. Now scientists are figuring out things, slowly disproving intelligent design. One day they might figure out how life started, hopefully resolving christians ignorance of the facts once and for all.

Don't be so quick to think the status quo today will be the same 100 years from now. Your assumptions about Christians and the theory of ID are just that, assumptions.

You're only 14! That is not enough time to study and research the evidence. It seems that you are taking the conclusions of others and making them your own. Take the time to study ID from a non-bias source, you may be surprised.

 

[Ondoher]

Take the time to study ID from a non-bias source, you may be surprised.

ID has no content. There's nothing to study.

 

[AV1611VET]

What with all the lasers and time machines and space ships they had back then.

Intelligence doesn't equal technology.

However, it has been conjectured - (and I believe it) - that the reason God intervened in the Tower of Babel incident is because technology was advancing faster than civilization, and had God not stopped the advance, they would probably have had the lasers and space vehicles within a thousand years.

Aristotle seriously stunted the growth of science for 2000 years by proposing that matter was made up of only 4 elements (despite the Bible saying otherwise), and while others disagreed with him, the scientific community prevailed.

 

[MrGoodBytes]

Intelligence doesn't equal technology.

However, it has been conjectured - (and I believe it) - that the reason God intervened in the Tower of Babel incident is because technology was advancing faster than civilization, and had God not stopped the advance, they would probably have had the lasers and space vehicles within a thousand years.

And this would have been a bad thing because..

Aristotle seriously stunted the growth of science for 2000 years by proposing that matter was made up of only 4 elements (despite the Bible saying otherwise), and while others disagreed with him, the scientific community prevailed.

Yes, the scientific community of the third century BC was a force to be reckoned with.

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

Intelligence doesn't equal technology.

Technology comes from intelligence.

 

[AV1611VET]

And this would have been a bad thing because..

We're getting into speculation here, but my biggest theory is that God hadn't created the Jews yet, and their 400-year captivity in Egypt would have led to even greater problems for them when they left.

Can you imagine Pharaoh chasing after them in much faster chariots, or the walls of Jericho being fortified with anti-earthquake technology?

The state-of-the-art warfare technology of the time, which gave the Israelites the most problem, were the Iron Chariots, and the 10-man Syrian chariots.

• [bible]Joshua 17:16[/bible]
• [bible]Judges 4:3[/bible]

 

[Logic_Fault]

Can you imagine Pharaoh chasing after them in much faster chariots, or the walls of Jericho being fortified with anti-earthquake technology?

The state-of-the-art warfare technology of the time, which gave the Israelites the most problem, were the Iron Chariots, and the 10-man Syrian chariots.

And all of this technology would have posed a problem to a people with an omnipotent deity backing them? How so? You wouldn't be limiting God now would you?

 

[Split Rock]

Aristotle seriously stunted the growth of science for 2000 years by proposing that matter was made up of only 4 elements (despite the Bible saying otherwise), and while others disagreed with him, the scientific community prevailed.

Whoa..... where in the bible does it explain about the elements?

 

[MrGoodBytes]

We're getting into speculation here..

...but my biggest theory is that God hadn't created the Jews yet, and their 400-year captivity in Egypt would have led to even greater problems for them when they left.
Can you imagine Pharaoh chasing after them in much faster chariots, or the walls of Jericho being fortified with anti-earthquake technology?

The state-of-the-art warfare technology of the time, which gave the Israelites the most problem, were the Iron Chariots, and the 10-man Syrian chariots.

I suggest you go look up "omnipotence" somewhere.