It's perfectly compatible to be a Christian and accept evolution.
We can share a common ancestor with the other great apes (or indeed with daffodils, I suppose, if one goes back far enough) [i]and[/i] remain special in the eyes of God.
(And more to the point, all life is special to Him, but human beings have a particular reasoning power which - as far as we can tell - other creatures even very intelligent ones, don't have. If dolphins or crows are ensouled as we are, are burdened with a tendency to sin, and if they therefore have need of salvation, you can be sure that God has in place some means to save them too...we just don't really need to know about it; it's just all the more reason to treat all life with respect).
[quote]The Bible was written by Jews. All of it. All Jews. For only Jews. This is the basic outline. . . .[/quote] In the Bible and other Jewish literature, only Jews are considered men and humans. Everyone else are animals, dogs, swine, beasts.
The more secular books, such as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Apocrypha, contain relevant ideas that are timeless and beneficial to everyone. The rest is garbage and the more I discuss it the more I become convinced that it is vile garbage and should be tossed into the dump.
While the Bible is based upon ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tales I doubt that Jews were a significant part of the committee that wrote the Bible as a book in the 680's-early 690s. The writers included countless clues that it was just an elaborate hoax. In any case it is the most successful lie ever told on this planet.
SW-User
There are a lot of problems that come with that view. There are some who have believed this nonsense and it doesn't solve anything but actually makes matters worse. Take for instance, Charles Carroll. Who wrote a book in the 1800's entitled, "The Negro a Beast, or in the Image of God".
He contended that blacks are not human and are the product of evolution, whereas the white man is created in the image of God. Observing different tribes separated from civilization and Africans in huts, the macro evolutionist can deem some as non human or at the very least conclude that some are less evolved.
You guys just say that we are all animals. Of course, you and your liberal ilk never admit the fact that evolutionary theory is a racial supremacist theory either way. Certain races would have to be more evolved, and some less evolved, as Charles Darwin taught with the Australian aborigines and other such people's being inferior.
It is without disputation a racial supremacist theory that was adopted by the elite up until 30-40 years ago when all the racial stuff started getting big in America.
The anglo saxon atheist people who followed him thought that they were the superior race and that they deserved to colonize the whole world because they were the superior race.
Not to mention, it is even in the very title of the book origin of species; the sub title is the preservation of the favored races in the struggle for life. No one ever quotes the whole title.
Evolutionary theory, whether only partially applied or not, has the same evil fruit.
The Bible on the other hand plainly teaches that God hath made of one blood all nations and that There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
@SW-User [quote] Not to mention, it is even in the very title of the book origin of species; the sub title is the preservation of the favored races in the struggle for life. No one ever quotes the whole title.[/quote] No, they misquote it Survival of the fittest, does not refer to any one race as being superior to another. Nor does it mean that the strong will kill off the weak. It means, that those best suited will thrive in their environment, and pass of those qualities to future generations. Those least suited, will either relocate to a different environment, or be replaced by the better adapted future generations . You’re mistaking the science with man made concepts. Such as bigotry.
@SW-User The Jesus character was a bigot. He called Gentiles dogs and swine and said that he had been sent to just the Jews. He spoke in parables so that outsiders wouldn't understand his messages.
@AkioTsukino [quote] Then it is no longer science. Science is a method of investigation. Not a belief system. It examines truth, it doesn't decide it. There is no point in investigating what everyone already knows. Science doesn't display truth. It doesn't dictate it. [/quote] So now science is not a religion. It doesn’t do anything, just looks at what everyone already knows to be true.
@AkioTsukino [quote] Then it is no longer science. Science is a method of investigation. Not a belief system. It examines truth, it doesn't decide it. There is no point in investigating what everyone already knows. Science doesn't display truth. It doesn't dictate it. [/quote]
Tell me Chuckles, can science be used to reveal truths , to separate lies from facts, myths from reality? Or is it only used for identifying what has already been proven to be true ? Seems to defeat the purpose doesn’t it ?
@AkioTsukino [quote] Science itself is supposed to set religion aside. That's very difficult to do. But you aren't a scientist.[/quote] Unless, you use the science to refute a religious claim , such as those made in the book of genesis. [quote] Science is distorted by militant radical fundamentalist atheists in a religious fervor. That's what you are. So they can do away with God. That is what baffles me about them. [/quote] What about militant radical fundamentalist creationist, in a religious fervor that wish to do away with science, in order to promote their beliefs onto a public that doesn’t share them. Does that make sense to you ? Fight fire with fire. Easy to understand.
I just got blocked by one. Rofl. Born Agains are the worst. They think they are the specialist of the special because they "found God" later in life, and that no other Christians or faiths have merit.
Only problem is that us humans are animals. We are mammals. You cannot seperate humans from other animals because we are actually not special. And I'm no Christian in fact I'm supa mega hypa ultra anti-Christian.
@AkioTsukino The debate was about what we both believe in , not about convincing each other to believe in our own beliefs. If you want to believe in Genesis as literal, then good for you. But don't try to convince me what I already know and what I believe in. For me it's not literal, and I will always believe in evolution. Also I don't criticise you on what you believe in even though I think it's wrong. I also believe that one day you will see that its not literal and the scientific world on evolution does not exclude all Christians who see that there is a scientific purpose behind God's great plan. There are many scientists who believe in God, but not in the same sense of all literal bible bashing
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SW-User
Hangin off the side of a building I'm the biggest believer you ever met, but otherwize I don't believe in any of it, other than the universe being in a loop
@AkioTsukino Those kids who get shot at school sure are lucky because they die before they become sinful adults. So, instead of crying everyone should be joyous that they are saved from sinful lives.
Back in the day when I was a Christian, I pissed off my fellow God botherers by believing in evolution as a guided process. That is to say, I took the six days of creation as metaphorical, and in particular, the sculpting of Adam I considered to be a metaphor for the evolution of humans.
Since then, of course, I've come to realize that there's a whole lot of stuff that makes no sense if you assume it was done by an intelligence.
@LordShadowfire That’s how I looked at it as well. I always saw the Bible as metaphorical, there was too much described that wasn’t physically possible for it to be literal.
@LordShadowfire Or it was done deliberately but as a practical joke (which is surely the reason for the location and general appearance of testicles, for a start)
@AkioTsukino Adam was never a teen, child, baby, or born. Only an extremely ignorant human. Neither was Eve. How fruitful and multiplying were they after Cain and Abel? No indication that that she was pumping out any children during the 130 years before having Seth. Meanwhile, the banished Cain had a wife and son, Enoch. He’s noted for building a city for a population of three. Record keeping?
The Bible says Adam didn’t have any daughters, or sons, before Seth. Nothing about where these he and other nameless sons of Adam found their wives (property)) to continue the line. Some waited 60-187 years before conceiving their heirs. Really? The gene pool wasn’t even a puddle.
@BlueSkyKing Have you ever wondered why the writers gave the ages of some of the minor characters in the Old Testament but omitted the ages of the major characters in the New Testament?
@SW-User The funny part of that story about the loaves and fish is it is missing the point. And if you knew what the real Ten Commandments are it would be instantly obvious what the point is. The story illustrates the 7th Commandment = Exodus 34:23 (NLV) = "Three times a year all your males are to come before the Lord God, the God of Israel."
Do you know what the other two times were? You should if you actually read the Bible.
@SW-User [quote] I believe they don't know too, but just rely on others, people follow others and it makes sense to them. To me it doesn't because I can't explain how if I fly on an airplane I don't see the Earth as a ball, with my eyes. [/quote] If ignorance is bliss, then you must be the happiest person on the face of the Earth, spherical or flat. How do you function in life without some form of education ? It’s hardly likely that you can experience everything in life all at once. Or for that matter over a lifetime, without taking some outside information on face value. You believe “they don’t know too” they just rely on others. No one ever really took the time to find out ? Nothing is ever observed, experienced, or tested. It’s all hearsay. How do you even open the door in the morning?
@DocSavage It's too bad that @AveMaria missed out on the golden age of Zion City, Illinois = https://christianflatearthministry.org/2016/05/26/zion-city-founded-by-flat-earth-believers/
Does history comment on who were the great alchemists? How about singling out the achievements of great astrologers? The motive of alchemy was to make cheap gold. Astrologers got employed because the rich nobility could afford to be more superstitious than the rest of the population. Can’t make a living on astronomy. Galileo was an inventor and craftsman. He made the lenses that improved the early telescopes. Newton spent far more time on alchemy than the science work he’s admired for today.
We had to learn how to think rational. The scientific method was the game changer.
@BlueSkyKing Not true. Turning bass metal in to gold was only one trick. There’s the elixir of life, harnessing the elements, various herbal cures. It grew from there.
