spin

What does it mean to have dominion over creation -- doesn't god have dominion over his creation? and who has dominion over it on other worlds? -- and how does it fullful a purpose?

Notice that Revelation was written hundreds of years after Genesis and in another language and belongs to another religion from that of Genesis. In short, you're mixing things up and bringing in data that can't be sh own to be relevant.


spin

Malfunc

I'd never heard such a load of utter garbage as the Tower of Babel story.

Chaupoline

The main issue of communication is translating meaning. With One Language-One Speech there is no problem with translating meaning because everyone interprets meaning the same way.

OneInFundieville

My wife and I speak the same language...

Sauron

Maybe you should watch an episode of a British sitcom ("Yes Minister") before you say that.

England and the United States - two peoples separated by a common language.:devil:

spin

What about Bush's speech justifying the Iraq War?


ipsn

dzim77

The idea is that of a steward.

The Bible is silent about 'other worlds'

how does bearing God's image and having dominion over the earth *not* qualify as a purpose?



Though it's not relevant to our discussion, I just thought it was interesting to see how this comes full circle in the Bible

dzim77

True. But do you see any indication that God's purpose has changed since Gen 1:28?

From the verse you quoted above, it is clear that God is displeased with what the people are doing (building the tower), but the verse is not explicit as to *why* he is displeased. My contention is that the *reason* God was displeased was that the people refused to fill the earth as God intended them to do (Gen 1:28, 9:1-6).

Looking at the context...

The reasons that the people wanted to gather to build the tower were (Gen 11:4):
1. "so that we may make a name for ourselves"
2. "and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

The effects of God confusing their language were two-fold (Gen 11:8):
1. they were scattered over all the earth
2. they stopped building the city (making a name for themselves)

This evidence seems to support my contention.

pharoah

Genesis 1:29-30 indicates that God's original purpose was for animals and humanity to be vegetarians. That plan seems to have changed, so on what basis do you justify that "subduing the earth" remains in effect?

The verse when read within its context makes it perfectly clear why God was displeased.

God was afraid that the tower they were building would reach to heaven, and that they would then be able to do anything that they wanted to. Understandably you don't like the plain reading of the text, so you're forced to derive another explanation more to your liking.

spin

God needs no stewards by definition. According to your beliefs, god is omnipresent and omnipotent. This idea of stewardship is vacuous.

Not surprising. But they are a part of creation and you did mention that humans had dominion over creation.

Bearing god's image is a situation. One either has it or doesn't so one can either bear it or one can't. Having dominion has been shown to be a meanless consideration. Everything is in god's hands according to your beliefs.

However, any discussion in the bible about dominion should be patently seen as aetiological in nature, ie describing how things came to be, though in no necessary sense containing any relevance to reality.

So we can overlook it as not directly relevant to the discussion.


spin