Posted on 07/20/2007 12:30:45 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
You know what I mean...
Right: Archaeologists get to the bottom of things!
Or did you mean that favorite bumper sticker: My Life is in Ruins
I have heard about a Lilith but just as an evil, mythological being. Do you believe she was real?
Almost all of the Genesis stories are holdovers from Mesopotamian myths and legends. I don't believe anything in Genesis really occurred. At best they are allegories that attempted to describe the origins of life and the universe to illiterate Bronze age peoples. At worst they are plagiarisms from the creation myths of the Sumerians and Babylonians.
I've recently been discussing this very thing on another thread.
We differ in at least two places. I don't believe they are myths at all and I believe the creation story was taken by Cain to Babylon. It was they that copied the stories and corrupted them. Genesis is true but has to be read deeply for that truth.
Archaeologically, the cuneiform tablets which depict Mesopotamian myth predate the writing of the Bible by 1000 years. There is also a logical argument to be made that the serpent in the garden was added to imply superiority over the religion of the Mesopotamians who worshiped a snake god.
The Bible is rife with borrowings from other religions; the great flood and the garden of eden to the virgin birth. Perseus, Gilgamesh, Jason, Dionysus, Osiris, Horus, all born of virgins. Virgin birth is like a cliche in ancient myth.
I think a thousand years from now, people will read how 20-21st century man conquered the stars, split the atom, and mapped the human genome, but was still unable to break himself away from the myths and folklore of ancient religion.
Thomas Jefferson once said: "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter".
Theories and calculus? What does calculus have to do with the age of the universe?
Check out this picture of the Andromeda galaxy. It is 2.5 million light years away. That means that the light we see today came from the Andromeda galaxy 2.5 million years ago. Then check out these galaxies which are about 13 billion years old. These aren't theories or "calculus," but actual pictures of things in the sky that are older than 10,000 years.
Glad I could oblige.
I like ‘em both...
Their writing predates the written Bible but not the story of the creation. If Cain left the Garden and started a civilization in Mesopotamia he would have taken the story of their beginning with him. The stories are similar but the Babylonian myths are twisted.
The Bible is rife with borrowings from other religions; the great flood and the garden of eden to the virgin birth. Perseus, Gilgamesh, Jason, Dionysus, Osiris, Horus, all born of virgins. Virgin birth is like a cliche in ancient myth.
What if they did the borrowing of the stories of the flood, garden etc. I know that the "virgin birth" was before the event but it was a story told in the stars, before written history.
If you tell me that picture of Jesus riding a brontosaurus is a fake, I’m really going to be mad.
Its all superstition and myth as far as I’m concerned. No different from the gods of Olympus or Quetzalcoatl.
I know science is always finding answers, discovering things about us and our universe. But it never really gets into the philosophical. Some may say that is just because in the end it is all illogical to be judging things in any way but empirically. However there is that one piece, that one bit of our spirit that will never be satisfied with it all just being a random series of events, perhaps tossed in with a bit of luck if I maybe so bold.
Maybe that’s because we think too much, perhaps it’s a weakness in many of us, but maybe, just maybe there is something the is just out of reach of our science no matter how far it goes.
I leave with this, something I have thought of over the years both as a lover of science and a practicing Christian. I was a very big fan of Sagan back in his hay day. Whatever you opinion maybe of the man, he did bring the marvel of the universe to many. I was discussing him one day with others and one of my peers was dumb founded and finally said “But he is an Atheist”. That disturbed me to no end, not because of the revelation, because I knew indirectly, but it made me wonder abut the fate of this man. But then when I would watch his show, I would see that glint of wonder in his eye. It was more than just emotion, he got it. He got how supremely wonderful it all was. He may not have given credit where I think it’s due, but in his own way he was a much stronger believer than many of my fellow Christians.
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Aw Jeez, not “Jesus Flintstone” again...
(Dear Lord forgive, but I know you are laughing too...)
Some may question how devout I am, but that's between me and God, and not their concern.
Oh man.
You think a God that made everything could not make light in flight?
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (NIV) 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
Are you saying a God that created everything could not make light in flight?
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