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Amaris
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DInosaur bones were planted in the earth by the devil to trick mankind.
Also, before anyone says anything about stereotypes, I know two very real fundamentalist Christians who believe this to the core.
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Also, before anyone says anything about stereotypes, I know two very real fundamentalist Christians who believe this to the core.
I really like the quote "6 thousand years ago, God created a 6 billion year old universe."
But what/who created god? The big bang perhaps?
That doesn't work as well as it sounds. For the last two years over in Science & Technology, people have been swatting a certain poster with the equivalent of the Local Cluster and it hasn't shut him up. I've recently banned myself from posting there because my snarkiness was about to get me into trouble. I think I need to limit my responses here too.
That said:
Why would anyone need to explain things that haven't happened yet?
Octopussy?
I'm a Christian, but I still agree with this. I'm about as far from a creationist or a young-Earther as you can get and I have serious reservations about reading either Genesis or the Revelation literally. I have my own ideas of what the Adam/Eve story could be about. (And other Christians find them baffling.) Suffice it to say that it's possible to read that story in a context that doesn't involve setting people up and then slapping them down for disobedience.
As do I.
I've gotta remember this one.
No, Silvercrest, not Octopussy.
Maude Adams 1872-1953. My wife looks like her twin:
Maude Adams 1872-1953. My wife looks like her twin:
Sneaking back in for a moment.
I am not a Bible Literalist. Those thousands of people murdered in the Bible...probably didn't happen or at least not in the way recorded.The creation myths and Flood story were probably added during the time of the Babylonian Captivity. The book of Job is a parable. Even then we have to consider the audience for which they were written. They weren't written for us here and now living in the present time. I love science and as far as evolution...it's a no-brainer.
As far as doing 'good things' and behaving in a 'moral' manner the truth is I rarely think about hell or the lake of fire or any such thing so as far as I'm concerned, fear isn't even a factor. I do them because it is the right thing to do and yes, people without faith can be just as moral and compassionate.
I respect atheists and agnostics and understand why they ask the questions they do. Sometimes the questions have no answers or they cannot bring themselves to accept the answers that are given because they do not fit into their worldview which is a reasonable reaction.
I'm a former agnostic and my story is much the same as Coloratura's...I just went down a different path and rejected the notion that 'if only part of the Bible is true then none of it is true' that had been drilled into me from an early age and have reached a place of contentment and peace.
I am not a Bible Literalist. Those thousands of people murdered in the Bible...probably didn't happen or at least not in the way recorded.The creation myths and Flood story were probably added during the time of the Babylonian Captivity. The book of Job is a parable. Even then we have to consider the audience for which they were written. They weren't written for us here and now living in the present time. I love science and as far as evolution...it's a no-brainer.
As far as doing 'good things' and behaving in a 'moral' manner the truth is I rarely think about hell or the lake of fire or any such thing so as far as I'm concerned, fear isn't even a factor. I do them because it is the right thing to do and yes, people without faith can be just as moral and compassionate.
I respect atheists and agnostics and understand why they ask the questions they do. Sometimes the questions have no answers or they cannot bring themselves to accept the answers that are given because they do not fit into their worldview which is a reasonable reaction.
I'm a former agnostic and my story is much the same as Coloratura's...I just went down a different path and rejected the notion that 'if only part of the Bible is true then none of it is true' that had been drilled into me from an early age and have reached a place of contentment and peace.
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See, I thought the fish escaped Gods wrath.
They're in the water, and water is coming down trying to kill them and like what the frick do they care about more water? Water is water right?
Wrong, obviously.
Fresh water rains raised the oceans until they were weren't salty enough to support sea life, flooding out the inland rivers and lakes until they were too salty to support fresh water sea life.
All the little fishies are dead!
Have you ever once seen mention of an Aquarium on the Ark?
#### you Noah.
Hey, how much does 40 days and forty nights of global rain weigh?
If this was water that god was creating from nothing magically, that is seriously going to alter the weight of the planet and therefore it's point of equilibrium in orbit of the sun. But then again if gods real plan was to move the Earth closer or further away from the sun for some reason, then 40 days and forty nights or rain is more likely to be God's packing peanuts to hold the planet in place while it moved closer to Mars or closer to Venus, if Earth was even the third planet before the flood. Maybe he was kindly moving us away from the swirling remnants of planet-5 after God cocked up and turned it into an asteroid belt?
Oh.
There was a Swampthing comic, where Vampires blew up a dam, to flood a small town, so they could live in it under water and stop worrying about the sun. They're non breathing telepaths. It's really a no-brainer... But if the rain from the deluge was special rain, some might even call it holy rain, how the #### did the vampires survive?
I seriously can't believe that there was a pen in the ark for a boy vampire and a girl vampire to hold out for 6 weeks and then repopulate the vampire species after the flood subsided. Noah was a drunk, but he's not an idiot.
They're in the water, and water is coming down trying to kill them and like what the frick do they care about more water? Water is water right?
Wrong, obviously.
Fresh water rains raised the oceans until they were weren't salty enough to support sea life, flooding out the inland rivers and lakes until they were too salty to support fresh water sea life.
All the little fishies are dead!
Have you ever once seen mention of an Aquarium on the Ark?
#### you Noah.
Hey, how much does 40 days and forty nights of global rain weigh?
If this was water that god was creating from nothing magically, that is seriously going to alter the weight of the planet and therefore it's point of equilibrium in orbit of the sun. But then again if gods real plan was to move the Earth closer or further away from the sun for some reason, then 40 days and forty nights or rain is more likely to be God's packing peanuts to hold the planet in place while it moved closer to Mars or closer to Venus, if Earth was even the third planet before the flood. Maybe he was kindly moving us away from the swirling remnants of planet-5 after God cocked up and turned it into an asteroid belt?
Oh.
There was a Swampthing comic, where Vampires blew up a dam, to flood a small town, so they could live in it under water and stop worrying about the sun. They're non breathing telepaths. It's really a no-brainer... But if the rain from the deluge was special rain, some might even call it holy rain, how the #### did the vampires survive?
I seriously can't believe that there was a pen in the ark for a boy vampire and a girl vampire to hold out for 6 weeks and then repopulate the vampire species after the flood subsided. Noah was a drunk, but he's not an idiot.
I thought they couldn't cross running water.
Oh, and maybe the Flood really happened because all the freshwater fish were too sinful.
Oh, and maybe the Flood really happened because all the freshwater fish were too sinful.
Native soil negates that. Dracula lined his coffin with Transylvanian earth while on his way to England. Rivers, I think, stop demons and spirits dead. Pun intended.
I've yet to see an answer that stands up under any kind of scrutiny.
A chariot in the Red Sea doesn't prove to me that Moses parted it. I'm simply not wired to make that kind of leap. And if God made me, he molded me in a manner to expect evidence for outrageous claims.
This
Granted many Christians are far more reasonable than the fundamentalist (read: extremist) types we've demonized here and several have managed to identify themselves here perfectly well without being the victims of any form of attack. The difference comes when people demand compliance with their viewpoint and seem enraged at the possibility of dissent. This fanatiscism becomes writ into their dogma and everyone who disagrees is therefore a heretic and will burn in hell.
I'm of a similar mindset to BillJ in that it's difficult to imagine any reason for us having the capacity for logic if we aren't supposed to use it. On the other hand if we are supposed to use it, why are we presented with such spurious evidence which doesn't hold up to analysis?
No, Silvercrest, not Octopussy.
Maude Adams 1872-1953. My wife looks like her twin:
Just having some fun with you. The actress spells her name "Maud", anyway.
Maude has nice eyes.
Pretty much figured that....just didn't want anyone else to be confused.
Interestingly, early on in her career a lot of people spelled Maude's name as Maud. Shows up on a lot of old tobacco cards of the time, etc.
That probably isn't unusual. The further back you look, the less formality you see in spelling. Including names. Go figure.
I find it very amazing that on the one hand we are intended to believe that the bible is the absolute word of God and not just a bunch of gibberish written by humans....and on the other hand if anyone seriously challenges the character of God, based upon His words in the bible, we are told "Oh, well, a lot of it is just parables." How very convenient, to cover the ass.
What, exactly, are we supposed to take from the story of Job? And other things, like women being commanded to eat their own babies and all of the rest of the garbage that's in the bible?
I see no way to put a good face on it.
It's like Abraham said in The Walking Dead...."It's like trying to pick up a turd from the clean end."
What, exactly, are we supposed to take from the story of Job? And other things, like women being commanded to eat their own babies and all of the rest of the garbage that's in the bible?
I see no way to put a good face on it.
It's like Abraham said in The Walking Dead...."It's like trying to pick up a turd from the clean end."
Well, the story of Job was never intended to be a historical account. It was either inspired or adapted from Zoroastrian mythology which depict the God figure and the Satan figure (Ahriman) as a duality; i.e. equal and opposite. You can tell because Satan is treated differently in that story than anywhere else in the Bible. I imagine it was co-opted into the Bible regardless because it shows an example of great faith in the face of adversity.
As to a lot of the weird Old Testament laws: it looks like the Hebrews were given a set of rules intended to keep them healthy, clean, and separated from other cultures. The thing about not eating pork, for example, would've originated with a ban on raw pork to avoid trichinosis. A lot of the cleanliness laws would've originated simply to limit communicable disease.
The problem is that the people did not understand the purpose of these rules. They just repeated them because they were told to. And they did follow them after their own fashion. But over time these rules became tradition ... and they also became progressively blurred through embellishment and some severe hairsplitting. So we've wound up with book after book of incomprehensible and apparently arbitrary Jewish Law.
But it originated from something more coherent. And that's the interesting thing. Who told them? Someone knew about this stuff. An older, enlightened society? A burning bush? Aliens? More than one of the above is also a possibility.
I'm not going to try to convince you of anything. Just keep an open mind that the Bible may be communicating some deeper truths than "thou shalt not boileth a calf in its own milk" or whatever. Unfortunately it has to do so through the voices of people who (largely) didn't understand what was happening.
I wouldn't worry about it. You weren't part of the intended audience...and neither was I . Whoever it was intended for seemed to have understood it.
Where's the bit about women commanded to eat their babies? There is an apocalyptic passage somewhere that speaks of a famine so dire that parents eat their children (and incidentally during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 that happened according to the historian Josephus) but I missed the part about where they were commanded to do it.
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But doesn't that fall on God for not communicating his intent more clearly and through more reliable people?
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