How many of you believe in Creationism (or similar concept) that is to say, All That Is was made by the hand of an intelligent creator and things such as evolution did not occur? (There are of course other interpretations that you may specify in your response if you so wish).
Even as a non-christian, I'm not sure I understand why the creation vs evolution debate is any issue. If you posit an intelligent creator capable of building universes, the idea that he might implement evolution seems trivially within his capability. Arguing over the details of
how it was done seems to be missing the point. As far as the Genesis account goes, it seems not such a stretch to suggest that the actual mechanics of constructing a physical universe might be difficult to describe to your average shepherd, so the account might be not entirely literal. It might be an argument against the
literalness of the bible, but I don't speak to many people who claim that the bible is precisely, literally true.
As for "made by the hand of an intelligent creator" I think the whole question is making a mistake of
dualism. A lot of religions come right out and say that god is everywhere, and in everything. "Omniscient and omnipresent." So how do you get from that to this notion of god as a bearded man building a universe from which he is separate and distinct? I realize that the bible does describe god in that manner, has him physically appearing and
having wrestling matches with people and so forth, but I don't consider the bible a reliable source.
IIRC, that IS supposed to be literal. He meant it in the sense of 'If you're rich, you're not going to heaven. It's like trying to shove a camel through the eye of a needle'
There are plenty of biblical examples of rich men generally considered righteous. For example, that's actually kind of the entire point of the
Book of Job.
Job 1:1
"There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east."Job 1:8
"And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”"He's rich and loves god, so satan suggests that Job is only righteous because it's convenient for him. So god has satan spend something like 30-40 pages taking away everything he holds dear. His money, his cattle, his wife, his health. But Job refuses to curse god, so god decided he passed the test and gives him even more more and cattle than he had before.
Other examples exist. Solomon, obviously. And David. And Abraham is an especially good example. He was rich, and yet he's the guy in the bible that god made the
covenant with that was the original basis for the entire existence of judaism, the idea that the "promised land" belongs to the jews, etc.
2) I'm still torn on homosexuality, as to whether it's acceptable or not.
Leveticus 18"18:1 The Lord said to Moses"
So this apparently is god speaking
personally here. No third parties, no innuendo...he's outright giving commandments to Moses in a direct "these are the things to not do, because they're bad" context.
21 “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22 “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
23 “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it.There it is, right between child sacrifice and bestiality. And of the three, that's the one he says is detestable. Or "an abomination" depending on your translation.
Personally, as someone with the benefit of good deal of detachment from both sides of the issue, I think this whole abrahamic religions vs homosexuality thing is hilarious. Views on homosexuality are very obviously (to me) an arbitrary cultural phenomenon. When I was a kid, open mocking of gays was both socially acceptable and commonplace, and it wasn't all that long ago that homosexuality was
considered a mental illness by the medical profession. But now the cultural tides have shifted and it's considered culturally acceptable, gays are a protected class and disapproving of them suddenly makes you a bad person to most people.
So now the abrahamic religions crowd is in the difficult position of participating in a religion that very obviously (see Leveticus above. Check out the destruction of
Soddom and Gomorrah while you're at it) claims that homosexuality is a very big no-no. While being members of a society that strongly disagrees. So look at how many choose to follow the cultural norms of the day rather than the words of their own god in the own holy book. Look at them squirm and come up with excuses and suggest that they're "not sure" about it, and suggest that it's purely an antiquated "no longer necessary" rule, like the stuff in Deuteronomy about not eating pigs and not boiling lambs in their mother's milk and so forth.
Just how strong is your faith in the bible if a mere, and very recent, cultural shift about a thing is enough to make you question, according to the bible, a direct command from your god?
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Topic: Religion Questions Thread (Read 57375 times)