Evidence for God from Science

Hi All.

This is probably the only thing left for me a s a potential stumbling block. How do you account for the really long lives in Genesis. Are we to believe they actually lived that long? Or is there another interpretation of that?

Any answers would be most helpful.

God Bless.

Silvertusk.

Silver,

You said this is a potential stumbling block. A stumbling block for what? I personally don't see any reason why we shouldn't take these long ages as literal. Here's a Reasons.org podcast that touches on the subject a little. Not sure if this helps you though. The question begins at around the 38:52 mark:
http://www.reasons.org/podcasts/i-didnt ... -the-flood

Silvertusk wrote:How do you account for the really long lives in Genesis.

Could it be that time was measured in dog-years in Genesis?

FL

RickD wrote:Silver,

You said this is a potential stumbling block. A stumbling block for what? I personally don't see any reason why we shouldn't take these long ages as literal. Here's a Reasons.org podcast that touches on the subject a little. Not sure if this helps you though. The question begins at around the 38:52 mark:
http://www.reasons.org/podcasts/i-didnt ... -the-flood

I have read the reasons.org answer before and find that unsatisfying as they approach it from a different angle in looking at why we dont live that long now. But I don't believe for a second that we ever lived that long at all in the past as there does not seem to be any evidence for it. If we were to live that long our metabolism would have had to be so slow it would be virtually nothing.

Actually just found a good article that is certainly plausible and has really helped.

http://www.borderofinsanity.com/hosted/ ... alysis.pdf

Silvertusk wrote:
. But I don't believe for a second that we ever lived that long at all in the past as there does not seem to be any evidence for it. If we were to live that long our metabolism would have had to be so slow it would be virtually nothing.

What kind of "evidence" are you looking for? Maybe ancient writings that back up the old ages? I'm not sure theologically, if it really makes a difference if the patriarchs lived 9 centuries or 9 decades. What does it really matter?

I can see how belief in old ages would go against evolution. By living a lot shorter lives, I would say humans are devolving, not evolving.

RickD wrote:

Silvertusk wrote:
. But I don't believe for a second that we ever lived that long at all in the past as there does not seem to be any evidence for it. If we were to live that long our metabolism would have had to be so slow it would be virtually nothing.

What kind of "evidence" are you looking for? Maybe ancient writings that back up the old ages? I'm not sure theologically, if it really makes a difference if the patriarchs lived 9 centuries or 9 decades. What does it really matter?

I can see how belief in old ages would go against evolution. By living a lot shorter lives, I would say humans are devolving, not evolving.

I am not looking for evidence - I am looking for an explanation of why it seems to be that Genesis 5 states that people lived that long. But now it seems to be that that it was down to the notation system they used and not the fact that Adam lived over 900 years. So that has cleared that one up from me.

EDIT: Although I do realise I did say that there didn't seem to be any evidence for it which implied that I was looking for some.

I can see how belief in old ages would go against evolution. By living a lot shorter lives, I would say humans are devolving, not evolving.

although I realize you were joking, Rick, but just for the record, if humans did age less from long ages then it would still be evolution, there is no such thing as devolving, as some people imply.

I have never been a fan of "even numbers" in the bible to begin with, numbers always seem to mean more than just their sum.
That the bible speaks that some people lives a long time makes me think it is stating exceptions rather than "the rule".
Perhaps some did live very long, that God sustained them beyond normal years for a reason.
Honestly, who knows?
If one accepts that everything in the bible is literal and concrete then it has to be accepted that they lived all those centuries.