Sorry it took awhile to respond…got kinda busy. Well, let’s see here…
rossum:
There is specific information in the Bible about a mountain from which Satan and Jesus could see all the kingdoms of the earth. Where is that mountain? rossum
Possibly in one of the heavens…certainly not here on earth.
rossum:
There is specific information in the Bible about the number of corners that the earth has - four. Where are they?rossum
North, South, East, and West
rossum:
There is specific information in Jesus’ parables yet nobody thinks that they are true in a literal sense. Parables with specific information like the number of wise and foolish virgins or the number of talents are accepted as moral tales whose important part is the moral of the story, not the details of the story.rossum
True, and I agree - these are Parables, yet - With all the people who have lived, are living, and have yet to live - not ALL of the parables are necessarily about non-existant people either. God is present in all ages, and all times. Which is why we need the teaching authority of the Church to define when something is stated in scripture to give depth to a story, or accent (for our understanding, or memorization) the moral of the story. Yet - in these instances, doesn’t it seem reasonable to say - the specifics of the story are limited, not pertaining to what is important, and not accented in and of themselves? For instance - 10 virgins, 5 did this and 5 did that…what is important is what they did, and the results of that decision. Another: 5 guys, one had 1 coin, one had 2…etc. The reason the specifics are given is to differentiate, in a somewhat longer story, who is who…therefore names would not be important - it was a way of helping people remember the story, not because the information was important in and of itself. Yet, in the flood account - was it important to say that the waters rose to 15 cubits over the tops of the mountains…after the text already stated - repeatedly - that the whole earth was covered? Was it necessary to give the exact dimensions of the ark, including 3 floors, and the window size…if it was allegorical?
rossum:
As a non-Christian I cannot see why Christians would want to emphasise the literal nature of a story where YHWH kills almost all of the population of the world. For example how many of the millions of drowned women were pregnant?rossum
Because we have a just God…and, He will do it again, just not in the same way. The wages of Sin - is Death, the unborn were probably spared, as they had done nothing wrong…yet. Our god is also loving. An analogy would be, concerning the flood itself: where there is a cancer it must be removed, for the good of the body as a whole.
rossum:
If you accept the literal truth of all the specific information given about the lives of the Biblical Patriarchs then the date of less than 10,000 years is correct. I hope that you are not using the criterion of “specific information” when it suits you and abandoning it when it doesn’t.rossum
Hmmmm…good point. I will have to get back to you on that…
rossum:
A global flood would leave traces in the rocks and in the fossil record. No such traces have been found. The nearest analogue I can think of are the traces of
snowball earth but that is long before the evolution of anything approaching a mammal, let alone a human being. If you think that there were humans on earth two or three billion years ago then you would do better as a Hindu creationist; Hindu scriptures talk of man existing for that sort of time and longer.rossum
The two or three billion years thing was for illustrative purposes - which i think you already knew
rossum:
Not as specifically as you seem to think. Have a look at the different meanings of the Hebrew word “eretz” and then look at the Hebrew text of the relevant passages in Genesis.rossum
True - there is room for interpretation there, yet - there is, as I already stated, differences between the amount and intent of specifics.
rossum:
Different Christian groups seem to find plenty of room for argument in their different interpretations of the Bible. rossum
Also true - there are as many interpretations as there are Denominations. Yet there is only One Church teaching One Truth in it’s entirety. All we lack is the specifics of How something came to be sometimes (Apart from the fact that God made it happen) - which is what we are discussing now.
Peace
John
Does our generation deserve to find it?
After reading the whole thing, it seems to me the man had a spiritual awakening as a result of all of that.
.