Science and Religion.

[angela515]

How do you mi the two? The Bible says God created Earth, yes science tells us differently. Science shows us the Earth and the other planets were created from a Star or Stars. Millions of years ago our planet was created... not thousands of years ago like the Bible suggests. Dinosaur bones confirm that we were not the only living things on this Earth, also... we have found a skeleton over 5,000 years old, how do religious people explain this? The Bible says God created all living creagtures, such as fish, animals, birds, and so on.... yet we have proof that fish and such were around way before the Bible says life was created. Also there is the story of Cain and Abel... "Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. "  If There was only Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel upon the Earth, who are these people tha are supposedly going to kill Cain?

What does everyone think of these things from a scientific point of view?
 

[glitter]

I do not know specifically how to answer those questions....but I have heard several scientists say that the awesomeness of the cosmos reinforces thier faith.

[Sluff]

God knows.   

[angela515]

I just thought this would make an interesting conversation. 

[Sluff]

I agree. Kind of like what was here first the chicken or the egg?

[BigSky]

Genesis doesn't actually give a date of when the earth was made nor what it was made from.

Nor does it give how long a day in the life of God maybe.  God is forever, as such one could reasonably conclude that a day in the life of God is millions of years in terms of mans perception of time.  Time is irreverent to that which is forever.


After all God made the earth and its animals, plants etc. etc. and left man for last.  This very well can mean that millions of years in terms of mans perception of time passed from the earth being made, to that of plants and animals appearing on it to finally that of man appearing.

Another thing with Genesis is that it was written well after the events occurred and therefore would not be unrealistic to think that some things were omitted or left out for clarity. 



Religious people probably will disagree with the following statement but I find it to be true.

Cultures write history how they see it.  Each culture has it tilted toward their view and is of their own history.  The OT is merely how the Jewish people seen creation to occur, the rest is mainly about their and only their history and with any culture they claim their view is the only view.  People/cultures do not view the same event identically.  Just as two witness to a bank robbery often claim different things occurred and both will maintain their view was the correct view.

There are many, many other cultures on earth and many share similar versions of creation.  From the new world to the old. 

Details in other cultures do differ some about creation.  However when these cultural views of creation are viewed together to get a bigger picture of what may have occurred it points to something singular in event happening at one time of which all stories in the various cultures got based from.







 

[angela515]

Very well written BigSky.  The Bible was written bye man, and as you mentioned lots of things could of been left out... therefore just the same lots of things could of been added in an exaggerated. Especially if written by man, as you know the Bible is made of stories.

[jbeany]

I worked in the physics department in college, and spent a lot of time with the professors of all different sciences.  Some of them were brilliant scientists, as well as some of the most devoutly religious people I've ever met.  The head of the physics department at the time was one of the leading theoretical researchers in string theory.  He was attempting to mathematically explain the Big Bang at the beginning of everything.  I proofread a lot of his papers, but while I could correct his English (his 7th or 8th language, and not his native tongue), I just ignored the math sections.  I barely scraped thru calculus - what he had down on those pages looked like gibberish to me.  He did, very kindly, explain what it all meant in a way I could understand.  Picture a man doing the highest level mathematics around, something so complicated there are probably only a few dozen people in the world who could follow his train of thought, attempting to put that into words that I could follow, with my mathematical education that dropped off after beginning calculus.  I found it fascinating.  But if I attempted to explain it to you, I'm pretty sure it would sound like gibberish as well, by the time I got done trying to copy his explanation.

Now, if you believe that the Bible really was divinely inspired, picture God trying to explain the beginning of the world and how he created it to a human being with no knowledge of much beyond the simple, nontechnical world he currently lived in.  Is it any wonder that the written version sometimes seems like so much gibberish? Add in the number of times the work has been mangled by translations and edited to suit whichever king was sponsoring the latest print edition, and it's amazing that any of it still makes sense at all.  Only a literal, fundamentalist interpertation of the Bible precludes you from believing in both it and science.

I'm not a religious person myself, but science can mix with religion.  Like oil and water, though, it seems to take a whole lot of shaking.

[goofynina]

I am not too sure about this subject but i would live by the Bible alot quicker than i would live by a Science Book (does that make any sense) 

[meadowlandsnj]

What does everyone think of these things from a scientific point of view?
 

I believe the Bible is a book written by men, not God.  I don't believe in a God who would kill babies, the first born like in Exodus.  I don't believe in a vengeful, mean, fire spitting God.  The Bible can inspire you, make you look into yourself, teach you love.  Jesus taught us that with love all things are possible.  Love can overcome any obsticle, faith can make anything possible. 
1 CORINTHIANS: Chapter 13 [Books]
 
The Excellence of Love
 
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails.

[angela515]

Jbeany: Very well written hun. That makes sense what your saying. I also believe something being told over and over and translated so many times can take on something different than first told.

Susie: Yes hun, it does. :p

meadows: I also don't believe in a God so mean and hateful. That's a beautiful verse, about love. 

I know I believe in a higher being, i.e, God. However, I don't think it all happened as most religions say it did. As long as we have something to believe in and know where we are headed when this life is over, I guess that's all that matter's, even though i have so many questions on a scientific level. I *love* science, and I love watching the history channel,  and Science channel, and I learn so much about things from watching them, however they also cause me to have questions... 

Either way, I know when i pass on in this life, I will see my family and loved ones I have already lost, and I will be waiting for my loved ones I will leave behind.

 

[Joe Paul]

Jesus says in Revelation, Chapter 22 verse 18-19 : "I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy of this book, If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plaques described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book".
 I happen to believe whats written in the bible, and if I am wrong I will be the one to pay in the end. Man = science too, so either way you have to believe what you want to believe.

[MattyBoy100]

I respect those who have faith but personally I do not believe at all.  Science made the world and we evolved as humans.

I don't understand how people can accept their illness or world disasters and just say "That's God's way."

No sorry, it doesn't cut it with me.  I have kidney failure and God decided that for me?

No, a defective gene caused my kidney failure.

[meadowlandsnj]

so either way you have to believe what you want to believe.

Yes that's very true.  We need more tolerance of what others believe.  Mostof the worlds problems are caused by people who want to shove their beliefs down someones elses thoats.
Live and let live.

Donna