Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: tjd1454
I note that you quote Bible verses on your "about" page, which indicates that you consider yourself to be Christian? If so, do you affirm the Christian understanding of God as Creator, as stated in the ancient creeds: "I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth..."?

I am a Christian, and I am familiar with the various creeds. As a rule, I do not discuss religion in public places.

Your religion appears to be closer to Gaia worship of the Earth rather than Christianity. While seemingly unwilling to attribute Creation to the divine act of God, you have no problem attributing direct creative acts to "Mother Nature". You write elsewhere (yeah, I like to know a little about the person I am addressing): "She should be irate with Mother Nature for making us this way. For making men big and strong ... for making women smaller ... so that nature can compel them into caring for (children). Nature does not care what we do with our lives..."

Really? You attribute creative acts to "Mother Nature" as if "she" possessed intelligence and has "designed" men and women, etc. Sounds very much like the "Intelligent design" that you ridicule. So Intelligent Design makes perfect sense after all - so long as it is not Biblical?

I have nothing but contempt for those who elevate the earth--an inanimate object--to the level of a deity and worship it. Nature has been personified for as long as humans have recorded history (and probably before then, although we cannot know that); using the personified term to refer to the physical forces that shaped human evolution to make us what we are is hardly a religious statement. Especially in the context of that particular thread, where I was commenting about some young man-hating "feminist" who was blaming all of her personal problems on men, when her real issue is with the biological characteristics of our species.

Your Ph.D. is obviously not in cell biology, because if it were, you would be aware that our understanding of cell morphology has exploded in recent years, and we now realize the almost infinite complexity of the cell - and how much more there is yet to learn. (No, I did not read this on any - what you sneeringly call "con artist" - Creationist site). Full disclosure: I also have an earned Ph.D. - in theology.

You would be wrong about my PhD. As a biochemist, I am very aware of how cells function--how they make biomolecules, how they make energy, how they grow and eat and crawl around, etc., etc. It is a lot of knowledge, all packed away in my head. I have grown millions, if not billions, of cells for research. And, interestingly, I talk about those cells as if they were aware, sentient beings--much in the same way that I referred to "Mother Nature"--even though I am very aware that those cells have absolutely no awareness and only respond to chemical signals. My personification of inanimate objects stems from the human desire to personify everything--to see human faces wherever we look.

If I will be honest, I see creationism as being little different than Gaia worship. Like Gaia worship (or Paganism), Creationism elevates the physical world to divine status.

39 posted on 02/06/2014 7:26:02 PM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies ]


To: exDemMom
If I claimed to be an Atheist, and yet said I believed in the Holy Trinity, I could rightly be called out for holding to beliefs that are incompatible with Atheism. Similarly, those who consider themselves to be Christian are obligated to give assent to certain fundamental doctrines. One of those theological understandings, amply attested to in the Creeds, is that the heavens and the Earth were created by God.

Please note that I am not arguing for a particular "date" of creation. It appears that time as we know it (i.e. twenty-four hour days) only came into being on the 4th day of creation. I believe there is a great deal of mystery regarding how God actually created the heavens and the Earth, and the subject should be approached with a great measure of humility.

Unfortunately, many Christians are afraid to affirm God as Creator because the price they will have to pay is more than they wish to bear. So they bow the knee to Darwin, and relegate God to Francis Schaeffer's "Ghost in the Machine" - the belief of superstitious people that mysterious forces actually were behind, e.g., the mechanism in the clock tower. Educated people, of course, look upon such folk beliefs with bemused toleration, knowing that the operation of the mechanism is perfectly explained by mechanics.

Similarly, atheists and secularists - and evolutionists - look with bemusement upon people of Faith who belief in a Creator God, because the theory of evolution is a perfectly satisfactory explanation that does not require any supernatural component.

I fear that those who deny this aspect of their Faith out of the fear of man will one day answer for their refusal to confess God as Creator.

Regards.

52 posted on 02/13/2014 7:09:19 PM PST by tjd1454
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson