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Look.

I am sorry for any ad hominem remarks.

I simply do not believe science has even come close to understanding origins. And while your theory on meshing Genesis and Evolution might sound good to you.... I think your too close. When ALL the statements of events are taken into consideration (without taking every little thing literally) the timing of events and the nature of events do not add up.

If you do not believe in miracles, in the supreme nature of God I can see dismissing all "fanciful" stories in the Bible. But you have stated that you believe. So why cannot it be possible that the fossils records you trust mean something different than your interpretation. You simply do not know what happened - yet God saw it fit to give us a story that states that He created man and breathed life into him - a man who then did not procreate until after woman was made and after being booted from the garden. A man who did not have a soul (making him a man after God image) until the breathe of life. If many pre-men existed did they have souls? If so Adam was not the first.

You can claim it all theological and dismiss it, fine. I choose not to as these are foundational to Christianity.

In these discussions there is more opinion than facts and no baseline of truth can be established. Regardless how religiously the evos believer they have the truth. I cannot prove what happened - I just know we know so very little. Arrogance will destroy knowledge.

I wish you well.

Keath

"I am sorry for any ad hominem remarks."

Thnak you. I hope I haven't said anything to really upset you.

"I simply do not believe science has even come close to understanding origins."

I agree with you on that one. They have come out with all kinds of theories about reducing atmospheres, lighting bolts, contamination from another planet, etc, etc. To my knowledge NO ONE has succeeded in "creating" life in a laboratory. I feel ony God can create life directly and I don't think it came from Mars although He may have created it there also. I believe that life, all life, is in essence an extension of God. Without God, there would be no life. Hence God is present in all living things.

"When ALL the statements of events are taken into consideration (without taking every little thing literally) the timing of events and the nature of events do not add up."

Of course you are free to believe that, but I don't think the Bible provides an exact timeline for anything - just very rough approximations prior to Moses at any rate.

"If you do not believe in miracles,"

I do believ in miracles - all Christians do. Some are more "mraculous" than others. The plagues on Egypt can all, or nearly all be explained by natural phenonmema taken to an extreme degree and timed so well that Divine intervention is a certainty.

"So why cannot it be possible that the fossils records you trust mean something different than your interpretation."

ANYTHING is possible, especially with God.

"You simply do not know what happened "

Nobody does for sure, we are just guessing, based on what we have uncovered in Science, and taken with Biblical revelation.

"If many pre-men existed did they have souls? If so Adam was not the first."

I think ALL living things have some kind of "soul", but only man has a human soul given to him by God which makes him special. Only man can know the difference between good and evil and choose eternal life and salvation, or death and eternal damnation. Animals may have souls, but they are incapable of knowing good and evil and are incapable of choosing salvation.

"You can claim it all theological and dismiss it, fine"

I try to find a way to reconcile the two - science which we KNOW from objective study and religion, which we know from Faith.

"I choose not to as these are foundational to Christianity."

I agree that belief in God, that fact that God made man directly in His image, that man sinned, that God sent Hi Son to save him, that we can all achieve salavation, that there will be a resurrection of the dead and last Judgement, that Satan exists and is a personification of evil and tempted Eve in the Garden, that miracles happen, etc. etc. Where we diverge is over the issue of evolution.
I don't believe that evolution is a substantial issue or Christ or God would have addressed it in the Bible.

"In these discussions there is more opinion than facts and no baseline of truth can be established."

To a degree what you are stating is correct. But thevidence for evolution of lower animals is practially irrefutable. The issue is did God break the natural laws He created in producing man, or did He emply them to achieve His objective. I believe the latter, you believe the former.

During the Byzantine Empire, people killed each other over issues like using two fingers or three fingers to make the sign of the cross, whether or not God the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father or from the Son, etc, etc. I think the essential message of Christ is and should be the most important issue for any Christian.