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: Everything he wants us to know is in the BibleAnd how do you know it's not in the Vedas, the Tripitaka, the Communist Manifesto, the oral traditions of Beninses Vodoun priests, or (horrors of horrors) in all of them combined?
: It says God created everything in 6 days and I believe it. How do you know that those 6 days were 24 hours? The fact that we call a day 24 hours is man made.
Yes, as is the fact that when we say "prayer" we refger to certain specifically defined acts. If the "days" were units of time that have nothing to do with what we commonly call 'days', then what is to be achieved by calling them "days"? what does it connote to call a period of several billion years a "day", other than to confuse people? If you argue that when the Bible says 'days"it doesn't really mean "days", then how do you knpow other things are not to be taken literally? For example, Red Deathy and others have argued that the Bible's condemnation of "sodomy", taken in contexyt, actually condemns 1) male prostitution and 2) homosexual rape, not homosexual sex per se.
:For all we know, one of those days in creation could have been a billion years. Perhaps God created the earth, a billion years later the animals a billion years later people etc... Isn't the Earth 6 billion years old or something?
Well, yes, but the intervals you talk about are not all the same. The universe originated several billion years ago, the Earth I think about 4.5 billion or something like that- don't quiote me...Animals and plants originated LONG after the origin of life on this planet, and humans originated only a million years ago.
: : the business about Joshua stopping the earth in its orbit, Noah rescuing a pair of ef each animal from the great flood (seeing that there are about 10 million species, a boat big enough to hold 20 million individuals would have to be....well, you can figure out the dimensions.) A literal reading of Genesis clearly contradicts what we know about the mechanisms of evolution, cosmology and astronomy.
: I understand what you are saying. Whe ever said we can understand how God does everything?He performs miracles that are impossible for us to do.
No, you miss my point. I'm not sayiong it's impossible for us to do, I'm saying it's impossible, period, because it contradicts physical law.
: The main reason I believe the Bible is true is because it has already proven itself! Isaiah recieved a vision from God and he preached it. He told us details about the coming of Jesus, and a few hundred years later, it came about! Everything that prophet told the people, all the details, actually happened. Jesus himself even made references to theOld Testament people.
If I understand you correctly, your arguemnt relies on teh statements that 1) the Bible makes correct statements and 2) the Biblke does not make false statements. Because if the Bible makes false statements as well as true ones, then saying "the bibl;e says X, therefore X is true' is a weakened argument, since I could always say that X falls ointo teh "false statement" rather than the 'true" category. for example, if you believe as I do that the Bib;le says both true and false things, then you could see the anti-sodomy pronouncements as among the Bible's many false statements. But if you believe that EVERYTHING the Bible says is true, then how do you account for the following?
1) Genesis says that the "light" preceded the sun, moon and stars. All of the light on earth, however, stems from the sun.
2)It says that whales and birds dqate from teh fiftn day, and mammals and reptiles from the sixth. But we know that whales developed from land mammals and birds from reptiles.
3) Genesis says that flowering plants (fruit trees) originated on the third day, and birds on the fifth. But fruit trees need birds or mammals to pollinate them, and could not have existed befroe the existence of animals. Especially if, as you say, the "days" were really periods of up to a billion years. Angiosperms, since they depend on animals for fertilixation, could NOT have predated animals.
4)The Bible says that Noah's ark measured 450,000 cubic cubits, or about 135000 cubic feet. Given that there are about 10 million species of living things, = 20 million individuals, taht works out to about 0.07 cunbic feet per species on teh average. that's not including space for water, food, air, waste, or empty space for buoyancy. methinks the elephants would start getting a bit cramped....
5. leviticus says that the hyrax and hare are ruminants. They aren't.
6. Joshua says that the sun moves around teh earth. actually, the sun and the earth both orbit around a common center of amss within the sun.
These are all false statements contained within teh Bible. ....
: But it is a sin. God has never lied before so I believe him when he says we should not do certain things.
God may not lie, but the Bible sure does. First of all, it is by no means clear that the prohonbition on sodomy wasn't 1) a mistransalation, 2) something interjected by the ancient Hebrews to justify their own sexual prejudices, or 3) something taken grievously out of context that no longer has any relevance. If you think teh Bible never liues, then how about the passage in teh same book of leviticus that sanctions slavery? or the one that prohibits eaqting shellfish and pork or cutting your hair?
(to be continued before I get cut off)
None.
