WARNING! Controversial poll ahead,...

[Section10]

I wasn't aware that Adam and Eve wrote the first few books of Genesis.

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"sigh." Adam & Eve didn't take credit for writing the book of Genesis.

Regarding Voltaire's quote, I've always wondered if God didn't exist would the God concept exist? Can we logically assume people would invent a god if there were none? Yes, people have invented lots of gods and spiritual entities, but would such concepts even develop in the first place if there was nothing in men's minds to kindle them? I wonder if it could be reasonably argued that man is capable of inventing a metaphysical concept entirely independent of materialistic thinking if there were in fact no such thing?
All the fanciful and fairy tale beings we have made are simply imaginary alterations of something that already exists, but to invent a transcendent god is a gigantic and questionable leap of the imagination in my opinion.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

How bout this?

Darwin would have been amused!

(An amazing man, Darwin. His Beagle voyage years were really adventurous. Rode hundreds of miles on horseback, went up and down the Andes, escaped Chilean bandits, witnessed the aftermath of one of South America's biggest earthquakes ... he pretty much lived three lifetimes in a few short years.)

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[jake431]

The fact is, no one could possibly know for sure, not having actually witnessed the formation of the planet.

That knife cuts both ways. If no one can know, then no one can know it was created in 7 days either.

-Jake

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"sigh." Adam & Eve didn't take credit for writing the book of Genesis.

But you said, "... I'm more comfortable believing someone who was there at the time." Who was there at the time of human creation, apart from Adam and Eve? I mean, who else could have been there at the time and have written about it?

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[Maj.Nick Danger]

"sigh." Adam & Eve didn't take credit for writing the book of Genesis.

Regarding Voltaire's quote, I've always wondered if God didn't exist would the God concept exist? Can we logically assume people would invent a god if there were none? Yes, people have invented lots of gods and spiritual entities, but would such concepts even develop in the first place if there was nothing in men's minds to kindle them? I wonder if it could be reasonably argued that man is capable of inventing a metaphysical concept entirely independent of materialistic thinking if there were in fact no such thing?
All the fanciful and fairy tale beings we have made are simply imaginary alterations of something that already exists, but to invent a transcendent god is a gigantic and questionable leap of the imagination in my opinion.

Yes, good point. I think a belief in God is instinctual, something that is ingrained in our subconcious. Little children have the kind of faith that can move mountains, but a lot of us seem to lose it the more we are exposed to the world.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

But you said, "... I'm more comfortable believing someone who was there at the time." Who was there at the time of human creation, apart from Adam and Eve? I mean, who else could have been there at the time and have written about it?

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Well, the bible is the word of God. He was there ... or so the story goes if you believe it.

bk

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

That knife cuts both ways. If no one can know, then no one can know it was created in 7 days either.

-Jake

But what exactly is a "day"? Just an arbitrary name for an arbitrary period of time is all. A Biblical "day" could be a million years, a hundred years, a thousand,...who knows? [huh]

 

[jake431]

Well, the bible is the word of God. He was there ... or so the story goes if you believe it.

bk

God invented the third person narrative.
-Jake

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... to invent a transcendent god is a gigantic and questionable leap of the imagination in my opinion.

Is such a leap questionable solely because it is gigantic? Or are there additional reasons why you find it questionable?

.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Well, the bible is the word of God. He was there ... or so the story goes if you believe it.

bk

Jolly good, Baron! There's hope for ya yet!


(Dang! Look at the time,...I must git me hence, but I'll be back.)lol

 

[jake431]

But what exactly is a "day"? Just an arbitrary name for an arbitrary period of time is all. A Biblical "day" could be a million years, a hundred years, a thousand,...who knows? [huh]

And why not nearly a billion years?

-Jake

 

[Baron Kurtz]

But what exactly is a "day"? Just an arbitrary name for an arbitrary period of time is all. A Biblical "day" could be a million years, a hundred years, a thousand,...who knows? [huh]

Not quite arbitrary ... but i'll leave that to the physicists.

bk

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

And why not nearly a billion years?

-Jake

Because I don't believe what everyone else does,... but then, why not a billion?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Well, the bible is the word of God. He was there ... or so the story goes if you believe it.

So, God sat down with a stylus or something and wrote down Genesis? No, right?

Or did he whisper it to oral storytellers, or show it to them in visions? If so, then our handed-down version of Genesis must be imperfect ... because humans are, by Judeo-Christian definition, imperfect beings, and therefore the oral storytellers must have both received and conveyed the Word of God imperfectly.

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[Baron Kurtz]

Well, the point was that if you believe the bible to be the word of God (i do not) he is telling it how it was. This story was somehow, undefined, imparted to the writers. In his own word(s). I think that's how the reasoning goes. Of course, if we're discussing the NT (not likely in a debate about creation), some of those chaps were purported to have been there when the things they discuss were happening.

bk

 

[dr greg]

there are other viewpoints on the day

What does Krishna mean by the beginning of creation? According to the Puranas (Vedic histories), there have been innumerable creations in the course of cyclical time. The basic unit of Vedic cyclical time is the day of Brahma, which lasts 4.32 billion years. The day of Brahma (also called a kalpa) is followed by a night of Brahma, also lasting 4.32 billion years. The cycle of days and nights of Brahma toes on for Brahma's lifetime of one hundred years (36,000 nights), equivalent to 311.04 trillion of our human years. During the day of Brahma, life, including human life, is manifest. During the night of Brahma, life is not manifest.

 

[Lauren]

But if God is a perfect omni-prescent being, he could imprint the story in perfection to the person whom he chose to write it down.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Hence the argument for retaining some of the NT stories that were written many many many years after the fact, by people working from oral history and divinely-imparted Knowledge.

bk

 

[Marc Chevalier]

But if God is a perfect omni-prescent being, he could imprint the story in perfection to the person whom he chose to write it down.

But that would cheating, wouldn't it? Imposing on the receivers' free will and temporarily patching up their fallibility, only to let them become fallible again ... as soon as the Word had been conveyed.

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[Lauren]

I don't think God CAN cheat- maybe it's cheating to human standards lol