Recently I was taking part in a debate on evolution vs creationism on another website. The creationist believe the bible literally and claim that the world is about 8000 years old, based on Genesis 5, The generation of Adam, outlining who begat who and so on.
I responded that one can claim the Earth is much older, without conflict with the Genesis story, if we interpret other parts of Genesis as follows:
Here is my interpretation of Genesis 2 vs 21: “and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam” (during which he created Eve). There is no time specified so therefor this time might have been a minute or a billion years during which the earth evolved. Also there is no time specified how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. This could also be a long, long time since before they ate the forbidden fruit life was eternal. Problem solved: The earth could have been billions of years old before the "fall' where ignorant Adam and Eve became knowledgeable by eating from the tree of knowledge. Now the count of years start in Genesis 5: The generation of Adam, on which the creationists base their estimate of the age of the earth. The creationists are just estimating the time period AFTER the fall!
My point? The bible can be interpreted in many ways. It is full of contradictions and conflicting statements, precisely what one would expect of an assembly of 66 books written by some 40 different people in a time span of more than a thousand years. It is a valuable historical document but not inspired by god (God’s Word). If it was, it would be totally consistent. I like to follow this up with a letter I received from one of the debaters at the same website.
Hi all. It's me, Daffyduck325. I was posting on Alex Jones' Info Wars website, in the forum underneath the Bill Nye article. I had a total of 2000 comments over 7 days, and ALL of them were just deleted 5 minutes ago by a Moderator. All in all, it was fun debating with everybody. I really learned a lot about religion, and I got to see some good arguments for both sides. Remember, debate is good for democracy. That being said, I just have some things to say. 1) Evolution is true; the evidence is everywhere 2) Science is a Just Cause and worth defending. 3) Atheism is not evil, and should be renamed Unbeliever 4) Enlightened Existentialism can create a perfectly good moral code 5) I personally respect religious people of upright character. 6) Jesus taught you to love your neighbor 7) Evolution is a concept that can further the idea of Human Oneness, not Social Darwinism 8) The Modern Synthesis of Biology since around he 1980s is much more sophisticated than the "strawman" Darwinism that creationists use. 9) The Bible was man-made. 10) The universe is about 14 Billion years old. 11) Nye is not a scientist. The Nye/Ham debate was a shoddy debate, and did little to push either platform forward. More importantly, Ben's website is awesome! It is thoughtful and a great read. There are plenty of good resources like this one for understanding true science based on evidence and scientific method. God bless all.
I think that Daffyduck325 is not a “Unbeliever” like myself, and I did not always agree with hin but he made several great points which I want to pass on to you. I welcome a dignified healthy and well-informed debate especially about the positive and negative aspects of religion in modern society.
I responded that one can claim the Earth is much older, without conflict with the Genesis story, if we interpret other parts of Genesis as follows:
Here is my interpretation of Genesis 2 vs 21: “and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam” (during which he created Eve). There is no time specified so therefor this time might have been a minute or a billion years during which the earth evolved. Also there is no time specified how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. This could also be a long, long time since before they ate the forbidden fruit life was eternal. Problem solved: The earth could have been billions of years old before the "fall' where ignorant Adam and Eve became knowledgeable by eating from the tree of knowledge. Now the count of years start in Genesis 5: The generation of Adam, on which the creationists base their estimate of the age of the earth. The creationists are just estimating the time period AFTER the fall!
My point? The bible can be interpreted in many ways. It is full of contradictions and conflicting statements, precisely what one would expect of an assembly of 66 books written by some 40 different people in a time span of more than a thousand years. It is a valuable historical document but not inspired by god (God’s Word). If it was, it would be totally consistent. I like to follow this up with a letter I received from one of the debaters at the same website.
Hi all. It's me, Daffyduck325. I was posting on Alex Jones' Info Wars website, in the forum underneath the Bill Nye article. I had a total of 2000 comments over 7 days, and ALL of them were just deleted 5 minutes ago by a Moderator. All in all, it was fun debating with everybody. I really learned a lot about religion, and I got to see some good arguments for both sides. Remember, debate is good for democracy. That being said, I just have some things to say. 1) Evolution is true; the evidence is everywhere 2) Science is a Just Cause and worth defending. 3) Atheism is not evil, and should be renamed Unbeliever 4) Enlightened Existentialism can create a perfectly good moral code 5) I personally respect religious people of upright character. 6) Jesus taught you to love your neighbor 7) Evolution is a concept that can further the idea of Human Oneness, not Social Darwinism 8) The Modern Synthesis of Biology since around he 1980s is much more sophisticated than the "strawman" Darwinism that creationists use. 9) The Bible was man-made. 10) The universe is about 14 Billion years old. 11) Nye is not a scientist. The Nye/Ham debate was a shoddy debate, and did little to push either platform forward. More importantly, Ben's website is awesome! It is thoughtful and a great read. There are plenty of good resources like this one for understanding true science based on evidence and scientific method. God bless all.
I think that Daffyduck325 is not a “Unbeliever” like myself, and I did not always agree with hin but he made several great points which I want to pass on to you. I welcome a dignified healthy and well-informed debate especially about the positive and negative aspects of religion in modern society.
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