Like I said, I find it fadinating to watch people construct bubbles so they can keep literal faith. But even then, almost all make exceptions; the Old Testament is almost impossible to interpret literally and sound reasonable, I find people just dismiss it entirely.
And here we have people who know they can’t deny the facts, for something like fossils, and instead just say “god created it all to look that way!”, like some parlor trick in order to allow their mind to give up. In a sense, “tap out”, because trying to balance science and literal faith is too hard.
I personally do not find giving up, and making up little fairy tales whenever you can resolve a conflict in your mind with literal faith and science, to be impressive. It’s just giving up.
It’s hard to share personal experiences on this board without sounding crazy but over and over and over again, I’ve watched my personal Red Sea part. What this does is increase faith. When my faith increases, I see even greater things happen which again increases my faith. I understand that there isn’t anything logical I can provide you to sink your teeth into and that’s where the first leap of faith comes in. Jesus emphasized over and over how important faith is. I am a witness to this Truth and am testifying to it.
No. You just have trouble understanding how conversations, asking questions works, and apparently need to assert some sort of semantic dominance. Weird
This is found more in Jewish thought, but not exclusive to it. The simplest way to pass on history is in story form. Create a character or two and weave the story. Thus, some commentary suggests that the story of Adam and Eve is a story of a tribe. The original tribe (Adam) grew large enough for groups to leave and form new tribes (tribes of Cain and Abel). The first war was between the tribe of Cain (farmers) and the tribe of Abel (shepherds whose flocks were pillaging the farms). The farmers got up in arms and basically slaughtered the shepherds which horrified the parent tribe. Eventually another tribe (Seth) broke off from Adam. This would explain how Cain came to be known as the builder of cities (what single family would have need for a city). It also explains the population explosion.
As far as ancestors: Yep, probably can trace ancestry back to fish and beyond. However, I still am convinced the Spirit of God was very much involved in our creation. Early man recognized we were different, and that should not be taken lightly.
That’s interesting but further proof that people just use and warp the bible to suit their own agenda, cherry picking interpretations. Might as well say all of Jesus is a metaphor and the whole notion that the Bible is anything more than allegory with life lessons (like any movie or children’s story) isnt exactly valid.
Good on you for merging known facts into your faith. It’s troublesome when I see people reject known facts because they don’t fit into their faith easily enough. I’m perfectly fine with religion interpreting reality through spiritual lenses. It certainly has had it’s appear for me at times.
If you consider Jesus as a metaphor, the life lessons that Jesus taught on would be more of a central tenant of Christianity. IMO, too much of the focus in modern Christianity is on the crucifixion and what that represents for His followers. I contend that what Jesus actually taught is largely forgotten.
I just don’t think faith = needing to believe the earth is some arbitrary age and then making up fairy tales for yourself. I think people blur the lines between between what is important and what is not; I have no doubt faith makes better people of all of us. But I keep emphasizing literal faith, and I guarantee I could find all sorts of places you draw a line and do not practice when it comes to the more archaic scripture.
I’m very interested in God. I would love for mankind to have definitive and consistent rules on how we should live. I would love to know there is an afterlife.
No, I am very interested in god. But first I need to establish that he exists.
Well, it’s clear in your own conclusion. Until he DOES answer, expecting your conclusion to be the prevailing truth is nothing but your own strawman.
Likewise – your conclusion. Your strawman.
The believer has a different conclusion. A different faith. As long as you insist on the playing field being your conclusion, there is no basis for discussion except to arrive again at your conclusion. Therefore you’re stuck with your cynicism, and with your choice of non-belief. And the believer moves forward living in a peace that the world can never give.
It has been established that God exists. People of all eras, all times, all cultures have presented accounts of His existence, His presence in their midst. People experience their own accounts even today.
Many, myself included, began with trusting that Biblical accounts of God were true–and were not content with God being somewhere in the past, or someone that someone else encountered. We wanted to be a part of it all. Trusting (perhaps also called faith or belief) leads to our own encounters.
Answer me this: Are you by nature a suspicious person, never believing anyone? Or, like most, are you one who trusts until that trust is broken? Did something along the way break the trust you had in what you have been told about God? If so, would you be willing to say what, precisely, broke that trust?
Study ancient Judaism. Study early Christianity. The fact is, “archaic scripture” is not literal. Turning scripture into “literal” scripture is a relatively modern phenomenon. We archaic ones never swallowed the literal nonsense that began emerging when some sects began proclaiming every person could read and interpret scripture on his/her own.
I would also submit that merging known facts of the modern day is only a start. It is also vital to study the culture, history, and language of ancient times so that we accurately understand what is their intent to convey. A quote by Alan Greenspan comes to mind:
I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
That quote should be first and foremost in our minds when we read what people wrote thousands of years ago.
Alas. The Bible was written by Man, and Man is fallible. If the Perfect God had written the Bible, His true intent would be evident. Like you, I feel that subtext matters for true intent of any body of text written by Men. Man’s ability to communicate effectively is far less than the God, The Great Communicator.
