JasonChin responds to Arachnophilia:
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either the flood covered the whole earth, and killed everything but the contents of the ark, or the bible is errant.
Not true. If civilization ended, we'd refer to it as the "end of the world"
But that isn't what the Bible says:
Genesis 7:24: And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
It isn't talking about just the local area. It is talking about the entire world. Remember, the Bible dates the flood to about 2250 BCE. There were plenty of other civilizations that were present at the time (Egypt, Greece, China), and none of them seem to have noticed that everybody died.
So when the Bible talks about the whole earth being flooded, it isn't speaking the truth.
Genesis 6:13: And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis 6:17: And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Genesis 7:22: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
7:23: And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
This flood can't be a local event...the Bible clearly states that all life on earth is going to die except for Noah and those with him.
But not all life on the earth died except for Noah and those with him. Therefore, either this story is not true. There was no global flood.
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because you make these bold, sweeping statements because maybe a transcriptionist somewhere along the lines goofed and wrote (in relation to which came first, man or animal) "and then God created animals" instead of "and that's why God created animals".
(*blink!*)
You did not just say that, did you?
The contradictions in the Bible are not the result of misplacing a comma here and there. The contradictions in the descriptions of creation in Gen 1 and Gen 2 cannot be rectified simply by changing a verb tense.
Besides, Gen 2 says precisely why god created animals: To find a helpmeet for Adam:
Genesis 2:18: And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
2:19: And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
2:20: And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Now, please explain to me how it is we can find a helpmeet for Adam when there isn't an Adam to find a helpmeet for? If the purpose of the creation of animals is to find a helpmeet for Adam as Gen 2 says, why on earth were animals created
BEFORE the first humans as explicitly described in Gen 1?
This isn't a copy editing mistake. This is a plot shift. Which one is it? Were animals created before or after the first human?
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This is how I know that atheists are no less influenced by personal belief than theists
When was it decided that anybody was an atheist? Surely you aren't arguing that because we don't believe in
your god, that means we don't believe in
any god, are you?
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because "as a record of history, it fails brilliantly."
Which only makes sense for the parts that are intended as allegorical
And which ones are those? Do you have a list? Perhaps you could publish a version of the Bible that color-codes those parts that aren't supposed to be taken literally in order to break the confusion of those who think the whole thing is literally true.
Rrhain
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