(May 3, 2016 at 12:21 pm)Wryetui Wrote: "The Church has known for over 500 years that the creation story in the bible bears not the slightest resemblance to the universe we live in. If you don’t have a problem with the biblical claim that god created the grass and trees before he created the sun and moon, then there’s nothing that I can say to you." you are talking about my field of work and I am interested. First of all I need to know on what do you rely for saying that "The Church has known for over 500 years that the creation story in the bible bears not the slightest resemblance to the universe we live in" since I haven't heard it from anyone in the Church, really, where did you get this from?No, you wouldn't hear about this is Church today, but a little over 500 years ago, there was a surge in knowledge about the universe. We call this the age of exploration. the age of enlightenment, the age of reason or some such. But it was an age when people discovered that the Earth and the universe are not anything like what the Church had us believing. At first the Church reacted to this by burning the scientists who dared question what was written. You can't openly execute heretics today. But you can ignore the facts in the vain hope that they will be forgotten.
Quote:"If you don’t have a problem with the biblical claim that god created the grass and trees before he created the sun and moon, then there’s nothing that I can say to you.", this kind of problems appear when a person reads the Sacred Scriptures without any theological support and are no interested in knowing what they actually say. Look at what explanation gives St. Basil the Great in his famous "Hexaemeron" (Homily 5.1) to exactly the question you asked: "Let the earth bring forth green grass. Let the earth bring forth by itself without having any need of help from without. Some consider the sun as the source of all productiveness on the earth. It is, they say, the action of the sun's heat which attracts the vital force from the centre of the earth to the surface. The reason why the adornment of the earth was before the sun is the following; that those who worship the sun, as the source of life, may renounce their error. If they be well persuaded that the earth was adorned before the genesis of the sun, they will retract their unbounded admiration for it, because they see grass and plants vegetate before it rose. If then the food for the flocks was prepared, did our race appear less worthy of a like solicitude? He, who provided pasture for horses and cattle, thought before all of your riches and pleasures. If he fed your cattle, it was to provide for all the needs of your life. And what object was there in the bringing forth of grain, if not for your subsistence? Moreover, many grasses and vegetables serve for the food of man."The scriptures will always make sense if you give yourself the liberty to add anything you want to it. Why do Christians insist that we look at scripture in its context if they are going to turn around and superimpose whatever they want?
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.