(February 7, 2014 at 10:53 am)Esquilax Wrote: Which leads me to a much more important question: why work off the premise that you need to retrofit all this biblical stuff into current scientific knowledge at all?
Even 2000 years ago there were theologians who didn't take Genesis as a literal account of how the world and humanity was formed so this isn't really a retrofit but something that was present right from the start. Everything we know of about the universe is perfectly compatible with a purpose made creation event by an eternal non-physical supreme intelligence/consciousness. Not only compatible but a good fit, there is a rational understandable order and a definite process of physical formation in a sequence of stages where various forms are "brought forth" into the creation.
Quote:People have been doing that for centuries, they'd done it for things we now know are wrong, and I guarantee that whatever we discover in the future will be subjected to the same treatment.
We know there isn't a Zeus ruling the skies or a Poseidon ruling the ocean at this point but the Bible already pointed this out ahead of time. You have a physical natural order and a non-physical creator of this natural order. You have God, Gods creation and the creatures of Gods creation. This isn't something that has been proven wrong therefore the premise still holds.
Quote:Why not just see if what the bible says stands up to modern scrutiny
It does if you understand it a certain way, which I'd argue has always been the correct way of understanding it. Sure we know that the Earth isn't a flat platform resting on stone pillars and under a crystal like dome with waters above it but that's minor detail of how the universe is structured. It doesn't matter how the universe is structured as long as God did all the initial structuring, and there is an awful lot of very complex structure here, all of it having to be perfectly balanced for life to exist anywhere at all. So our perception of the creation may have changed but at the heart of it is still the very same eternal God, the God of the Bible is the God of the universe.
Quote:, rather than going through these logical contortions so that it always "does"? Afraid of what you'll find?
You don't have to contort anything as God is a logical proposition to begin with. Denying evolution or the age of the Earth in favour of a literal reading of the Bible isn't logical at all seeing that would be denial of hard data and facts. You can point out that none of these thing particularly impacts upon the universe as a purpose made creation which I would strongly suggest to you it is.
Come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant.
