#78736 - 04/18/06 03:52 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
    
[Re: Billy Dennis]
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Husband and Father
Registered: 09/05/04
Posts: 7070
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
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As to what evidence would cause me to change my position. Well, it might sound as though I'm being disingenuous, but I honestly do not have a position on origins. I argue with evolutionists and I argue with creationists, asking them to make their case better, more clearly, in a less biased fashion. I find both the scientific and the textual evidence for recent creationism quite unconvincing, and I think your real question is 'what would it take to convince me that recent creationism is correct?' On the one hand, I'm not absolutely convinced that it's incorrect, but on the other I'd need to see some sort of position that at least addresses in a serious way the scientific evidence and provides a plausible account of it. Doesn't mean science is the measure of the Bible, not at all, but it does mean that either creationists stop making any scientific claims or they start making credible ones.
I'd be completely happy with (though not convinced by) a simple 'this is the way I read the Bible and the science can go hang'. What I abominate is the dishonest use of science.
What I'm currently looking into is the Biblical text, which some are so confident that they can read and understand fully without any effort at fully understanding. If there is a single convincing piece of evidence - a magic bullet - that's where it will be. I'm afraid the discussion of 'day' above is not it, but that's the place to search.
Robert:
1. Yes, your random insults are certainly encouraging me to think seriously about your case and 2. The discussion is precisely about trying to understand - rather than to merely assume - what 'God says'.
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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate
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#78737 - 04/18/06 05:10 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: Billy Dennis]
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Husband and Father
Registered: 09/05/04
Posts: 7070
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
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(I'll be out of contact with the web for the next 2 days, so if you don't get a response it's not because I'm ignoring you!)
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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate
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#78738 - 04/18/06 06:16 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: Billy Dennis]
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Registered: 03/20/00
Posts: 7422
Loc: Wilkesboro, NC
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Quote:
Bravus said: David, I'd love to see some evidence for your continuing claims that 'a large number' of scientists are turning to creationism based on problems with Darwinian evolution. (Ideally, a position formed in the absence of strong pre-existing Christian convictions/conversion that are likely to have influenced the process, but maybe that's too much to ask...)
On the basis of a very simple gadget like the mouse trap, Behe, an evolutionist, is no longer comfortable with the idea that complex things even when reduced to their irreducible complex individual parts, could by random chance come up with those parts and then by random chance combine them into a usable organ/gadget. His book, "Darwin's Black Box", makes a compelling case for an "intelligent designer". I don't think he's the only one. The problem is, proponents of evolution turn out to be no less intolerant than yesteryear's fundamentalist creationists by disallowing the teaching of any other alternative theories. Are not many scientists who believe in intelligen design or creation blackballed or denied research grants on the basis of their belief system? And so are either afraid or are reluctant to declare themselves?
It's amazing to me how one cannot conceive of a watch, a car, a dictionary coming into existence by random processess and yet can believe that all the living things we see around us came into being by the random processess of chance!
The theory of spontaneous generation was debunked back in the 1700's, but somehow evolutionists resurrected it by adding the element of time. Give it a billion, maybe a few million years and it will happen!
Gerry
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#78739 - 04/18/06 07:37 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: Billy Dennis]
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Craftsman
Registered: 03/13/06
Posts: 3513
Loc: N38d14.516m, W122d37.982m
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Quote:
Bravus said: But I've asked the question before: is there any single piece of evidence that qould convince you that creation did not occur in a literal, 7 day week? If there is no such piece of evidence, then your belief is not falsifiable, and there is zero point in adducing any evidence at all, since no evidence will ever change your position.
Hmmm . . . Sounds like a classroom exercise for Philosophy of Science 101. In real life, I don't think the issue is as pedantic as what you posed. But, it is worth summarizing some of the lines of evidence which are often relied on, and sources of information.
Let's put together a balance sheet, and list the categories of evidence for and against a literal, 6-day recent Creation(6,000 years according to Usher's Chronology).
How about it?
Edited by David Koot (04/18/06 07:38 PM)
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#78740 - 04/18/06 08:13 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: Billy Dennis]
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Craftsman
Registered: 03/13/06
Posts: 3513
Loc: N38d14.516m, W122d37.982m
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Quote:
Bravus said: I'm afraid the discussion of 'day' above is not it, but that's the place to search.
Bravus, I did take a look at your links to the Kiwi articles. I noted that the author did, indeed, survey both the primary and secondary applications of yom1. One may derive a similar picture by using Strong's. Yes, as he pointed out, yom1 does have secondary, idiomatic meanings, in some occurrences. However, those secondary meanings are secondary, and are determined by the immediate, stated context. To say that, because a Hebrew word is used in a certain way, somehere in the OT, does not automatically mean that such is the way to understand another occurrence of the word, elsewhere in the OT. That would be exegesis a la Strong's. As for the occurrences of yom1 in Gen. 1, there is absolutely nothing in the immediate context to suggest anything but a literal understanding of the word. Unless I missed something . . . anyone find something in the text itself--in those occurrences of the word, that would indicate otherwise?
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#78741 - 04/18/06 08:33 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: ]
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Registered: 03/18/00
Posts: 2201
Loc: Troy, Michigan USA
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Bevin, there are no fossils in rock predating Creation Week. Some fossils may have been formed prior to the Flood, because death entered the world when man fell. But the vast majority of fossils were created by the Flood.
The trees in Eden were mature, full-grown trees, one day after they came into existence. If you want to call God a liar for creating things this way, then I will take God's "lie" over your "truth" any day.
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Ron Lambert
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#78742 - 04/18/06 08:43 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: Lauralea]
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Registered: 03/18/00
Posts: 2201
Loc: Troy, Michigan USA
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David Koot, why did you post all that lexicon material on the meaning of "day" in Biblical Hebrew? We know all of that. This has long been debated and decided among us. We know what a day was in Genesis. Like the text plainly says, the evening (dark portion) and the morning (light portion) were the first day (etc.) All throughout the Bible, Jews observed their days from sunset to sunset. God plainly told the Jews, "...from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath." (Leviticus 23:32)
What remains in dispute?
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Ron Lambert
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#78743 - 04/18/06 08:55 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: Lauralea]
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Craftsman
Registered: 03/13/06
Posts: 3513
Loc: N38d14.516m, W122d37.982m
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Quote:
Ron Lambert said: David Koot, why did you post all that lexicon material on the meaning of "day" in Biblical Hebrew? We know all of that . . . What remains in dispute?
Actually, I believe that some on this thread do have a question about it. The specific issue appears to be that, indeed, yom1 does have secondary, idiomatic meanings. What would seem to be in dispute, is whether such a secondary meaning would apply in Gen. 1. I prefer to cite credible reference works, and give people the opportunity to read for themselves. It appears to me that the confusion comes from using a 'Strong's' approach to the range of meanings of the word. Careful exegesis would seem to clearly indicate a literal meaning of the word in Gen. 1. This would appear to be corroborated by other Biblical references to God's act of Creation, which will be addressed in due course.
David Koot
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#78745 - 04/18/06 10:40 PM
Re: Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution is Right
[Re: TheLittleGiraffe]
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Registered: 09/04/02
Posts: 4699
Loc: New England
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Quote:
It's amazing to me how one cannot conceive of a watch, a car, a dictionary coming into existence by random processess and yet can believe that all the living things we see around us came into being by the random processess of chance!
Evolutionists suspect that watches, cars, and people are the result of the interaction of three basic concepts
- replication
- mutation
- selection
To characterize it as 'chance' is to miss the whole point.
/Bevin
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