(July 9, 2013 at 9:28 pm)Michael Schubert Wrote: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The question I ask about this passage: How does this ancient writer know this?

Well if you look at the text literally you will clearly see that no scientific claim is being made here. Instead, as with the rest of the bible, you are reading about God and his purpose.

What the writer/s know is how to describe purpose in line with neighbouring cultural endeavour.

If you want to explore that in great depth I'd recommend John H Walton's "the lost world of genesis one".

(July 10, 2013 at 2:15 am)fr0d0 Wrote:

(July 9, 2013 at 9:28 pm)Michael Schubert Wrote: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The question I ask about this passage: How does this ancient writer know this?

Well if you look at the text literally you will clearly see that no scientific claim is being made here. Instead, as with the rest of the bible, you are reading about God and his purpose.

What the writer/s know is how to describe purpose in line with neighbouring cultural endeavour.

If you want to explore that in great depth I'd recommend John H Walton's "the lost world of genesis one".

Well, don't Christians believe that God is a part of objective reality?

Objective reality is part of God. And?

(July 10, 2013 at 3:39 am)fr0d0 Wrote: Objective reality is part of God. And?

So I'm trying to comprehend your logic, please correct me if I'm wrong. If objective reality is part of God, then God is not an individual with arms, hands, and human features?

To be more incisive, what precisely is God? Is he/she/it a philosophy? Is God a representative of universal truth? Fill me in on this, please.

(July 10, 2013 at 1:50 am)Michael Schubert Wrote:

(July 10, 2013 at 1:24 am)Godschild Wrote: Exactly what science was God to give Moses about Genesis, what science did anyone of that time have and or truly understand.

Lol, what science does god have knowledge of?

Things you could not possibly understand.

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(July 10, 2013 at 4:21 am)Michael Schubert Wrote:

(July 10, 2013 at 3:39 am)fr0d0 Wrote: Objective reality is part of God. And?

So I'm trying to comprehend your logic, please correct me if I'm wrong. If objective reality is part of God, then God is not an individual with arms, hands, and human features?

To be more incisive, what precisely is God? Is he/she/it a philosophy? Is God a representative of universal truth? Fill me in on this, please.

God says He is spirit, meaning He has no physical features like we do, God is a real being, not a philosophy.

(July 9, 2013 at 9:38 pm)Maelstrom Wrote: From what I understand, the writers of the book claim divine inspiration directly from god.

If they had been divinely inspired by god, the scripture which correlates to science would have been more accurate. Surely, after all, an omniscient being would have given accurate scientific information. Since that is not the case, however, it is apparent that man was not divinely inspired and he simply wrote the book based on his fallible knowledge of the world at the time.

I once been god itself and its called LSD, one hell of a drug

(July 10, 2013 at 2:11 pm)LastPoet Wrote: I once been god itself and its called LSD, one hell of a drug

Many people on another forum are spiritual and claim they know god is real because of the psychedelic trips they have experienced. I have explained to them that drugs alter the mind and they have only experience hallucinations, but they ignore my logic for their delusions.

(July 10, 2013 at 2:00 pm)Godschild Wrote: God says He is spirit, meaning He has no physical features like we do, God is a real being, not a philosophy.

Be careful with that kind of heresy. Does not Genesis state that God made man in his own image?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Ahem...excuse me. I have a question. Out of what?

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(July 10, 2013 at 2:11 pm)LastPoet Wrote: I once been god itself and its called LSD, one hell of a drug

Ha ha ha...You ain't lyin'! That's precisely the reason I first started pondering all of this stuff in the first place! lol...I was convinced my Indian friend (dots not feathers) that gave it to me was the Anti-Christ.

(July 10, 2013 at 2:16 pm)Maelstrom Wrote:

(July 10, 2013 at 2:11 pm)LastPoet Wrote: I once been god itself and its called LSD, one hell of a drug

Many people on another forum are spiritual and claim they know god is real because of the psychedelic trips they have experienced. I have explained to them that drugs alter the mind and they have only experience hallucinations, but they ignore my logic for their delusions.

That is very similar to NDE's, except those brain states are created by trauma and a brain panicking for survival, not external drugs, also akin to people that try to give interpretation to dreams. Since those people don't know how to explain the phenomena and/or feel so special for experiencing them, therefore god didit. Classic argument ad ignorantium.