crochet1949 wrote:That which I'm suggesting regarding the terrain of the earth -- mountains for instance. Before the flood -- the mountains were only 15 cubits high. We all know that flood waters result in / can cause a great deal of damage as the waters rise and then recede. Genesis says that waters came up out of the deep and from the rain. So the earth was basically churned up -- everything was mixed around and resettled as the waters receded. So - we end up With features such as the Grand Canyon. Just saying that the world we have Now is very different than what it Had been.
Reading Genesis -- we may Not Understand the how's / why's -- but the facts are there to accept as God's Word. God, through the Holy Spirit, told the various writers of the books exactly what to write -- Moses is the accepted writer -- so he wrote down / passed on to others exactly what he was told to.
Audie -- in the New Testament Jesus is a real person And the Son of God. He is referred to as the Perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the people of the world.
Don't know that He is referred to as a Door. There Is a passage that says that He stands at the door and knocks -- We need to open the 'door' of our hearts and let Him in. It's figurative / not literal.
Snicker all you want to -- cause I can almost hear you doing that.
What you hear, and I say this as a friend, is the echo of your own preconceptions,
your very understandable effort to package this asian atheist into a framework you
can understand.
Jac did the same, thinking I'd roll my eyes at his comments.
Abe gets it so wrong he is in the wrong galaxy. Its ok; I do not
expect or assume you'd know what my layers are.
Jesus refers to himself as a door, as a gate.
I, like Satan, know the bible better than most Christians.
But that isnt the point. I said that about lamb or door to address the
literal-or-lie mentality that so harms all who hold to it. I see you too
see the absurdity of it, but of course, see yawning ahead the slippery slope.
Where to pour sand on the slide, and halt the plunge into seeing allegory, myth and
metaphor in all of it?
Few, I suspect, are really up to the intellectual rigours and
the surrender of comforting illusions that is in store.
Far easier to just say, "I believe God's Word" and shut down the
small silent voice. Of course, there is a price to pay for doinv
that, going that route.
I wonder if you or others have thought about the baggage of
that position, or the price you pay?
On grand canyon and flood, that is of course an easy thing to say.
Then back it up as "God's Word", calling his name in vain.
For lo, how it may look at a glance ( like the stick, seen at a glance, on closer look
proves to be a serpent) and what it is are not at all the same.
One could delve into the various undeniable proofs that it is
not the product a one time event, but let me offer an analogy in place of
research papers. Or photos of structures, as you do not know
what an unconformity is, or what crossbedding is.
So analogy:
College students rent a house, and party all year.
They
never clean up. Food wrappers, bottles, cans, cigarette butts,
discarded clothing, all the horrible detritus of such behaviour
accumulates in deep rotting residue all the year.
The landlord, appalled, sues them for the damage.
Their defense? It was clean when they moved out!
Someone must have broken in and had a big one night party!
You are the landlord. How do you propose to go about
showing that this did not happen in a day?