Posted on 05/20/2002 12:53:27 PM PDT by rpage3
See source for details....
Since this thread is about Gould, I'll quote what he said in a 1997 NPR interview. (I pulled over yesterday when I heard it re-broadcast, to make sure I got it right.)
"God is either an incompetent mathematician, a jokester, or he doesn't exist."
The man spent his life's work de-bunking Almighty God, and even when ill with cancer, couldn't resist mocking Him.
I suppose Gould now knows which, if any, of his three choices was true. But he knows for sure the third isn't.
This is weak. Your principles are unrooted. You are merely re-phrasing survival of the fittest which has NOTHING to do with rights at all. Read tehj Declaration of Independence which clearly says where rights come from - our CREATOR. Unless they come from a creator, then they have no moral force whatsoever and can easily be abrogated, stolen, abused, denied.
You were doing really good up until this non-sequitur.
Jesus was talking about human beings, not asexual plants.
The truth of his "punctuated equilibrium." The truth of the origin of life. The truth of the Creator behind the creation. The truth that science, by its own definitions, cannot see the whole picture. The truth that science is not absolute. The truth that evolution isn't science, but is an ideology. The truth that he spent his career distaining actual truth.
"I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault. In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do. And I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God."
Just a little ditty we Catholics say at Mass ...
So true.
Well, I have to disagree with this. Murder and other detrimental behaviour like stealing undermine the trust that the members of a society put in each other.
Societies are fault tolerant systems to a cerain degree but if such a behaviour becomes to common they disintegrate. So if a society adopts murder you end up with individuals that regard each other as enemies thus fighting each other to the death. Therefore one can say that these individuals no longer form a society.
1. It tells of man's inherently sinful condition and of the incredibly destructive power of Sin. Despite the fact that Adam and Eve are living in paradise, free from need, they still throw away all that for sin. Those teenage mothers you see shopping in the mall wonder on a daily basis why they threw away their virginity--and consequently their freedom & career & education--just for a few minutes of pleasure. That's the way we are--sinful beings in need of God.
2. It sets a healthy living pattern for man. Work six days and rest for one day.
3. There is also the historic context. Genesis was written around the time of Assyrian/Babylonian religions. In those religions, the world was seen as a bad thing--an evil creation that resulted from a god's murdered corpse. Instead, Genesis says that all of the world is God's creation and that it is GOOD.
4. Do you take all of Revelations literally? If not, why do you consider taking the more fantastic part of Genesis to be parables or allegories more of a sin than not taking Revelations--or Jesus' parables--literally?
Got to run now, but hopefully that answered a few of your questions about how some Christians can reconcile evolution with the Bible...
See, you miss the point. It doesn't matter if I can convince you of my right of self-defense. It merely matters to me that I can assert it.
That's when the jealousy comes in.
God is not mocked, and he punishes those who take other gods before him. What's hard -- even if you reject the premise -- to understand about that?
Gould spent a lifetime mocking God, and making evolution his god. What other questions do you have?
How so? If not from God, where are they from? Do they have extension in space? How can abstract reality like this exist apart from God?
That doesn't demonstrate a love of truth.
If I were you I wouldn't worry about Catholics just yet. I'd worry about believing in a God that holds the sins of two individuals against the billions of offspring who come later ... if you are worried about irrational belief systems ...
Show me where God says ALL of the world is GOOD AFTER the Fall. You won't find it. Sin changed everything.
Do you take all of Revelations literally?
It's "Revelation" not "Revelations" - and I interpret them as the author intended they be interpreted. Obviously, some passages are allegorical or metaphorical (Jesus said, "I am the gate") - and others are clearly historical - as is Genesis account. Anyone who denies it is not an orthodox historical Christian - Jesus Himself clearly believed Genesis to be literally true and I can cite chapter and verse that prove it.
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