Posted on 10/17/2002 4:17:06 AM PDT by Chairman_December_19th_Society
And I am not saying by any means that all scientists are charlatans, but I do believe that there has been so much presumption on the part of the public that everything we have been told about scientific 'discoveries' is completely factual, that we have not asked enough questions about its validity.
I'm of the opinion that removing God from the beginnings of life is removing the value of humanity, and by doing so there is no reason to believe that destroying life before birth is a bad thing to do. There was a very definite anti-Christian effort in the 19th century by scientists to destroy people's belief in God......and I believe it worked.
Where I have landed on the evolution issue, is that, from my knowledge of Scripture, there is no reason not to believe in a literal 6 day creation. And I have to ask myself why could it not been done in 6 days, and what evidence is there to believe that it was not? Does the knowledge of the truth of a universal flood explain some of the 'proof' of evolution? I believe very strongly that it does.
I see a potential danger in 'theistic evolution' unless one evaluates science on one's understanding of Scripture (as do you), and not the other way around. I definitely don't claim to have all the answers, and, as a non-scientist, I need to rely on the research of other people either way to have any understanding of it.
And one thing that I don't doubt, Miss Marple, after reading your words for nearly 2 years, is your faith, or your understanding God's truth in His word, and the love of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Carbon-14 dating has its limits. It only works backwards for a couple of thousand millenia. With a half-life of 11,000 years (I believe that's what it is), after 10 decay generations (a bit more than 1,000,000 years), only 0.1% of the material remains, and it gets exponentially smaller after that.
People are pretty comfortable with strata dating as well - at least at the big picture level. What occurs within those layers is and will be for some time to come the subject of a lot of research.
But back to the main point - I think if we look at the Bible as the Word of the Lord, then the whole notion of a "day" in God's eye's becomes extraordinarily relevant. It may not be up to us to figure out what a day in the life of God is, but to accept it as a given.
And if we accept that a Day of the Lord may be very, very long indeed, then what science is finding out, in reality, what happens during the morning, noon, and night of each of these days.
That seems to fit pretty well; darn well, actually.
Why does the word in Genesis for 'day' mean a 24 hour day, whereas the word for day in Day of the Lord does not?
Why not use the word which means 'it could be a millenium' day instead of the 'morning and the evening were the first (24 hour) day?
I'm reading in an NIV version in Genesis 1, and it has phrases like: "And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day."
It is possible to assume this is talking about a sideriel day - and I believe a lot of folks draw that conclusion. It is not impossible, again, to interpret this as being a day in the life of God - which, of course, spans all time.
Beyond that, I'm drawing a blank of a distinct reference from the Book that identifies the length of day as a sidereal day.
There are Christian scientists & archeologists who do not discount creation as Chairman & Jane understand it.........
...and then again, who is to say God didn't create it literally in a day----per our understanding of a 'day'...as the Word says..........
After all, He IS God.
Suffice to say, having visited the Grand Canyon (as some of you have) and seeing one small part of God's vastness in creativity, I stand amazed at the insignificance of myself......save for God's redeeming sacrifice.
As hubbybear & I stood in awe overlooking the beautiful canyons (albeit I was standing a bit more behind hubby, like behind the tree :)
....hubby said it was like God's thumb dragging through the mud that created this gorgeous panarama.---and this was said most reverently!
That stuck with me......almighty God .....who created the world and you & me.....dragging his thumb across the dirt & allowing us a glimpse of His handiwork.
The unit was known to operate from a "mobile platform"an-improvised armoured saloon car with a gun mount in the back -which made it almost undetectable.
After the attacks, which resulted in 11 deaths (including one in Fermanagh), in only 14 or 15 operations, the sniper was driven away leaving no shells or forensic contamination.
Someone is now copying this same tactic in the DC area.....I really am now beginning to wonder..
a literal 'day' has always seemed appropriate.........
...considering who God is, and what He is capable of.
Well, our DC sniper isn't exactly following the same tactics. There has been quite a bit of forensic contamination. That is how they've been able to link all 12 events.
Here is my attack on their reasoning.
When I ask what are the odds of a cell being created. They say very great. They say it may have taken millions or even billions of years before all conditions existed to create a living cell. But random theory says such conditions did come to exist and these random conditions created living cells. It only takes one chance out of billions of billions of situations for a living cell to evolve is what they say.
I ask them if a a living cell is complex. I ask them if they think a living cell or even a human being is very complex? Why couldn't the conditions have occured in days like my Bible says?
They patiently tell me that cells are very very complex and it would take a huge number of years for the primordial soup to appear. My simplistic days is just not realistic. Cells are very complex. The bible is simplistic.
I then say that a living cell can't be all that complex. I ask them "If they think a living cell is more complex than... than " <\b> here I look around and finally look in my pocket and take out my Bic pen and say "this Bic ball point pen?"
They look at me like I am an idiot and say a living cell is way more complex than my stupid BIC pen.
And I say, "Do You believe that random combination of the elements produced a living cell?" They always reply ... "Certainly."
I then ask why in all of these billions of years why a simple thing like a bic pen has not evolved in nature. Evolution can randomly make a human being but not a ball point pen? Why is it not reasonable to expect in all these billions of years the chemical elements to make a bic pen have not come togther in the right amounts and place to produce more of them than the BIC people have. My God, I say, the Bic company produces thousands of these little pens a day. How much random would it take for one to evolve? Bic can make pens but not humans. And you want be to believe that random combinations can evolve living cells but not evolve a single BIC ball point pen?
It tell them that when evolution can evolve a GE Refrigerator I will believe it can create a man.
You'll find them in the cemetery. How else will the dead people vote?
The Hebrew word 'olam' is the word which refers to a period of time and is translated Day, as in Day of the Lord.
Consider also that the text also says "God called the light, 'day', and the darkness he called 'night'." That's pretty literal language if it's meant to be just symbolism, isn't it?
My bottom line continues to be, why should I not believe in creation story in Genesis literally? And if I don't, does that mean that I don't believe the rest of Genesis literally? For me it's what we often call a 'slippery slope.'
I'm in total agreement with you, Guenevere.......God's power is amazing, and the Grand Canyon is a perfect example of it. He could make the mountains and the canyons with a fingertip, a flood, or even just a word! Awesome!!
Did you know that scientists now acknowledge that the Colorado River could, in no way have caused the Grand Canyon.......but that hasn't filtered down to the innocent children in public schools who are being force fed 'facts' about evolution that are in no way factual.
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