Who wrote the bible? Or at least Genesis? Maybe they didn't understand exactly what really happened.

We call that Deism.

I don't care what it's called, and I don't necessarily consider that Deism. I never said God left, did I?

Since when can your God leave? Leave what?

I could be wrong but I think the author of genesis is moses, I could easily be wrong. The bible as a whole had many authors. and was written over hundreds of years.


Out of curiosity, what specificaly is "flubbed up" in genesis?

Here comes the trouble of these discussions is that 2nd Timothy says "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
That verse and others like it pretty much say that the bible is exempt. It is appropriate to remember that, of course, they didn't have the scientific knowlege that we have today but as I said before, the scientific explanation of how creation happened is not, and never was the purpose of Genesis. The purpose is to show that God created everything and of course there are many other smaller things in there, since it is a decently big book.

I do believe, just like everything else in teh bible that is was ment to be taken literaly.
I believe in a literal 6 days of creation. which is not to say that the earth is only 10,000 years old or whatever, because God created Adam a full grown man, why couldn't he create the earth already a billion years old.

There's alot of things in there that, honestly, just don't make sense to me.

None of them have the possiblity of contradicting the things I believe, that I know of atleast.

But there are alot of things in the bible that I don't understand. Many things I don't think I'll ever understand until I go the heaven, but just because I don't understand them does not mean I should try to change the meaning so that I can understand it.
I believe, and will believe until shown otherwise from scripture, that God has a very specific plan for himself (quick note, I don't believe God has a gender, say "He" is just easier) to be glorifyed and that plan is set in stone, it will not be changed because God does not change.
Everything, even sin and the fall of man is appart of that plan.

I just lost my train of thought, and I think I'm pretty far off topic anyway, so I'll stop there.

you just HAD to take it seriously, didnt you

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Not necessarily. Deism also entails the belief that he didn't interfere again once he set it in motion. Free didn't say anything about that.

[QUOTE=Michael MacFarlane]Not necessarily. Deism also entails the belief that he didn't interfere again once he set it in motion. Free didn't say anything about that.[/QUOTE]

Yes. This is what I meant when I said I didn't say he left.

That the earth was formed in 7 days or whatever. That's either a mistake by the original author or a translation mistake.

[QUOTE=Michael MacFarlane]Not necessarily. Deism also entails the belief that he didn't interfere again once he set it in motion. Free didn't say anything about that.[/QUOTE]

Uhh....



Uhh...

Maybe neither. The first chapter of Genesis is a poem. Knowing that, I think we can allow a little artistic license.



Yes?

Out of curiosity, do you believe the suggestions to promote slavery as literal suggestions by the bible? Do you believe the references to stoning people are literal suggestions? If not, why are you able to pick and choose what to take literally? As you said, it's a big book, and it contains a lot in there. Historically, the bible was actually held up as proof before and during the civil war for why slavery should continue. I'm not saying the bible doesn't have some good in it.. but seriously, why are you able to pick and choose what to take literally?

You gotta read it to understand. The switch from the Old Testament to New Testament is like a change from programming in assembly to programming in c. When you make the switch your compiler is still doing the same thing but at the same time you have some degree of freedom. Its a horrible analogy I know, but you won't understand it t'ill you actually read it.

Actually, I have read a bit of both. Definitely not the full thing, yes, but I still ask, how are you able to pick and choose parts of the Bible to believe? Old Testament Versus New? Book by Book? Or maybe we should just go line by line and see which ones still have applicability today?

I don't think I've ever core dumped while reading the bible. Does the bible not have any segmentation faults?

You go through seeing which rules override which. I.e. there is a specific bread that is set aside for priests while they're doing their duties and cannot be eaten by commoners. David in 1st Samuel comes in and eats it because he and his men are starving. Christ refers to that and says the law of life overrules the priestly rules. After Christ dies for everyone a ton of rules and priorities are shifted around. The Christian's priority is no longer to purge their nation (most of us aren't even jews) but now its to purge themselves and fill themselves up more. I'm not the best theolgen, the gospels and some of the later letters by Paul will explain these shifts much better than I can :). I don't think so Kyle.

I got your answer right here, byatches.

CARBON DATING!

oh wait, wrong thread.

oh well, +1.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

No, it's what we call a creation myth.

KyleKatarn7- could you tell me what verses promote slavery and those other things?
I can't think of anything that could be used in that way but then I haven't read the entire thing either.
I say that I take everything in the bible literaly within it's proper context.

Also, the bible is a very complex book. I don't pretend to understand all of it.
And, in truth, there is noone, living or dead, besides Christ himself who acctualy has a complete and completely correct understanding of the scripture.

It says in Romans that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Ephesians 2:3 says that we are by "nature children of wrath."
Meaning that it is our nature to disobey God and his comandments.

It's very easy for us to take scriptrue and twist it to mean what we want it to.
This has been the history of the church, the word of God being twisted so that it serves man rather than God.


Is that a coding joke that I just don't get?

*blink*

You take the bible literally but you haven't read all of it. It could promote raping babies and you'd never know. Check.

DEAR GOD ADMINS PUT THE RELIGIOUS FORUM BACK

Or if you don't try to define things in the Bible left undefined.

OK, then let me rephrase, I take everything that I have read in the bible literaly.

religion is the never the problem, its how people interpret the writings is what causes problems.

Just look at extremist Islam. Islam in its pure original form is probably a kick-*** religion, but they modified the writings to suit themselves.

Hence, all the problems with the Jihad.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

yes, that is exactaly true, probably with every religion.
I'm a Baptist, and that's one thing my pastor goes to great lengths to stress is knowlege of the bible.
Taking things literaly and taking things as they were ment to be taken.

There are many things that people, even within my own church, don't agree on.
which is why everything we do and everything we say must be compared to the scripture. And the scripture itself must be scrutenized.
That why there are so many translations of the bible. I always make it a point, if I find something in a verse that doesn't quite make sense I check the translation. I go read other traslations and other commentaries on them.
THere's also blue letter bible where I can go to look up the original greek and hebrew.

If someone shows me, with scripture, that I'm wrong on something and I research that myself and come to the same conclusion, then I will change my position.
Because scripture has been used wrongly and missinterpreted by others in the past does not mean that I should thow out the entire thing.

And honestly there's many things that I don't understand.
There's a passage in 2 Timothy that appears to sugest that women can only be saved through childbirth. Now I know that's not what it means. however, I have not studied it enough to say what it does mean.
With as important is it is to take the bible literaly, it's important not to forget the context in which things were said, also not to pull more out of the text than was ment to be.
Also to never stop studing and never to be unwilling to hear someone elses interpretation as Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron,and one man sharpens another."

You have a good point. I wasn't realizing that evolution is the only way that the general appearance of a species can change.

HOWEVER, I still don't believe that humans of the future will be hairless. If started wearing warmer clothes, it might happen, but I see no reason why our clothing might change. The only reason we have for developing better clothing is for stuff like mountaineering (and space exploration, I guess) because our current clothing works just fine. And by your logic, if our clothing style remains the same, we won't lose any hair.

NINJA EDIT - Even if we did invent clothing that was able to keep a body at their favored temperature at all times, people would choose temperatures that they are used to; thus, temperatures that are comfortable with hair. AND even children who are born not knowing non-temperature clothing would choose hair-comfortable temperatures because they are born with hair!

zomg

English warning

Please let me evolve into not-defeatable-by-nerevarine-Dagoth Ur

...

...

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nevermind

My only beef with the Bible is what makes it so special? If the authors were just normal people, why is it considered so holy?

For all we know, the authors could have ate a 'special' plant, got ripped, created the Bible, then preached it to the lowly peasants who didn't know better so they accepted it all as fact.

Where is the proof that God had anything to do with the Bible? (correct me here if he actually didn't)

That's like saying a giraffe "sensed" that there were leaves on the top of a tree, and thus it adpated by growing a longer neck. Evolution doesn't work that way.

hahahahahaha

Why did God invent kidney stones?

And a switch to turn off pain after you've been severed in half. "Umm body, I think I get the hint that I should see a doctor"

A switch to turn off pain would be handy.

It's not like we don't know we're damaged.

Oh man, I would kill (or at least severely injure) for some way to turn off pain.

I'd be the life of parties... all I've have to do is be like "Hey guys, watch this" and everyone would come running over to see what I did next.

What's wrong with that? There actually was six days of creation. God rested on the 7th day, hence the sabbath.

If God is all powerful, why would he need 6 days? If he can create matter and everything in the universe, it wouldn't seem necessary that it takes days. And why would the all-powerful God need rest?

six days, six billion years... same difference right?
I bet you're one of those people who thinks the Sabbath day is Sunday.

Just thought I'd throw a couple more tidbits in.

You should keep in mind that the Bible (at least the New Testament, not sure exactly how the Old was set up...) was compiled by men. People chose which texts to include in teh new testament, and which not. Also, since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and all of the records held within in 70 AD, when the New Testament was being compiled, they had to recreate the gospels by memory. The original witnesses of it would have been gone by this point.

As for slavery:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant.... Ex.20:17

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. Ex.21:2-6

And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money. Ex.21:20-21

Just to name a couple. It seems that Paul was very much for the supression of women too.

As far as 6-day creationism - it's just not possible. The fossil record clearly shows teh progression of species' development over a long period of time. The cooling of the Earth would take too long. Unless you're saying it just puffed out of nowhere. haha. And if god created all creatures BEFORE mankind, then how about parasites and diseases that require a human host? Oh, that brings up a question that I've never heard mentioned before. For some reason, I thought it was said that in the garden of Eden, none of the animals ate meat. I always thought that was bizarre and simply impossible. Many animals, for instance a snake, do not have the equipment for eating vegetation. And what about, once again, parasites? I could have simply been fisinformed on this fact- it did come from a Jehovah's Witness.

Even if we're talking about the day-age theory of Creationism, though, there are problems with the order of things. Like, the glaringly obvious fact that there was light before the sun. And the 'moon' is the light source for the night, whereas it merely reflects sunlight. The Genesis Creation does not follow the evolutionary progression of animals, unfortunately. Since birds came before land animals. I'm afraid that the only way to logically interpret the Genesis Creation is as a creation myth, and being more focused on the idea than the actual structure of it and being of literal truth. It's just trying to say that God made everything. Nobody back then knew or cared exactly in what order things came, noone was the wiser. But there are few Christians that think this way.

About 6 days of creation....what exactly defined a day before the sun was created?