(November 26, 2014 at 9:53 am)Irrational Wrote: What they fail to explain is how one can be perfect and yet with fleshly weaknesses.Any attempt to explain how original sin works has the problem of dealing with the Genesis story, which is both vague enough in some places to allow for wide interpretation, but also specific enough in other spots to create some very thorny continuity issues. The fact that so many theists try to resolve this by tying god's hands in some way is evidence of that. God had no issue wiping out nearly every living thing with a global flood, but the world became that way because he was limited by a technicality... even though he makes all of the rules and cannot be held accountable for his actions.
The many confusing and contradictory parts each require additional clarification, which inevitably wind up undermining or conflicting with other views. It's one of those areas that I don't think is reconcilable in any way; even "magic" can't undo the tangle.
"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
