| To the Mighty Xanga,
Alrighty then, Sunday I got to go out with my usual group of friends and we all went to Applebees and had some really good food. Aperently one of the guys we were eating out with said that he was studying bible history or something along that nature and anyway, you of course know my view on that subject, so I had to open my big mouth and talk about how some schools have taken away from the scripture by cutting certain parts of it out and making other parts into mear fairy tales.
I am happy that I didn't get into a heated debate as I am sure this would have runed some of the others meals, but I did get to put forward my opinion on the subject and then I let it drop because I didn't want to start to much controversy over a light meal. In retrospect I'm not sure if i did the right thing or not but for the record I will put forth my opinion here and let those of you who know what i'm talking about comment on whether you think i should have pushed my side and taken a stand or if what I did was enough of a stand and that biting my tounge was the right thing for this situation.
The Bible is the inerrent word of God. It is to be taken literally unless it specificly says that it is not literal (dreams and visions are sometimes literal and sometimes alagorical) I think that it is a horrid trechery that some "scholars" have taken parts of the Bible and cut them out, castrated them, made them no more the childrens stories that tell a good story or a moral lesson but have no real meaning in the literal. Specificaly the first 11 Chapters of Genesis have fallen pray to this over and over and over. These are the stories of the creation, the fall of man, the Flood, and the tower of Babel. I have not found any other piece of scripture that so immediatly evokes a strong opinion in a person when they are asked about it. I take these scripturs as literal because there is no other way to take them. There is no way to say that they are just pretty stories because they have no use other then to tell about the beginning of the world. (yes God's punishment of man and all but that comes up later in the scripture too, these have a more important job then to be entertaining ways of telling a new story)
My friend disagreed with me on the issue of creation, which I believe is a core concept in the study of the scripture and a concept which many scholors have choosen to ignore, or push aside. The creation story apears in Chapter one and seeimingly again in Chapter 2. This is seen as a contradiction, but it is not. verses 4-7 are just more detail on things that have already come into play verse 8 states that God made the garden of Eden and into the garden he placed the man. v9 has trees growing, this is seen to be a contradiction to ch1 where trees grow on the third day, but we see in the context that it is written (immediatly after the garden is created) that God is mearly growing trees in the garden. v.10-14 are boundires for Eden. (it would be highly unnessisary to be this specific if it were mearly a moral tale) v15 God puts the man in the garden and forms the animals out of the ground. (v19) Again, is this a contradiction with chapter 1 where the animals are formed on the 5th and 6th days?! NO! There is a purpose to God's forming of the animals in the garden v19 says "And out of the ground the Lor 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:..." Can there be a mistake here, is God just now forming the animals and birds after He has created man?!!? No, He is creating them in front of man so that they are right there for man to name. No acording the Ch. 1 the earth is already populated with animals. God is forming them in front of Adam so that he doesn't have to travel all over the world (leave the paradise of Eden) to find them and name them. God is helping Adam in a sence, by forming the animals right there in the guarden. It is obvious when you do not take one verse or partial verse out of the context of the garden that this is what is happening.
It is also in the creation of Eve that people find supposed contradiction. Ch. 1 clearly states in v.27 that "in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Did God make the man and the woman again? No, Ch.2 is giving details that Ch.1 did not give, just as it did in v4-7. There is nothing saying that this event of making Eve did not happen on the 5th day, especially if Adam worked fast in nameing the animals. The bible does not give such a detail but chapter one states only that God made male and female and Ch. 2 gives there creation in more detail. It is repeating what it said before. Ususally when scripture is repeating it is telling the reader to pay attention to something. It would again be unnessisary in a moral tale to give such details about the creation and naming of the animals. Also on the creation of Eve, did God make a mistake?! Did God forget that Adam would need a helper then suddenly decide that it would be nice to make something else? again NO! I think one of the things that we must understand when reading the scriptures expecially about God is that God is not stupid. He is not a moron that makes dumb mistakes that need to be corrected. He is the archetect of reality, we must give Him at least a little credit while reading how He does it. God is mearly taking special care and working in His time, something that we must understand when reading this. I don't say that my Ju-Jitsu teacher is a moron because i don't understand his movements. He is the teacher and I am the student. He teaches me, I don't question whether he is doing it right or not because my simple beginner brain cannot grasp the complexitys of his movement. You would not tell Kasparov or Fischer that they are morons because they allowed there queen to be captured by a beginner, you would nod and understnad that you have no freaking clue what is going on in their mind and trust that they have the end game planned out so well that they can take the loss or that the loss gives them the real advantage in the situation. So why do we question God??! why do we assume that He made a mistake (or even that he can make a mistake) ?!?!?! Why not just nod and say well I guess i don't know why it was done this way but it was.
Well this is my xanga for the night, it's long I know but I had to write it and get this crap out of my system. You may feel free to tell me what you think, it is something that I am very passionate about which is why I kept my mouth shut at dinner. Perhaps I should have stated my point more clearly but then I would be the cause of decention. And I don't want to cause decention among friends, so I simply stated in a shortened way what I thought and let the rest of it fly. (I let him get the last word which really bugs me) Those of you that were there can tell me if what I did was right or if i should have taken more of a stance on the issue. I'll address Evolutionary Creationism sometime in the future and vent my frustrations at the church's willingness to chuck solid scripture in favor of atheistic crap that has no real scientific backing. Enjoy |
