denisdman wrote:
WaitingforRuffcorn wrote:
It's a total copout to compare the lack of knowledge about the origin of the universe to the "leap of faith" in believing in a Christian stories/God. For Christianity to be "true" it would have to mean that God chose to reveal himself to only a certain part of the world, while condemning several generations in all of Asian, the Americas and Australia to eternal damnation. In the mean time you are also betting that your version of God is correct rather than the Islamic God, the Hindu Gods, or even if you chose the right sect of Christianity.
Believing that is quite a leap of faith, while the question of why is there life at all? We don't know, yet, but we are working on it.
I have struggled with both theories of evolution and Christian belief. I have a basis of knowledge for both with an undergrad degree in BioChem and having been raised Christian and spending lots of time reading up on the "historical" Jesus.
I don't have any answers that will sway you. Christian belief is not some pie in the sky theory and faith doesn't come out of no where. The death and resurrection of Jesus, along with the miracles he performed make a good case for Christ as the Son of God. Maybe it's all made up, and I certainly don't know. I can say that if you simply lived your life like Christ, you'd be a better person for it. I am not particularly religious, but I do have faith.
Evolution is a huge leap as well. There's lots of scientific evidence for evolution, and there are a ton of holes. It takes a big leap to believe we go from the big bang, to the creation of our solar system to amino acids eventually coming together until we move all the way to man kind.
I have even wondered if God put the universe in motion and used evolution as his manner of "development". Once man came into being through evolution, then maybe a lot of the Bible stories start to make sense. God didn't like where man was headed and sent his Son. I don't know.
Here are some thoughts for him who has ears to hear:
The "historical Jesus" was discussed by the Jesus Seminar people who basically believe that none of the miracles in the Bible are real. Most people even if they don't believe in God or the Bible tend not to say bad things about Jesus. But if Jesus claims to be divine and is lying or crazy then his teaching is clearly suspect. Either he is the Son of God or he's a very disturbing individual.
Evolution is basically what scientists turn to instead of God. The Bible says that the heavens declare the glory of God. But the person who sees a beautiful sunset and doesn't acknowledge that a superior being put it together is blind to the truth. There are wonderful TV shows and movies about all parts of nature and things that God has created, but a lot of those people aren't thankful to God for making all those things or don't acknowledge that he did it.
I don't think that God used evolution on a macro level. He created the world by voice command. The Bible claims that Jesus was the Word of God meaning that when God the Father said, "Let there be light" it was Jesus who was the word that was accomplishing the creation.
If you look at the three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all three recognize the Old Testament as a holy book. If you read the Old Testament the prophecies about Jesus Christ that were fulfilled hundreds of years later were fulfilled with remarkable accuracy. In the Exodus story the lamb is sacrificed and its blood is spread on the corners of the door which was similar to the Lamb of God dying on a tree. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son and then stops him, but God sacrifices his son and does not step in to stop the sacrifice. The Israelites were struck by a plague in the desert where they had to look at a snake on a pole to be healed. This was a foreshadowing of Jesus on the cross. Jesus was prophesied to be born of a virgin, from the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem and from Nazareth. Along with that one of the Psalms written by David mentions specifically how Jesus would be crucified.
The irony is that people in Jesus' day that saw his miracles wanted more of a sign to believe in him. If you read the Bible it said he heals the blind, the lepers, the paraylytics, women with internal bleeding, he drives out demons, he raises three people from the dead, he turns water into wine, he catches a miraculous amount of fish, he feeds a multitude with a small amount of food, he walks on water, he was transfigured, he calms the storm, he cursed a fig tree, he predicted his own death and resurrection, he resurrects, walks through walls and ascends to heaven. Those are greater things than any superhero in the movies has ever done and yet the people still refused to believe in him.
The teaching of Jesus is very offensive. He says that he is the only way people can know God the Father and that he is one with the Father. He calls people to lives of repentance. He says those who believe in him will never die. He promises eternal life to his followers. He simplifies all the commands in the Bible down to loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. He says that people need to have a spiritual birth to enter the Kingdom of God.
Here's something I came across tonight:
According to Alfred North Whitehead and J. Robert Oppenheimer, both renowned philosophers and scientists of our era (but not Christians themselves), modern science was born out of the Christian world view. Whitehead said that Christianity is the "mother of science" because of the insistence on the rationality of God.[1] Entomologist Stanley Beck,though not a Christian himself, acknowledged the corner-stone premises of science which the Judeo-Christian world view offers: "The first of the unprovable premises on which science has been based is the belief that the world is real and the human mind is capable of knowing its real nature. The second and best-known postulate underlying the structure of scientific knowledge is that of cause and effect. The third basic scientific premise is that nature is unified."[2] In other words, the epistemological foundation of technology has been the Judeo-Christian world view presented in the Bible.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
