RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 4:52 pm
(July 17, 2013 at 5:51 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: Genesis is not meant to tell us exactly how the universe was created. Rather, it is the demythologizing of the universe. The Israelites had just come out of Egypt when this was written, and its purpose is to show that there are not numerous gods controlling the sun, stars, and all life, but rather it is all the work of God the almighty.
I like this part of the first reply. To me, the two versions of the creation account indicate two views regarding the relationship between god and mankind. There is a kind of yin and yang, a very optimistic and hopeful view and a somewhat cynical and pessimistic view. Seen as two separate accounts with two separate ideals, it becomes a more compelling read.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
