Wow! These are some very interesting posts. Seems to be a lot of different opinions but opinions aren't necessarily facts and everyone has the right to an opinion. Yet science seems to lean towards things we can prove, which we have defined as facts.
2tim, you'll never get an attack or a negative response from me. I'm solely here to learn but I'm a man of facts. Even in my profession of IT, things work a certain way based upon facts, formulas and procedures and even IT continues to evolve.
The whole "physical" vs. "spiritual" concept seems to be very misleading to me, when it comes to the bible. As you say (2tim) the bible is talking about the physical creation of beings and the earth from a being that is "supposedly" spiritual not physical but can split himself/herself into both, i.e. the "Holy Spirit" and "Jesus Christ" on command. That's quite confusing and in my "opinion" contradictory.
Where is heaven if it is a "spiritual" realm? The scriptures always say Jesus went up in the spirit or God is up but once again that's mixing the "spiritual" with the "physical" because obviously Jesus physical body didn't go up. How far up is up and what direction is up? If I point up on the continent of North America, I'm pointing one direction but if I point up in say China, I'm pointing in a different direction. My understanding of science and existence is that there is no true up or down when it comes to space. Up and down is only a reference point when you are physically residing at one point and either being above or below that point.
The interesting thing about the definition of heaven according to the bible is that it references it as being up and a place. Which would mean that the "spiriutual" realm of heaven is "up" in a "physical" place. Yet the Greek word (which is where the New Testament was translated from) that heaven is translated from was Orionos, later to be known as Orion, as in the Orion star constellation. (science/physical)
I'm inspired everyday. Who in the world knows where it comes from. Maybe it's me, maybe it's a "higher being" but if I write some scriptures and say it's the word of God because I felt inspired, does that make it fact?
There seems to be a lot of discussion on this forum about evolution/creation, intelligent design, etc..etc. Science does prove that some things happened or evolved or a sum of some things came together and changed. LOL
How does the bible explain the facts that we are amphibious at conception and growth, and then evolve into mammals at birth? How you say? Well, the sperm is a living amphibious organism,(funny how organism and orgasm sound and are spelled similarly and isn't an orgasm a big explosion or big bang that can create life? LOL) Anyway, the sperm swims in liquid like a tadpole and even looks like a tadpole. Then, in the womb of our mothers we are in a sack breathing or taking fluids into our lungs and we pull out the oxygen, like amphibious creatures. At birth, the sack bursts, we come out and we start to breathe oxygen through our lungs like warm blooded, land mammals.
How can we deny the similarities of a chimpanzee and humans? Humans have 46 chromosomes and chimpanzees have 47. There DNA strand is almost a mirror image of a human beings DNA strand. If you look at a chimpanzee’s palm and a human's palm, it's very hard to tell the difference. The conception of their young, birth and rearing of their young is no different then ours. Seems like the bible is not telling the whole story and maybe not even the correct one.
We are still evolving. We evolve from a new born, to a child, young adult to elderly and then we die. Isn't the definition of evolve, just to change. So everything is a cycle. Whether it's evolution, revolution, creation, it's a cyclical process of change and to me science explains this a whole lot better than "religion" does.
My last point. The bible will have people to "believe" that things have existed for approximately 6006 years. After everything was written, said and done, experts have calculated the time frame in which the stories in the bible "supposedly" took place to be 4000 years in the Old Testament and 2006 years in the New Testament going into 2006. Science uses formulas and calculations that say the earth is billions of years old and that life itself, including the dinosaurs which where before any findings of man, are several hundred million years old. Yet the bible says God created man then the animals.
Something is just not right!
peace and blessings
My two cents. :)
