Originally posted by ColoradoFB:
Once again, I am amazed at the ludicrous statements that issue from the minds of fundamentalists.
... called poisoning the well... it is often followed by evasion.
First of all, I will not begin to go point by point through these total misrepresentation of science.
Case in point of evasion. I am not sure what you think was "misrepresentation" but if you think that evolutionary science operates outside of a naturalistic philosophical worldview then please illustrate your contention. They make a basketball court out of science and declare anything that appeals to something other than a naturalistic explaination is "out of bounds." Whether you agree with them or not, the fact is that evolutionary science is governed by a philosophy.
Secondly, once someone holds to a literal view of Genesis despite evidence, they have renounced reason and it is pointless to continue the conversation.
You create a false dichotomy. I do not hold to a "literal view of Genesis despite evidence". The evidence is clearly there. The Bible teaches the attributes of a God that could create the universe in 6 billion years, 6 days, or 6 milliseconds. There is no renunciation of reason involved- simply an acceptance of an explaination of the evidence governed by creative possibilities found in an omnipotent Creator.
Third, and probably most important, I said a page or two back to table the evolution issue and assume it to be false and instead show me evidence to support a literal view. The answers have been:
1. The Bible is literally true because it says so in the Bible (circular logic)
No. It is literal where context, form, and cross-reference demonstrate that it is. There are sections of scripture that are clearly not literal and a few like in Revelation that are debatable in many places.
But Genesis is a section of scripture that is treated as literal throught the Old and New Testaments.
The Bible self-declares its inspiration by God. It is a matter of faith but I do trust Him to not mislead us by slipping allegory in without indicating it.
2. If observations contradict a literal Genesis, then Genesis is right despite any evidence
That's the thing though. "Observations" do not contradict a literal Genesis. It is the interpretations of the evidences in nature that often contradict scripture. No one observed anything from a thinking/reasoning standpoint until man came along. The oldest communications we find support creation. People who either communicated directly with God such as Moses or people before Moses who were in historical position to have seen some of the events affirm creation.
The support for evolution comes from interpretations of data, not first hand observation.
BTW, the proofs for the Bible's text being essentially unchanged since written are tangible and more overwhelming. It was written by people who claimed special visitations from God as well as being moved by God to write. Either the writers were completely delusional or else we have a book that should be taken as written.
3. Continued diatribes misrepresenting evolutionary theory, DESPITE THE FACT THAT I SAID LET'S CONCEDE THAT POINT. Obviously, with no evidence to support a literal view of Genesis, the only thing to do is continue to attack evolution despite the debating point of saying assume it is wrong.
The evidence is context and by the lack of any indication that what was written was by any measure non-literal. Paul, for instance, in Romans directly compares Adam to Christ. Are the Bible's declarations of Christ allegory? Aren't people arguing that they are since there is no naturalistic reconciliation of literal miracles and a literal death, burial, resurrection, and ascension? Contextually, there is no more proof that Genesis is allegory than that Luke is allegory.
When speaking to others, if you say something in a way that you know will be taken literally, it is encumbant upon you to declare "allegorically speaking..." or "figuratively speaking..." or to make some indication that your words are not literal. We don't library fiction and non-fiction books together without labeling that declares the difference with the hope that the reader will somehow figure it out. It is a very unreasonable position to think God inspired an allegorical tale in Genesis and gave the object of His message no indication of it.
Therefore I see this is pointless and will let you folks continue your rants on this thread without my participation. I'll look at other threads...you folks knock yourself out on this one.
Are you evading? If you cannot reasonably and respectfully answer our "rants" then what does that say about who is doing the ranting?