Creation Story Poll

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expounder

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Just out of curiosity
Do you:
1)Believe the Bible is the word of God and the whole account in Gesis part 1 is an exact description on how the world was made in exactly 6 days
2)I don’t believe the Genesis was intended to give us a factual account but was instead given to us in order to help us make sense of the world around us a factual account of creation.
 
expounder said:
Just out of curiosity
Do you:
1)Believe the Bible is the word of God and the whole account in Gesis part 1 is an exact description on how the world was made in exactly 6 days
2)I don’t believe the Genesis was intended to give us a factual account but was instead given to us in order to help us make sense of the world around us a factual account of creation.
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Your questions are poorly designed. They are not mutually exclusive. One can believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and at the same time also believe that Genesis isn’t a literal scientific account.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Your questions are poorly designed. They are not mutually exclusive. One can believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and at the same time also believe that Genesis isn’t a literal scientific account.
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Precisely. :thumbsup:
 
Well said mate. (Tarpeian Rock)
Anyway of course we Catholics believe All that is said in the Bible,
kind of a (no offence) stupid thing to ask on a catholic forum.
 
I’m not voting on this poll for the same reason that the person above me said; the options are not mutually exclusive.

A better poll would be:
  1. I believe that Genesis is a literal account of Creation.
  2. I believe that Genesis is not a literal, but symbolic account of Creation.
 
A better poll would be:
  1. I believe that Genesis is a literal account of Creation.
  2. I believe that Genesis is not a literal, but symbolic account of Creation.
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Does anyone out there realize that Genesis has 50 chapters?
:rotfl:
 
ok i understand your concerns.

I guess what i meant was that ‘you believe the bible is the literal and exact word of God’
You can still vote if you interpret it as this instead.
 
expounder said:
You have misunderstood this topic
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I don’t think so. The Catholic teaching on this is that the creation accounts in Genesis (there are two) were not meant to be interpreted as scientific texts and, therefore, need to be interpreted in that light. We are free to believe that the accounts are literally true (although the sequences in the two accounts differ, which presents explanatory problems) or that they are true in the sacred writers’ intentions even thought they may not be literal accounts of events at the time (that God created everything from nothing, including time, and that there is a hierarchy among the created “stuff” of the universe, but how long and in what specific order it occurred is not apparent in these accounts of creation).

If you could re-word your poll so that it answers the question you have, it might get more people willing to commit to one or the other choice. What is it that you want to find out about the beliefs of CAF posters who choose to participate in your poll? (I hope you weren’t thinking that your question here could in some way be representative of any other population, like “most Catholics” or “most Christians” or some other group.)

Check the post by dshix for a better way to ask the question.
 
Genesis is a mythic story of creation…not a scientific treatise on creation.
 
expounder said:
Just out of curiosity
Do you:
1)Believe the Bible is the word of God and the whole account in Gesis part 1 is an exact description on how the world was made in exactly 6 days
2)I don’t believe the Genesis was intended to give us a factual account but was instead given to us in order to help us make sense of the world around us a factual account of creation.
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Do you think God’s Word is always literal?
 
expounder said:
Just out of curiosity
Do you:
1)Believe the Bible is the word of God and the whole account in Gesis part 1 is an exact description on how the world was made in exactly 6 days
2)I don’t believe the Genesis was intended to give us a factual account but was instead given to us in order to help us make sense of the world around us a factual account of creation.
Click to expand...
I believe both. 🙂 The Bible is the word of God and Genesis gives us the facts just not ALL of the facts. 🙂 I believe in the beginning God did create Heaven and earth. Period. The first verse is right. But the next verse that says the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep, does not come directly after God created Heaven and earth. Something happens in between the 2 verses. After God created Heaven and earth, something happened to make the earth formless void and dark with water all over the planet. I believe what happens after verse 1 that was God reforming and restoring the earth. That’s why it just took 6 days. The water was already there and God just gathered it together to make dry land appear. This earth is much older than Adam & Eve. For all we know mankind might have destroyed the planet through some kind of futuristic weapon and God simply started over again with Adam & Eve. It’s like if we destroy the earth with our technology and mankind dies out and then God restores it and makes man again out of the dust of the earth, since there are no living people to repopulate the earth. The end of the world was not really the end of the world because God restored everything in 6 days and formed man again from the ground. So I think Genesis is right but it’s just that all of the information is not there. We have enough information to know what we need to know, that God created the world in the beginning and that He made man, but we don’t have all of the info which is why people are starting to find some info that doesn’t seem to fit.
 
dshix said:
I’m not voting on this poll for the same reason that the person above me said; the options are not mutually exclusive.

A better poll would be:
  1. I believe that Genesis is a literal account of Creation.
  2. I believe that Genesis is not a literal, but symbolic account of Creation.
Click to expand...
Exactly! 👍
 
Skye_Ariel said:
I believe both. 🙂 The Bible is the word of God and Genesis gives us the facts just not ALL of the facts. 🙂 I believe in the beginning God did create Heaven and earth. Period. The first verse is right. But the next verse that says the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep, does not come directly after God created Heaven and earth. Something happens in between the 2 verses. After God created Heaven and earth, something happened to make the earth formless void and dark with water all over the planet. I believe what happens after verse 1 that was God reforming and restoring the earth. That’s why it just took 6 days. The water was already there and God just gathered it together to make dry land appear. This earth is much older than Adam & Eve. For all we know mankind might have destroyed the planet through some kind of futuristic weapon and God simply started over again with Adam & Eve. It’s like if we destroy the earth with our technology and mankind dies out and then God restores it and makes man again out of the dust of the earth, since there are no living people to repopulate the earth. The end of the world was not really the end of the world because God restored everything in 6 days and formed man again from the ground. So I think Genesis is right but it’s just that all of the information is not there. We have enough information to know what we need to know, that God created the world in the beginning and that He made man, but we don’t have all of the info which is why people are starting to find some info that doesn’t seem to fit.
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The only problem with this theory is that you’re working with a translation that’s been fudged a bit to make some particular theological assumptions work: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void…” The verse describes the nature of the world when God began his creative activity: formless and void, darkness covering the face of the deep, etc.
 
Fairwinds said:
but which account in genesis is the “real” literal one?
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What do you mean by which account? Where are the 2 creation stories?
Dave_Noonan said:
The only problem with this theory is that you’re working with a translation that’s been fudged a bit to make some particular theological assumptions work: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void…” The verse describes the nature of the world when God began his creative activity: formless and void, darkness covering the face of the deep, etc.
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I’m going by Douay-Rheims Bible
*
The Beginning

1In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. 2And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

There’s a period there after verse 1. 🙂

I just checked other versions here and all versions have the period between verse 1 and 2 except 1 version, the International Standard Version. Which version are you going by?
 
Skye_Ariel said:
What do you mean by which account? Where are the 2 creation stories?
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you should read the bible, even the protestants do that. first account, gen 1:1-2:3; second account, gen 2:4-25. these two accounts are not identical.

I don’t believe either one is a literal account.
 
expounder said:
Just out of curiosity
Do you:
1)Believe the Bible is the word of God and the whole account in Gesis part 1 is an exact description on how the world was made in exactly 6 days
2)I don’t believe the Genesis was intended to give us a factual account but was instead given to us in order to help us make sense of the world around us a factual account of creation.
Click to expand...
In Genesis, to create means to regenerate.
Arcana Coelestia 16. Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the heavens (coelum) and the earth. The most ancient time is called “the beginning.” By the prophets it is in various places called the “days of old (antiquitatis)” and also the “days of eternity.” The “beginning” also involves the first period when man is being regenerated, for he is then born anew, and receives life. Regeneration itself is therefore called a “new creation” of man. The expressions to “create,” to “form,” to “make,” in almost all parts of the prophetic writings signify to regenerate, yet with a difference in the signification. As in Isaiah:–

Every one that is called by My name, I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him (Isaiah 43:7).

Genesis 1:2 . And the earth was a void and emptiness, and darkness was upon the faces of the deep [abyssi]; and the Spirit of God was brooding upon the faces of the waters. Before his regeneration, man is called the “earth void and empty” and also the “ground” wherein nothing of good and truth has been sown; “void” denotes where there is nothing of good, and “empty” where there is nothing of truth. Hence comes “thick darkness” that is, stupidity, and an ignorance of all things belonging to faith in the Lord, and consequently of all things belonging to spiritual and heavenly life.

Such a man is described by the Lord through Jeremiah: My people is stupid, they have not known Me; they are foolish sons, and are not intelligent; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and lo a void and emptiness, and the heavens, and they had no light (Jer. 4:22-23).

Harry:wave:
 
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