Posted on 05/01/2009 8:25:18 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Thank you.
Evolution will always be a theory.
Theory: a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; "theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses."
Theories do not grow up to be laws or facts. Theories explain laws. And your attempt to demean evolution be labeling it "still" a theory is quite silly.
Not at all. Now, let’s put the shoe on the other foot for a moment:
When you get to Heaven, and God tells you that He created the Universe and everything in it just as it is described in Genesis, how do you suppose you will feel knowing you spent your entire adult life arguing against it?
I'm sorry, woollyone, but you're mistaken. Look at the various meanings of yom used in the Bible. Here is a list of 64 verses where the King James translators interpreted yom to mean a period of time.
It's also worth noting that most translations, strangely enough, mistakenly place the definite article in front of yom. In Hebrew, the definite article is the word ha while the indefinite article is implied when the definite article is absent.
Here is Genesis 1:19 from one of the literal translations that says "And there was evening, and there was morning -- a fourth day." There is a big linguistic difference between saying "a fourth day" and "the fourth day." Even the literal translations add words that are only implied in Hebrew, which is a very sparse language. A hyper-literal translation of Genesis 1:19 would read: "Evening, morning, a fourth day."
Thus, even if you insist upon yom meaning a 24-hour day, it doesn't necessarily mean that the days were sequential.
If you're going to point to the use of "evening" and "morning" to prove an absolute 24-hour day, note that they also have multiple meanings. See this link for evidence from the Bible supporting this fact. Here is a quotation:
If we use the more basic meanings of the words per the figure above, where evening is called 'ereb because when the sun goes down, vision becomes blurry and disordered and with the break of day it clears. Thus we have;
And the mixing and the breaking forth were the ____ time.Which has caused some to propose.
"And from chaos/disorder to order, the ____ time."Therefore the reader can possibly chose from any of the above, which ever seems to connect with them the most. Referring back to Fig 1 from Strong's, you will note that "age" is also a valid translation for yowm, but the authors have used "time" or "phase" since these are our preference.
Finally, the creation account is most likely written as poetry. That doesn't mean that it's not literally true, just that the literal truth is written in poetic form and needs to be interpreted as such. What some liberal scholars see as separate and conflicting accounts of creation in Genesis is actually a large block of poetry built on the Hebrew poetic style of repetition and parallism.
Reasonable people can disagree whether the creation account is poetic because, while it contains the basic elements of poetry, it doesn't contain some of the more complicated Hebrew poetic structures that are found elsewhere in the Bible. Based upon my (relatively meager) formal training and continued study of Hebrew, I see the creation account as poetry but I'm not going to stake that as a hill to die upon.
Please be open to the fact that yom has multiple meanings, even in the creation story. Psalms 19 says that "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." What God shows us through his creation (general revelation) is no less true than what he shows us through his special revelation (God's written word).
Once you get past what I consider to be a man-made literal 24-hour day tradition, you will find that there is no conflict between real science and the Bible, and a whole new universe is literally opened up to you.
May you enjoy all of God's peace, joy, and blessing, my brother in Christ. For in him, we are made as one.
Only a creationist would conclude that an 80 million-year-old find proves the earth is 6000 years old.
“Theories do not grow up to be laws or facts. Theories explain laws. And your attempt to demean evolution be labeling it “still” a theory is quite silly.”
As is your reply... and your user name.
It’s not as though we are making this stuff up...the data is built right into God’s creation!
How will you feel if you get there and he tells you it really didn't matter much if you though it took 6 days or billions of years because time wasn't really important?
Yes it is.
It’s just not built into your creation.
Get ready to pop some popcorn and invite all your friends over!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242213/posts
Thank you, my dear brother. I have a feeling that, when we get to heaven, every believer will find that they were mistaken about many aspects of God and his creation.
As a humorous example, for some reason at age 3 or 4 I decided that God looked liked Mr. Greenjeans on Captain Kangaroo. Even today, if you were to ask me out of the blue what God looks like, the first visual impression that comes to my mind is Mr. Greenjeans.
Rationality kicks in a fraction of a second later, and I know that God the Father is a spirit being and has no body. Still, it's hard-wired into my brain that God looks like Mr. Greenjeans.
I don't expect God to hold me accountable for this mistake, but he will hold me accountable to other mistakes. And, yes, it's entirely possible that I could be wrong about the timing and method of creation!
All I can do is put myself at the mercy of Jesus Christ to cover my sins with his healing blood.
“...where the King James translators interpreted...”
Check your premise.
You may interpret the creation account as you wish.
As may I.
best wishes
==All I can do is put myself at the mercy of Jesus Christ to cover my sins with his healing blood.
Now that, I think we can both agree on WHOLEHEARTEDLY!
I say this because the God I serve, as taught to me in His Word, is big enough to create everything out of nothing, for His glory.
And if He can do that, he can most certainly do it as He said He did it...in 6 days.
He could have done it in 6 seconds!
...or 6 miliseconds.
If anyone has a problem with that, take it up with Him.
I will NOT banter the Bible.
period.
Let each be fully convinced in His own mind.
Exactly. Newtonian physics was replaced by Einstein's theory of relativity, which in turn is being replaced by an understanding of physics which has yet to be named.
For everyday purposes, Newtonian physics accurately describes pretty much everything. We don't have to go into second derivatives, matrices, and universal constants to describe the path of a bullet. Einstein's theory kicks in when we need to calculate more subtle things, such as the motion of planets and stars. At the quantum level, Einsten's theory fails.
I'm sure that you know this, Unruly Human, but there a few things that have to taken as metaphysical, irrefutable facts. The best example is self identity
a = aThere are others as well.
What are any of those definitions to God? Those are human constructs in the natural world. If God is supernatural, he is not confined to the laws of space-time, just as he isn’t confined to the laws of gravity.
To Him, six billion years ago and this very second can exist at the same moment. One hour to Him could last a fraction of a second or a million years. If, on God’s spiritual level, eternity exists, then there is no beginning, nor end, thus no human type constructs of time measurements.
As may I.
You're absolutely correct, my brother. I'm just suggesting a way that is fully consistent with both the Bible and with God's revelation as revealed to us in his creation.
And we can spiritualize the whole of the Bible if we wish...
And when we’re done we can use the Bible as any meaning we desire, to serve our own ends. Essentially creating the creator into our own likeness.
have a nice weekend
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