I am not opposed as some are to the thirteen-billion-year-old universe. I am also not opposed to the young universe theory. But I am opposed to people attempting to use the Bible to attempt to prove or disprove either. The Bible was not written as a scientific document but begins with two very ancient stories explaining how a God created the universe and set it in motion.
We cannot prove or disprove God with these two stories that don't even totally agree. We can't prove who carried down the most correct story of the beginning because most cultures didn't have writing. Stories like these were passed down orally. You know the details were embellished over the millennia.
Scientists have always thought they were on the verge of discovering the key to the universe. They just never quite do. The seven days in the Genesis accounts also have no basis that has been proved beyond all question. Were they days or periods of time? Who knows? The problem with everyone's theory of the beginning is that we have limitations. We do not have the original, unadulterated Genesis story any more than we have the original, untarnished Bible.
The New Testament has actually been altered through the ages. We have many times found older pieces of text that are slightly different than what we are accustomed to. However, we can take that new information and place it into our existing knowledge and become more enlightened as to the overall meaning of the Bible.
I suppose the time the Bible, mostly the New Testament, must have been tampered with the most was when Constantine decided to make Christianity the official religion of Rome. I read a letter in which new copies were sent to him as he requested. Who knows what changes were made? Being the Emperor I'm sure he saw a few that needed to be. It is a miracle that the Old Testament even exists.
Both scientists and creationists have one bad flaw. They think they know what happened and they think they can prove it. But when scientists and theologians find new evidence that puts their theory into question they should realize that their theories aren't quite as stable as they wish. Think about how the number of theories of how things got the way they are have blossomed during the past few decades. If science is so advanced and stabilized, why isn't there only one theory? Meanwhile theologians and scientists find each others' possibilities repulsive. The science community has become almost exclusive to those who reject any specific deity although a general "god" idea is okay as long as it is just a belief and not considered as a potential reason for our existence.
The reality of it all in my long thought out opinion is that God is beyond our understanding. We have been given life and a place to live it (for which we should be ecstatic and overwhelmingly grateful) and limited means of understanding it. Whatever God is is beyond our comprehension. How He chooses to allow us to understand Him and our beginning is up to Him. He gave us the five senses and anything we know beyond that is up to Him. Sure, we have instruments that use other means but we still have to interpret them with those same five senses. Scientists will have to realize that they can only understand the universe as much as He allows them to. God's reality is limitless in my view and man's reality is gradually revealed as He sees fit.
We, as humans, must learn to accept new truths. Both Christianity and science are very reluctant to accept anything that doesn't fit into their preconceived formula of the universe. Martin Luther and Einstein were both rejected at first because their views did not fit into what was widely accepted. My views will not be widely accepted, either, of course.
God reveals things to us gradually and it takes a long time for us to understand them because of our comfort in our beliefs. If they aren't already in our Bible, they're wrong. If we can't detect them with our five senses, they're wrong. That's how we judge reality. Think about it, if God had started the universe at a certain point and told it to go from there, how could we know it or how could we reject it? If you're scoffing now, you're making my point.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
They Don't Want to Go Backwards
Biblical Heritage Center Blogs: Nuns push back against Vatican
But it's like this: Just as you can change your job if you don't like it, there are other Christian denominations to switch to.
The Real Truth about the Middle East
Expose: Kosher Consumers Supporting Israel Boycotters - Op-Eds - Israel National News
Israel is the only Middle East nation that wants peace.
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Next Life
The Bible is very fuzzy on the subject of an afterlife. I have looked for the afterlife in the Old Testament and there doesn't seem to be a belief in one until we hear Daniel say: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. An earlier possible reference to an afterlife is in Isaiah: Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Most of the information about a potential afterlife is found in the Apocrypha and New Testament. There are various accounts of whatever it is and do not seem to me to be factual but in the form of parables which were used to teach ideas. If you understand how they were used, they cannot contradict each other in any factual way.
The concept of an afterlife was developed from the time of Daniel and had blossomed by the time of Jesus. Does that mean it isn't true? It seems to me that when God hears his people yearn for something, He listens. That doesn't necessarily mean that He will do it but it doesn't mean He doesn't care, either. As I pointed out in some recent writing I did somewhere, if God answered every prayer, the world would be in chaos.
I believe in an afterlife. What will happen there I can't say. My hope is to meet my Creator. I want to tell Him how wonderful many things have been in my life and to thank Him for giving me the joys that were not owed to me. To me it seems that all He wants is to be acknowledged and thanked and the rest will come naturally.
I know many people who don't even set aside a moment for God. Many think humanity has moved past the need for a Creator. Others are just so busy with their technologically-infected lives that they can't spare a moment for such a trivial thing as life. If they can't spare a moment for the One who provided such a wonderful world, what are his feelings toward them?
We really don't understand the afterlife other than to know it apparently was meant to be the future for Adam and Eve who chose to eat the fruit of the wrong tree. The tree of immortality and the joy of the Garden were passed by in favor of trying to be godlike. We are not godlike. We are humans and we often make bad decisions.
Here is my personal view of the afterlife. Someday I will die. I will be dead. Many will be dead. When the correct time comes, God will begin calling the names of those He determined to be suitable to be in his Presence. There will be many names He will not call. Those will have lost all memory, all joy, all consciousness forever. Those whose names He calls will arise from death and be in his indescribable Presence. I don't pretend to be able to imagine anything beyond that. There are other things I think would be suitable to do with the worst of the people who lived, but I am not God and you should be glad of that.
Most of the information about a potential afterlife is found in the Apocrypha and New Testament. There are various accounts of whatever it is and do not seem to me to be factual but in the form of parables which were used to teach ideas. If you understand how they were used, they cannot contradict each other in any factual way.
The concept of an afterlife was developed from the time of Daniel and had blossomed by the time of Jesus. Does that mean it isn't true? It seems to me that when God hears his people yearn for something, He listens. That doesn't necessarily mean that He will do it but it doesn't mean He doesn't care, either. As I pointed out in some recent writing I did somewhere, if God answered every prayer, the world would be in chaos.
I believe in an afterlife. What will happen there I can't say. My hope is to meet my Creator. I want to tell Him how wonderful many things have been in my life and to thank Him for giving me the joys that were not owed to me. To me it seems that all He wants is to be acknowledged and thanked and the rest will come naturally.
I know many people who don't even set aside a moment for God. Many think humanity has moved past the need for a Creator. Others are just so busy with their technologically-infected lives that they can't spare a moment for such a trivial thing as life. If they can't spare a moment for the One who provided such a wonderful world, what are his feelings toward them?
We really don't understand the afterlife other than to know it apparently was meant to be the future for Adam and Eve who chose to eat the fruit of the wrong tree. The tree of immortality and the joy of the Garden were passed by in favor of trying to be godlike. We are not godlike. We are humans and we often make bad decisions.
Here is my personal view of the afterlife. Someday I will die. I will be dead. Many will be dead. When the correct time comes, God will begin calling the names of those He determined to be suitable to be in his Presence. There will be many names He will not call. Those will have lost all memory, all joy, all consciousness forever. Those whose names He calls will arise from death and be in his indescribable Presence. I don't pretend to be able to imagine anything beyond that. There are other things I think would be suitable to do with the worst of the people who lived, but I am not God and you should be glad of that.
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