Stephen T-B

- and the point of it was?

smugg

God recognised the mistake of creating man in His image and realized nothing that banal could be allowed to live.

Duvenoy

It came to pass that even after the notorious Eden screw-up, God still hadn't learned. Tossing everybody out in the street looked like the answer, but it didn't take long to see that it still wasn't working. So, he flushed the whole business and tried to start over. As might be expected, he got lazy and kept some of the original livestock around for breeding purposes. Anybody could have told the big dummy that he'd be right back where he started within a few generations. And thus it came to pass.

I understand that he's due to try it again, soon. If his previous track record is anything to go by, it'll be noisey, messy and, in the long run, unsuccesful. If he even remembers making the threat.

doov

Stephen T-B

I was hoping Ed might have come in on this onw, since he seems to think it made sense.
But perhaps he's got tired?

Douglas J. Bender

Stephen,


I take it from your question that you've never read the Bible, or the Book of Genesis, or just chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis. Might I humbly suggest you read at least the latter, as that would answer your question.

In Christ,

Douglas

Duvenoy

Tired? Ed? Not possible. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

I have come to the conclusion that Ed is not a person, rather he is a force of nature, implacable, remorseless, and immortal. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> When the earth is swallowed by it's dying sun and the universe finally implodes, Ed will be there doubting that it's happening.

Ed neither reaps nor sows. He refuses to even consider the best, most up to date information it is possible for us to find, then retorts with bland one and two-liners of vauge possibilities, insubstantial doubts, and 'facts' written by an ancient folk that knew little of the natural world. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Ed is the punishment inflicted upon us by an Eternal Librarian for shooting spitballs and not studying enough. Gotta be. How many times has he sent us scurrying for the literture? Every time I address Ed, my eyeballs begin to hurt. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

And that's the value of Ed. He makes us study, to our benefit. May he continue to do so.

On the other hand, might be he's a student somewhere and is conning us into doing his homework.

<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

doov

[ July 01, 2002: Message edited by: Duvenoy ]

[ July 01, 2002: Message edited by: Duvenoy ]</p>

MrDarwin

Well, I've read Genesis, and I'm afraid it still doesn't make sense. What isn't clear to me is whether, back in Genesis 1 and 2 when God created the earth in the first place, God knew the humans that he/she/it had created would turn out so badly that God would later create this horrendous flood and wipe out everything and everybody except Noah and his immediate family. It brings to mind a child throwing a tantrum and destroying all his own toys upon not getting his own way.

Douglas J. Bender

MrDarwin,

While it isn't clear simply from Genesis 1-6 whether He knew this, the Bible is clear that God has known all things "from the beginning". Thus, He knew, when He created Adam and Eve, that the humans would "turn out so badly that" God "would later create this horrendous Flood and wipe out everything and everybody except Noah and his immediate family" (plus 2 of every kind of animal, and 7 of particular types).

Or, how about a scientist doing a laboratory experiment with particular creatures, and finding that for the purposes of his experiment, only 2 out of 100 have not been "contaminated" beyond "redemption", and that those 98 have a contagious disease which would infect the other two if they were not destroyed (we are assuming that these creatures cannot exist outside of their laboratory environment [which parallels the Earth]). Not a perfect analogy, but it's just as good, and actually better, than the one you propose, and shows that the Flood does not need to imply any kind of "tantrum" on God's part.


In Christ,

Douglas

Stephen T-B

Thank you Douglas: this was getting a bit incestuous until you breezed in.
I asked the question because it's clear that god got pretty fed up with the way things were turning out and decided to start again. But in your opinion, do you think things are not as bad in the world today as they were in the days before the Flood? I mean, how BAD were they?
And if they are now as bad as they were then - or worse - does this suggest that god wasted his time organising the Flood and getting all those animals on board the Ark. Or does it mean that any day now we can expect another Flood? Should we be looking out for someone building a very large boat in his back yard?
Hey. You're not, are you?
Seriously, though: if god could create the whole lot from scratch in just six days, wouldn't it have been simpler to have wiped everything out and started again, using a slightly amended blue-print this time?

Oolon Colluphid

So, uh, Douglas... the Fall contaminated things in such a way as to cause all the design blunders I’ve listed elsewhere... okay. But when god came to starting again, wiping out the Fall-tainted creatures, he didn’t really start again, did he? He allowed twos (or sevens) of each ‘kind’ (hey, could you remind me what your definition of kind was please?) to survive. Thus allowing the flawed -- ie still contaminated by sin -- designs to continue. Care to explain?

In rational thought, Oolon