"Based on what scientific knowledge?"
The usual culprits, archeology, carbon-dating, tribal migration. From a christian point of view I really don't think God cares except that you believe what his Son put out. And I'm completely comfortable with that. Even Jesus was irritated with the jewish leaders at the time for having him clarify supposedly contradiction of historical social guidelines.
Most reports of God's show of power in the bible has been cataclysim of natural elements, a huge expense of energy that even He had to rest to have a gander at what He did. Could have taken 4 billion years to do the 'six days'. Who knows? Nobody was there, and this argument will be argued until the second coming. The first law of thermodynamics plays nicely into the whole discussion. God is the purity of energy and the purveyor of all unversal elements. He got lonely and made man and gave us free will and a lot of us screw it up. He decided to send an earthly represenation of himself to appeal directly. And we killed his physical form. Great show of appreciation. Oh well, some get, some won't.
All dating methods point to an Earth of apx 4.5 billion years. Similarly, fossils clearly point to homo sapens emergence of apx 160,000 years.
I am not sure how tribal migration plays, but if you want to quote Genesis, you might want to hesitate -- where did Adam and Eve's daughters-in-law come from?
From a christian point of view I really don't think God cares except that you believe what his Son put out.
100% agree.
And I'm completely comfortable with that. Even Jesus was irritated with the jewish leaders at the time for having him clarify supposedly contradiction of historical social guidelines. Most reports of God's show of power in the bible has been cataclysim of natural elements, a huge expense of energy that even He had to rest to have a gander at what He did. Could have taken 4 billion years to do the 'six days'. Who knows? Nobody was there, and this argument will be argued until the second coming. The first law of thermodynamics plays nicely into the whole discussion. God is the purity of energy and the purveyor of all unversal elements. He got lonely and made man and gave us free will and a lot of us screw it up. He decided to send an earthly represenation of himself to appeal directly. And we killed his physical form. Great show of appreciation. Oh well, some get, some won't.
So you are backing off your position? That is fine, but I just want some clarity. It sounds like you understand TToE but hesitate for emotional reasons.
I agree whole heartedly!
John 6:28-29
28. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29. Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
This is a bit of topic but it's a question I've always been curious about.
Most people assume that God is omniscient and is outside of time. This of course means the past and the future have no meaning for him/her. The implication of this is that God must know all of time as a single 'now' with events in the future just as immediate as those of the past 'were' and the now 'is' (our way of seeing time).
From what I understand God is also a personal god who is vitally interested in each and every person in his creation. This interest coupled with his/her ability to see our future means that God will know both the time and the content of decisions each of us will make in the future. In effect the decisions we make, at least from our standpoint (because we see time as linear), are predetermined.
How does the average Christian deal with the paradox of having free will yet having all decisions predetermined?