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Old 05-30-2009, 12:03 AM   #21
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Originally Posted by AtheistGamer View Post

Seems to me that the bible is saying that fruit trees came before fish in the sea.
Everything in the universe was created instantly, as in a poof action, as per the opening verse in Genesis. Everything unfolded from its potential to actual states later, in graduations, when its time came, and this goes on now.

Genesis is correct, and there is no logical alternatives here. The notes which make up a song someone writes today existed millions of years ago, and the sun could not produce light if it never pre-existed the sun.

The issue of which came first, plants or fish, is thus limited to which 'appeared' first, while the essence of both existed since the beginning of the universe. Here, I would rely on Genesis. Vegetation would have come first, and fish could not exist without it. All of the order of life forms mentioned in Genesis is correct, which caters to sub-atomic and transitory life, and the last kind - speech endowed humans. And all these life forms emerged only after critical separation actions of the elements, as listed in Genesis, but totally disregarded in ToE. Basically, this is the principle which applies with science, and this is also what applies with Genesis:

'THE DINNER TABLE IS READY FOR THE GUESTS'. [aka 'CAUSE AND EFFECT'].

ToE relies on magic, or even worse - NO CREATOR, NO PRECEDENT CAUSE, EVERYTHING JUST STARTED, THEN EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CAUSE AND EFFECT - BUT NOT SO IN ITS FOUNDATION! Worse than magic - and no science here.



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The ironic thing is that I had a creationist point these verses out to me years ago in an attempt to get me to reject evolution by way of appealing to the bible's authority. It had the opposite effect and made me reject Abrahamic religions entirely.


But what I wanted to know was... Are there any evolution accepting apologists out there that attempt to deal with this error in Genesis' creation account?
There is no error, and you have not stated one. Evolution [the graduated emergence of life form groups] is a premise introduced in Genesis, later distorted in ToE with an unproven embellishment, making the process transcendent of its precedent factors. Darwin made observations in this process, then shouted Eureka! - that the observations rule and there is nothing behind it. Its like someone figuring out a car runs on gas, and concluding there is no car maker. The diety here is the car manual.

Both ToE, and Christianity's depictions of Genesis, will fall away, while Genesis will stay, able to stand up to far more advanced premises than today. There is a precedence factor here which says so, and these imprints will be seen throughout history.
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Old 05-30-2009, 12:27 AM   #22
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Originally Posted by Amaleq13 View Post

This would be an example of the limited understanding mentioned above. It exhibits a general ignorance of complexity theory and a specific ignorance of the place "random" action had in the formation of the universe. Stick to the Bible, you've got more wiggle room.
It appears to me that you have 'educated' yourself to the point that you miss the obvious.
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Old 05-30-2009, 12:27 AM   #23
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I happened to be one of those 'inerrantists' who believe that science (ie., our description of the world we see) agrees with the Bible.
I suspect that is the result of a limited understanding on your part of science and what science has to say about the world we see.

The "agreement" I find between the two is either the result of plain observation or creative interpretation of poetic language. Nothing magically amazing in its foresight or uncannily accurate in its description.

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FI just think it is rather stupid to believe something as complicated as the universe came about by particles randomly (incredibly luckily) falling into place.
This would be an example of the limited understanding mentioned above. It exhibits a general ignorance of complexity theory and a specific ignorance of the place "random" action had in the formation of the universe. Stick to the Bible, you've got more wiggle room.
One who sees an alliance of correct science with the Hebrew bible is really more wise than one who does not, or cannot, and is in good company: both Einstein and Newton concurred with this in their later years. Science itself comes from the Hebrew bible. Note that these scientific observations come from Genesis, all are sceintific, and science falls when in contradiction of any of these constants:

That the universe is finite - it had a BEGINNING.

That the universe was unformed, then form appeared.

That Light was a primodial trigger force in turning the formless to the formed.

That on earth, prior to life emerging, a host of critical, anticipatory separation factors had to occur, including the measured seperations of light from darkness and water from land. Here, the nomination of light and water as pivotal for life is noteworthy, and manifestly applicable only with one planet in the known universe.

That the first life was immobile [Vegetation], then graduated to different life forms, culminating in speech endowed life.

That the construct of life per se predated the LIVING factor of life, and this was triggered by a host of mechanisms coming into play simultainiously, including the focus of sun and moon light in a focused, measured dose - represented on earth by the rains cycle. Genesis is saying here, that life was first already made existant in its potential form, and became as LIVING life only after this life sustaining cycle was triggered.

That the stars are unaccountable, and responsible as ASTRONOMY [SIGNS] and ASTROLOGY [omens], impacting on weather patterns, moods, tides, science [observed probables factoring].

That the first life forms appeared in a positive/negative [male/female] duality, containing a chip [seed] with both aspects, and able to reproduce its kind, passing on the same reproductive faculty to its offsrping.

Genesis is entirely scientific, and wherever a science differs, Genesis wins.
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Old 05-30-2009, 12:48 AM   #24
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Originally Posted by Roland
To me, the real flaw in the creation story is that plants are made BEFORE the sun.
The Hebrew constitutes the world's most scientific and pristine writings. Yours is an error of comprehension. Shall we examine the texts?

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Gen. 1/14 And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. {P}
Nowhere does it say the sun was created. The verse in its entirety is only talking about 'LUMINOSITY' - a critical, measured focus of light. Better, if you asked a more applicable question, namely how is vegetation listed as pre-dating this light? Here, there is a very logical answer as well, but you won't find this with christian analysis of the Hebrew texts, as they are more focused on the Gospels, making all else incidental.
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Old 05-30-2009, 08:46 AM   #25
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Originally Posted by aChristian View Post
It appears to me that you have 'educated' yourself to the point that you miss the obvious.
That is just more evidence of your confusion.

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Originally Posted by IamJoseph View Post
Genesis is entirely scientific, and wherever a science differs, Genesis wins.
And a more explicit statement of willful ignorance and circular reasoning one will never find.
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Old 05-30-2009, 01:27 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by IamJoseph
Genesis is entirely scientific.......
Please state an example that suggests a reasonable possibility that the Hebrew God exists.
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Old 05-30-2009, 02:44 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by AtheistGamer View Post
Forgive me. I didn't know where to put this because it deals with both biblical criticism and creationism/evolution. I chose the biblical criticism section since I plan on using the following bible verses to prove that Yahweh doesn't exist.

Anyway...

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Seems to me that the bible is saying that fruit trees came before fish in the sea. I've heard Christians say that Genesis' creation account is an allegory, but that only deals with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. For me the realization that Genesis gets the order of the appearance of plants and fish so wrong was the final nail in the coffin for Christianity and all Abrahamic religions.

I plan on making a youtube video that highlights this problem in Genesis. Mostly because I've never seen an apologist tackle it. But also because it seems like an airtight case against Christianity that doesn't require any massive philosophical or historical expertise in order to comprehend. So even the most moronic of people can understand it.

The ironic thing is that I had a creationist point these verses out to me years ago in an attempt to get me to reject evolution by way of appealing to the bible's authority. It had the opposite effect and made me reject Abrahamic religions entirely.


But what I wanted to know was... Are there any evolution accepting apologists out there that attempt to deal with this error in Genesis' creation account?
I have heard bible apologists claim that while all the statements in Genesis are true, they are not necessarily in the right order. It has Eve being created after the edict not to eat of the fruit, but she get's blamed and women from then on have to perform the hard part of reproduction. But of course, someone will say that isn't true, i.e. Eve made before the edict, because that is the second acct of creation, not the first. So the sequence of the statements are not necessarily the sequence of the events.

Go ahead and do your youtube, but the point is, the only people that you'll phase are those of us who have a critical mind and don't just want to accept ancient texts as god's word when they appear to be primitive myths. You might do just as well to admonish children to just "read the bible" themselves. That's what I did and it was my first step to freedom.
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Old 06-01-2009, 12:17 AM   #28
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Originally Posted by aChristian View Post
I happened to be one of those 'inerrantists' who believe that science (ie., our description of the world we see) agrees with the Bible. For example, when you drop pick up sticks, they don't form a log cabin by themselves but randomly scatter on the table. I just think it is rather stupid to believe something as complicated as the universe came about by particles randomly (incredibly luckily) falling into place.
Yawn. The Argument from Design again. That tired god-or-chance dichotomy.

How are you sure that the Universe was not designed by the Great Green Arkleseizure?

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Whether it is history, philosophy, physics, chemistry, biology, or any other study of the universe that man has undertaken, it will always arrive at the conclusion that the Bible is true if it is done honestly and carefully.
Except that there are oodles of evidence for Biblical errancy.

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Originally Posted by Petergdi View Post
It is perfectly possible to be a Fundamentalist and to think there is no conflict between the Bible and the theory of evolution.
How would that be? Seems like it would make one's head explode.

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Originally Posted by IamJoseph View Post
Genesis is correct, and there is no logical alternatives here.
I know of oodles of such alternatives.

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The notes which make up a song someone writes today existed millions of years ago, and the sun could not produce light if it never pre-existed the sun.
How is that supposed to be the case?

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The issue of which came first, plants or fish, is thus limited to which 'appeared' first, while the essence of both existed since the beginning of the universe.
Only in some Platonic sense, perhaps. But I think that that is cheating.

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Here, I would rely on Genesis. Vegetation would have come first, and fish could not exist without it.
But do fish need fruit trees???

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All of the order of life forms mentioned in Genesis is correct, which caters to sub-atomic and transitory life, and the last kind - speech endowed humans.
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And all these life forms emerged only after critical separation actions of the elements, as listed in Genesis, but totally disregarded in ToE.
What separations of elements?

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There is no error, and you have not stated one. Evolution [the graduated emergence of life form groups] is a premise introduced in Genesis, later distorted in ToE with an unproven embellishment, making the process transcendent of its precedent factors.
And the Bible explicitly states that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, right?

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Originally Posted by IamJoseph View Post
One who sees an alliance of correct science with the Hebrew bible is really more wise than one who does not, or cannot, and is in good company: both Einstein and Newton concurred with this in their later years.
Einstein???

I'm surprised that you are not foaming at the mouth that he was really an atheist, and that what he called "God" is no God at all.

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Science itself comes from the Hebrew bible.
Horseshit. The writers of the Bible had little scientific curiosity and they were not very big on assessing hypotheses. Despite all their fulminations about various sorts of misbehavior, they never did anything like identify various kinds of fallacious reasoning, like circular reasoning or equivocation.

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Note that these scientific observations come from Genesis, all are sceintific, and science falls when in contradiction of any of these constants:

That the universe is finite - it had a BEGINNING.
The Bible is far from alone in asserting that the Universe has a beginning, so why would discovery of some beginning time support the Bible instead of (say) Hesiod's Theogony?

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That the universe was unformed, then form appeared.
LOTS of creation stories assert versions of that. In the beginning was the Void or the Cosmic Egg or something like that.

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That Light was a primodial trigger force in turning the formless to the formed.
Why do you claim that?

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That on earth, prior to life emerging, a host of critical, anticipatory separation factors had to occur, including the measured seperations of light from darkness and water from land. Here, the nomination of light and water as pivotal for life is noteworthy, and manifestly applicable only with one planet in the known universe.
Darkness is the absence of light; it does not need to be separated from light.

Water is separated from land by gravity. No God needed.

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That the first life was immobile [Vegetation], then graduated to different life forms, culminating in speech endowed life.
But the Sun was present the whole time, unlike what the Bible clearly states.

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That the first life forms appeared in a positive/negative [male/female] duality, containing a chip [seed] with both aspects, and able to reproduce its kind, passing on the same reproductive faculty to its offsrping.
Horseshit. The most primitive organisms reproduce asexually.

I sometimes marvel at how some creationists do not seem to have heard of asexual reproduction.

(IamJoseph's sidestep of Genesis 1 stating that the Sun was created after the plants -- he claims that there was plenty of light for them)

That's horseshit. The Sun is a little bit OLDER than the Earth, because the Earth formed in orbit around the Sun.
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Old 06-01-2009, 03:25 AM   #29
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Originally Posted by lpetrich View Post

How are you sure that the Universe was not designed by the Great Green Arkleseizure?
The applicable factor is that a complex entity or process must have a transcendent complexity behind it. There is no such thing as graduated, accumulative layers of complexity, where this is absent in its primal foundation. Ask your PC which winds bumped into which particles randomly for 4.5B years.

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Except that there are oodles of evidence for Biblical errancy.
Depends what one calls 'bible' - if the original Hebrew one - I'd ask compared with which other bible or science manual: shall we measure by period of time, volume of works and dependable impacts?




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I know of oodles of such alternatives.
.

Just one will suffice.

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Only in some Platonic sense, perhaps. But I think that that is cheating.
No perhaps and no cheating. If you see a green marble, then you can be assured there was a precedent entity which contained 'GREEN' - else, no green marbles. Stars cannot produce light unless light was pre-existant in some form. Science #101. Stop laffing at Genesis.

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But do fish need fruit trees???
Do lions need hay? If your disputing that veg predated fowl and fish, your wrong.


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What separations of elements?
Have you actually studied genesis? Prior to life emerging, a list of separations of the elements are made, as anticipatory actions. Light from darkness; day from night; water from land. Can you have life w/o those separations? Genesis is right - ToE is deficient here.

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And the Bible explicitly states that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, right?
When genesis explicitly states something, I found it as vindicated. Genesis does not give a time factor for the universe - and remains the only writings in a sea of others which did not say the earth is flat. However, Genesis does give explicit datings for speech endowed humans and history per se - this is vindicated - precisely!

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Einstein???

I'm surprised that you are not foaming at the mouth that he was really an atheist, and that what he called "God" is no God at all.
Not in his later years. Not Newton either. ead their bio's.

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Horseshit. The writers of the Bible had little scientific curiosity and they were not very big on assessing hypotheses. Despite all their fulminations about various sorts of misbehavior, they never did anything like identify various kinds of fallacious reasoning, like circular reasoning or equivocation.
Only the Hebrew was able to call the universe finite, and who's laws turn the world today.

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The Bible is far from alone in asserting that the Universe has a beginning, so why would discovery of some beginning time support the Bible instead of (say) Hesiod's Theogony?
Put up?

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LOTS of creation stories assert versions of that. In the beginning was the Void or the Cosmic Egg or something like that.
Cosmic egg does not signify finite.

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Darkness is the absence of light; it does not need to be separated from light.
No sir. These are separate entities displaying different attributes. They do not appear as one because they were 'separated'; the same can be seen with land and water - they cannot be made into one.

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Water is separated from land by gravity. No God needed.
The vehicle does not matter here - the critical measure of the gravity, and its precise equation of life forms - does matter. Gravity is pervasive in the universe - life is not.

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But the Sun was present the whole time, unlike what the Bible clearly states.
The sun predates the earth, but life here is dependent on a host of factors, including the precise distance of the sun's luminosity.

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I sometimes marvel at how some creationists do not seem to have heard of asexual reproduction.
This does not negate the duality factor. A postive/negative impact will still apply in all cases, and in all actions. There is no alternative to the duality factor - and there is no ONE in the universe.

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(IamJoseph's sidestep of Genesis 1 stating that the Sun was created after the plants -- he claims that there was plenty of light for them)

That's horseshit. The Sun is a little bit OLDER than the Earth, because the Earth formed in orbit around the Sun.

That the sun came first is first stated in Genesis. Its critical luminosity came later.
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Old 06-01-2009, 08:25 AM   #30
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Originally Posted by lpetrich View Post
How are you sure that the Universe was not designed by the Great Green Arkleseizure?
The applicable factor is that a complex entity or process must have a transcendent complexity behind it. There is no such thing as graduated, accumulative layers of complexity, where this is absent in its primal foundation. Ask your PC which winds bumped into which particles randomly for 4.5B years.
Human technology is a very clear case of "graduated, accumulative layers of complexity", it did not get poofed into existence all at once.

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Depends what one calls 'bible' - if the original Hebrew one - I'd ask compared with which other bible or science manual: shall we measure by period of time, volume of works and dependable impacts?
Worshipping a book is no substitute for studying it.

(Me: oodles of alternatives to Genesis...)
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Just one will suffice.
Hesiod's Theogony. It states that the Universe has a beginning and that it originated from "Chaos" or "The Void". Which is in fact what had actually happened. So let's worship the Greek gods.

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No perhaps and no cheating. If you see a green marble, then you can be assured there was a precedent entity which contained 'GREEN' - else, no green marbles. Stars cannot produce light unless light was pre-existant in some form. Science #101.
More like Platonist metaphysics.

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Stop laffing at Genesis.
After you stop laffing at everything else.

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Do lions need hay? If your disputing that veg predated fowl and fish, your wrong.
It's not one big group then another, it's members of those groups evolving side by side.

Fruit trees are long after the first land animals, for instance.

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Have you actually studied genesis? Prior to life emerging, a list of separations of the elements are made, as anticipatory actions. Light from darkness; day from night; water from land. Can you have life w/o those separations? Genesis is right - ToE is deficient here.
Evolutionary biology != geology and astronomy.

In any case, such separations did not need to be made -- they occur naturally.

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When genesis explicitly states something, I found it as vindicated. Genesis does not give a time factor for the universe - and remains the only writings in a sea of others which did not say the earth is flat.
But it states that there is an ocean of water above the sky, which is absurd.

The Genesis-1 supercelestial ocean DOES NOT EXIST.

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However, Genesis does give explicit datings for speech endowed humans and history per se - this is vindicated - precisely!
Where are its numbers.

(Einstein allegedly endorsing Genesis...)
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Not in his later years. Not Newton either. ead their bio's.
Isaac Newton didn't believe in the Trinity.

And Einstein? Quote for me where he stated what you claim that he had stated. He stated more-or-less the opposite:
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Originally Posted by Albert Einstein
I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.
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Only the Hebrew was able to call the universe finite, and who's laws turn the world today.
Prove it. How much counterevidence do I have to show you?

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Cosmic egg does not signify finite.
The last I've seen, eggs are finite in size, and the same would be true of a cosmic egg.

Interesting the Big Bang is a cosmic-egg cosmology, where the "egg" is the initial quantum fluctuation or other departure from the initial strong-quantum-gravity state.

(Darkness the absence of light...)
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No sir. These are separate entities displaying different attributes.
Bullshit.

Turn a light on and off -- when it's off, there is darkness, and when it's on, there is light.

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They do not appear as one because they were 'separated'; the same can be seen with land and water - they cannot be made into one.
There is a continuum of light intensity, just as there is a continuum between land and water. What do you call mud? Or muddy water?

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The sun predates the earth, but life here is dependent on a host of factors, including the precise distance of the sun's luminosity.
Pure natural selection.

(asexual reproduction)
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This does not negate the duality factor. A postive/negative impact will still apply in all cases, and in all actions. There is no alternative to the duality factor - and there is no ONE in the universe.
Asexual reproduction lacks such a duality factor.

IamJoseph, you have a LOT to learn abount science. That some organisms reproduce asexually is very elementary biology.

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That the sun came first is first stated in Genesis. Its critical luminosity came later.
Read Genesis 1 again. It plainly states that the Sun was created on Day 4.
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