Posted on 12/09/2008 12:32:05 AM PST by marthemaria
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush said in an interview Monday that the Bible is "probably not" literally true and that a belief that God created the world is compatible with the theory of evolution.
"I think you can have both," Bush, who leaves office January 20, told ABC television, adding "You're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president." But "evolution is an interesting subject. I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life," said the president, an outspoken Christian who often invokes God in his speeches.
"I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution," he told ABC television. Asked whether the Bible was literally true, Bush replied:
"Probably not. No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it." "The important lesson is 'God sent a son,'" he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
I don’t look to Jorge for wisdom and advice.
Yes, they are revealing that they are celebrating God's great gift to mankind of unique self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment.
Either God has constructed an elaborate logical mirage known as science or - just maybe - somebody was creating tall tales to explain unfathomable earthly concepts 1500 years ago.
I believe the earth is older than 6000 years and revolves around the Sun. That's what God gets for blessing a bum like me with rational thought.
Eating from the Tree of Knowledge are ya?
It’s called “theistic evolution.” I think this hypothesis states that God created the world using evolution as a means to an end.
Let’s make it FOUR
and a bravo 4 Pres Bush
(he looked good at the A-N game!)
Well, now, exactly whose definition of self-awareness, "intelligence", curiosity and "enlightenment" are you referring to? Adolf Hitler's? Karl Marx's? Al Qaeda's? The "self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment" of fallen mankind has led to some of the worst atrocities imaginable. Man, apart from God, is ignorant, unwise, foolish, and gullible. Making a statement such as "the Bible is not literally true" is proof positive of all that God has said about the pitiable, sin-sick, doomed condition of man apart from faith in Him.
just maybe - somebody was creating tall tales to explain unfathomable earthly concepts 1500 years ago.<.i>
Are you referring to Scripture? I'll go back to what I said in my previous post - apart from the revealing work of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for man to understand the Word of God. If you are referring to Scripture, your describing it as "tall tales" underscores my point.
I believe the earth is older than 6000 years and revolves around the Sun. That's what God gets for blessing a bum like me with rational thought.
God certainly gives you free will to believe what you want - even if it is contrary to His Word. There will be, of course, a day of accounting when you will have to explain to Him your rejection of His Word, but, until then, you can believe whatever you like. As far as "rational thought" goes, serial killers do what they do based on their definition of "rational thought". The "rational thoughts" of fallen mankind are frightening indeed.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12P
Here God gives us His opinion of man's "rational thought" and "self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment". He doesn't appear to be too impressed at all.
So the sun revolves around the earth and was created after the earth?
Make it 4
His position is the traditional institutional Christian one, from St. Augustine on. If Mr. Bush is no Christian, then there have never been many Christians.
And he is indeed a good and decent man.
Whatever respect I had for President Bush is gone.
I believe he’s a Christian, but what kind of Christian witness is he doing by denying that the Bible is not 100% true? What a disheartening comment to make to your political base. At this low point in his political career, I think he’s looking to obtain favor with the liberal presidential historians.
He used a typewriter. :-)
Will President Bush be more likely to go to Hell for saying this?
All of creation are a means to Gods ends, including all natural processes.
Back in the day it was considered an act of faith to explore these natural processes as a way to understand the will of God. There are a lot of Lunar craters named for scientists who were also clergymen.
Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.
If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?
Reckless and incompetent expounders of holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although 'they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.' - St Augustine of Hippo
And, when Scientists solve the very last, final problem they will determine, scientifically, that the reason the universe exists at all is because God created it.
And God will smile.
I think that evolution is the best current explanation as to HOW God made what we see around us.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
He’s as much a Christian as I am (Catholic), and a better one most likely.
He’s not saying it isn’t true either. He has the traditional Christian opinion (see St. Augustine). Which is not liberal in the slightest.
I thought we on this side had the big tent, wheres that gone ?
Well at least we can finally dispense with the "George Bush is a Christian" myth.
Well, pretty much every Christian Scholar agrees that not everything in the Bible is literally true. A great deal of it is literally true, but not all. Doesn't mean the rest is false, since the Bible contains several different writing styles.
As for evolution being compatible with the Bible, I disagree with Bush.
Indeed. God’s glory is on display all around us: why we God give us curiosity and wonder if not to explore and seek truth? Intellect is a gift from God.
One that has alternating black/red ribbons.
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