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"Staged" Creation
June 6, 2012 at 7:30 pm
I attended a local sermon where this pastor was giving a lecture on "staged" creation. His take on creation was that, contrary to mainstream beliefs, god did not create everything in 6 days, rather created the foundation for his future creations. Instead of a "everything created at once approach", this guy's idea of creation was a staged method, where god continues to create to this date. (And he pointed to the recent discoveries of new stars being created, supernova, etc to qualify his argument). I know this is totally opposite to the creation account in the Genesis or the Quran.
The issue here is not creation but how modern theologians are adjusting their age old, now ridiculed ideas, so that it becomes compatible with modern ways of thinking.
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 6, 2012 at 8:23 pm
The words cherry, and picking, come to mind.
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 7, 2012 at 12:10 am
The idea of Genesis being metaphorical goes back to AT LEAST St. Augustine of Hippo (as he's the first Christian writer I know who discussed the symbolism of the passage, but there may also be Jewish writers who came earlier).
I don't know about "staged creation" but it's always been obvious that the 2 creation stories in Genesis cannot be eyewitness accounts just by definition.
I guess what I am saying is that its not at all new. Biblical literalism is, if anything, the newer of the two approaches.
Mary Immaculate, star of the morning
Chosen before the creation began
Chosen to bring for your bridal adorning
Woe to the serpent and rescue to man.
Sinners, we honor your sinless perfection;
Fallen and weak, for your pity we plead;
Grand us the shield of your sovereign protection,
Measure your aid by the depth of our need.
Bend from your throne at the voice of our crying,
Bend to this earth which your footsteps have trod;
Stretch out your arms to us, living and dying,
Mary Immaculate, Mother of God.
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 7, 2012 at 12:53 am
Of course they think it's metaphorical; it's people thousands of years later reading stuff written by people who were even more ignorant than they were and going "...yeah this shit isn't going to hold up much longer."
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 7, 2012 at 1:35 am
(June 6, 2012 at 8:23 pm)Napoleon Wrote: The words cherry, and picking, come to mind.
The words "bull" and "shit" come to mind, too.
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 15, 2012 at 6:29 pm
I keep saying it - there are as many Christian sects as there are Christians. Each one makes up his or her own version.
Aiza Wrote:I don't know about "staged creation" but it's always been obvious that the 2 creation stories in Genesis cannot be eyewitness accounts just by definition. The OT was 4 separate "Bibles", written by 4 different groups of people ("the Jews" was never a single coherent group) with 4 different stories. Gen 1 and Gen 2 are the only remaining remnants in current theology. (There were different Abraham/Isaac stories too - in one, God never told Abraham to bring Isaac, in one Abraham killed Isaac and we never heard of him again. The current story wasn't in any of the originals.)
An eyewitness account? Where would that eye have been to witness the creation of everything? It didn't exist until after it (at least) was created. Most pure unadulterated bullshit is gospel compared to the Bible.
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 15, 2012 at 6:38 pm
They hate it when you resort to facts.
Besides, they'll tell you their fucking god dictated the damn thing or some such nonsense.
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 15, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Quote: "where god continues to create to this date"
Soo who is god? Genes, the environment, the atoms and molecules in all of this, random chance, or a rubber stamp that people use to mark things as god's whenever they get the opportunity?
I have studied the Bible and the theology behind Christianity for many years. I have been to many churches. I have walked the depth and the breadth of the religion and, as a result of this, I have a lot of bullshit to scrape off the bottom of my shoes. ~Ziploc Surprise
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 15, 2012 at 7:04 pm
(June 7, 2012 at 1:35 am)Minimalist Wrote: (June 6, 2012 at 8:23 pm)Napoleon Wrote: The words cherry, and picking, come to mind.
The words "bull" and "shit" come to mind, too.
We could just about start a new thread for possible two-word combinations to substitute here.
More possibilities: The words "wishful" and "thinking"; the words "woefully" and "mistaken"; or ...
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RE: "Staged" Creation
June 16, 2012 at 11:59 am
(June 7, 2012 at 12:10 am)Aiza Wrote: The idea of Genesis being metaphorical goes back to AT LEAST St. Augustine of Hippo (as he's the first Christian writer I know who discussed the symbolism of the passage, but there may also be Jewish writers who came earlier).
I don't know about "staged creation" but it's always been obvious that the 2 creation stories in Genesis cannot be eyewitness accounts just by definition.
I guess what I am saying is that its not at all new. Biblical literalism is, if anything, the newer of the two approaches.
Have you ever wondered if the Gospels were written as allegories like Genesis was? Recently, I've found it very odd that there seem to be these perfectly structured events that happen throughout the Gospels. I've given the example before of the two thieves that were on the crosses with Jesus. Why is it that one just happened to believe and the other disbelieve, as opposed to both or neither believe? One believing and the other disbelieving is the most useful combination for some sort of teaching. If you pay close attention this happens a lot in the whole Bible actually. Rather odd, no?
P.s. an example in the OT: the prisoners that were locked up with Joseph in Genesis 40 had two different interpretations of their dreams. One lives and the other dies.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
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