I find it sad as I study ancient history how often it is recorded that the church tried to hide or destroy evidence that it believe counterdicted the Bible instead trusting that if God was Truth that the evidence would work it out for itself.
When Jean-François Champollion, who decoded Eqyptian hieroglyphic was financed to go to Egypt on the condition that he didn't make public any information that was different than the church teachings. And now I learn that the first thing the priests did when finding hundreds of books written by the Mayans is burn them. No wonder there are so many people who believe that science and God are mutually exclusive.
The reality is that I find the science that so many people believe proves that the Bible is a fairy tale actually back my belief in God and the truth of the Bible. For example is the "scientific" belief that was all started as primative beings and evolved into to more complex and intelligent beings....versus the Biblical concept that man was created as a whole thinking man complete with art, language, and knowledge that is necessary to form an advanced society. The more ancient societies that are studied and discovered actually prove that they all had very complex knowledge, often even more advanced than ours. Even the cave art is being described as being advanced and not just primitive drawings. Even more interesting is that worldwide, the various forms of art have similarities and may even have a form of interconnected language. We would never say that the people of a society that does not have modern conveniences has "less intelligent" people who are less evolved. They just live differently with the very same brains and ability to learn as the average citizen living in the middle of western modern civilization.
I personally believe that God is able to teach us the Truth though our history and that it won't prove that God doesn't exist. And honestly, if it did...we have to accept that our god isn't any more real than the ones of Greek or Roman mythology. Faith says we accept the historical evidence as it exists and that we use the brains that God gave us to think about new possibilities, even new ways to read the Biblical messages that God has given us. How I read the Bible as a child is very different than how I read it as an adult. That doesn't mean the God's message has changed but rather my ability to understand God has matured and grown.
When Jean-François Champollion, who decoded Eqyptian hieroglyphic was financed to go to Egypt on the condition that he didn't make public any information that was different than the church teachings. And now I learn that the first thing the priests did when finding hundreds of books written by the Mayans is burn them. No wonder there are so many people who believe that science and God are mutually exclusive.
The reality is that I find the science that so many people believe proves that the Bible is a fairy tale actually back my belief in God and the truth of the Bible. For example is the "scientific" belief that was all started as primative beings and evolved into to more complex and intelligent beings....versus the Biblical concept that man was created as a whole thinking man complete with art, language, and knowledge that is necessary to form an advanced society. The more ancient societies that are studied and discovered actually prove that they all had very complex knowledge, often even more advanced than ours. Even the cave art is being described as being advanced and not just primitive drawings. Even more interesting is that worldwide, the various forms of art have similarities and may even have a form of interconnected language. We would never say that the people of a society that does not have modern conveniences has "less intelligent" people who are less evolved. They just live differently with the very same brains and ability to learn as the average citizen living in the middle of western modern civilization.
I personally believe that God is able to teach us the Truth though our history and that it won't prove that God doesn't exist. And honestly, if it did...we have to accept that our god isn't any more real than the ones of Greek or Roman mythology. Faith says we accept the historical evidence as it exists and that we use the brains that God gave us to think about new possibilities, even new ways to read the Biblical messages that God has given us. How I read the Bible as a child is very different than how I read it as an adult. That doesn't mean the God's message has changed but rather my ability to understand God has matured and grown.
