(December 4, 2021 at 9:51 am)Belacqua Wrote:(December 4, 2021 at 9:45 am)Ketzer Wrote: This is an observation on my part where the bible basically talks in circles. Below are 2 quotes from the bible.
Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
Genesis 1:27 - So God created man in his own image. He created him in the image of God. He created them male and female.
When I pointed this out to my relatives (who are a mixture of Baptists and Catholics) they were caught off guard and struggled for an explanation.
I asked them, "So, god was a hermaphrodite that identified with the male side because it clearly states "he" created them male and female. They can explain this by saying god created man in his image buuuuut, then they'll contradict themselves if they try to explain the "our image part' because, according them there is only one god.
I know the rest of the bible too and use to asked all the time by my relatives. "If you're an Atheist, why do you know so much about the bible?" So, I throw it back by telling them that's the wrong question. "If you're a christian, why is it you don't?"
Have you checked the original Hebrew? Sometimes these issues turn out to be translation problems that are clearer in the original.
For example, the "our" may be the English "royal we," a singular meaning with a plural pronoun. As when Queen Victoria said, "We are not amused," meaning "I am not amused."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we
I'm very rusty, it's been a long time since I read the Torah. I seem to remember that god YHWH refers to 'himself' as 'Elohim' .
I found this which I think is a reasonable explanation.
"---Thus, in Genesis the words, “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth,” Elohim is monotheistic in connotation, though its grammatical structure seems polytheistic. The Israelites probably borrowed the Canaanite plural noun Elohim and made it singular in meaning in their cultic practices and theological reflections.
Elohim | Hebrew god | Britannica
At my Catholic school I was taught that the passage that god made man in his own image refers to god as being pure spirit, not a physical person. Have always had a problem with that
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I thought about your explanation of the human foetus being a human being. I think your argument is sophistry. Or simply too far above my head to understand. Occam's razor suggests you may also be right. That I can't understand an argument infers nothing other than that.
Again at my Catholic school. We were taught that a human foetus is a person from conception because the soul enters it at that moment. I don't believe in the soul, so have no problem rejecting that answer. Apologies for not stating that at the beginning
As I understand it he 24 week rule is a generalisation used by doctors to determine up to what time they will perform an abortion. Up to that time a foetus will not usually survive outside of the mother's body regardless of medical intervention.
The claim about potential is moot as far as I'm aware
My understanding of the issue has satisfied me for over 40 years. I am of course willing to accept a science based rebuttal. Not convinced the answer can be reached by sophisticated argument alone.
