How can we understand where we are today if we donāt know how we got here? And, there is just the tiniest chance that if we understand where we are today, we can guess where we are goingā¦.and how to avoid that.
1.Itās been a journey of some three millennia and we can chart the start as moving from polytheism to monotheism. I got to see some of the oldest texts when the Dead Sea Scrolls was on display, here in NYC. Always amazing is the course of lifeās history as laid out in Genesis, with the steps in creation mirroring the steps science accepts todayā¦. The Old Testament was written, although not compiled, almost three millennia ago.
It is extraordinary that the writer of the creation account in Genesis, chapter one, got it right in his exposition of the series of events: his sequence turns out to be scientifically accurate in terms of contemporary knowledge.
2. Unavoidable is the recognition that the order of events established by modern science conform to the sequence in the first chapter of Genesis:
light from an explosion (the Big Bang),
universe/earth formed,
the seas from the cooling earth,
plants as the first life forms;
abundant sea life (the Cambrian explosion),
the (evolution) of the flora and fauna we see today.
Neat, eh?
Lucky guess by the author of the creation account of Genesis?
3. If it is not evidence for God, then the author of Genesis 1, or Moses, perhaps, must have understood that the universe formed first, then the seas appeared on earth, and that life forms were photosynthetic. Following that, he had to have realized that an eye evolved in an early animal in the geological past, which triggered the evolution of all the major groups of animals that exist today. Still further, he must have felt that all of this occurred in the seas, before animals moved onto land, and only when they did move out of the water did mammals and birds evolve.
Parker, āThe Genesis Enigma,ā p. 160.
And this from folks living in the desert!
Wow! What an incredibly lucky guess! What a considerable stroke of good fortune!
The alternative explanation is divine intervention.
Kind of hard to miss the implication. ā a majority of scientists (51%) say they believe in God or a higher power, while 41% say they do not.ā What do scientists think about religion?
4. But at least as significant as the science is the political impact of monotheism and the Bible. In pre-Bible times, as in the Hammurabi Code, it is only the king who was said to have been created in Godās image.
The Bible created Western civilization, and changed all that in Genesis 1:26- And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
That means all people, not just kings. All individuals have lives with meaning and purpose, and that extends to other. We owe that to God.
Lest any imagine that all religions are the same, Leviticus 19:34
34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Compared to this: āNew York Mufti says, Muslims cannot integrate: āMuslims should hate non-Muslimsā āThe general principleā¦ is to love and to hate for the sake of Allah,ā New York Mufti says, Muslims cannot integrate: āMuslims should hate non-Muslimsā
The difference between what produce Western civilizationā¦and some other on less accommodating to humanity.
1.Itās been a journey of some three millennia and we can chart the start as moving from polytheism to monotheism. I got to see some of the oldest texts when the Dead Sea Scrolls was on display, here in NYC. Always amazing is the course of lifeās history as laid out in Genesis, with the steps in creation mirroring the steps science accepts todayā¦. The Old Testament was written, although not compiled, almost three millennia ago.
It is extraordinary that the writer of the creation account in Genesis, chapter one, got it right in his exposition of the series of events: his sequence turns out to be scientifically accurate in terms of contemporary knowledge.
2. Unavoidable is the recognition that the order of events established by modern science conform to the sequence in the first chapter of Genesis:
light from an explosion (the Big Bang),
universe/earth formed,
the seas from the cooling earth,
plants as the first life forms;
abundant sea life (the Cambrian explosion),
the (evolution) of the flora and fauna we see today.
Neat, eh?
Lucky guess by the author of the creation account of Genesis?
3. If it is not evidence for God, then the author of Genesis 1, or Moses, perhaps, must have understood that the universe formed first, then the seas appeared on earth, and that life forms were photosynthetic. Following that, he had to have realized that an eye evolved in an early animal in the geological past, which triggered the evolution of all the major groups of animals that exist today. Still further, he must have felt that all of this occurred in the seas, before animals moved onto land, and only when they did move out of the water did mammals and birds evolve.
Parker, āThe Genesis Enigma,ā p. 160.
And this from folks living in the desert!
Wow! What an incredibly lucky guess! What a considerable stroke of good fortune!
The alternative explanation is divine intervention.
Kind of hard to miss the implication. ā a majority of scientists (51%) say they believe in God or a higher power, while 41% say they do not.ā What do scientists think about religion?
4. But at least as significant as the science is the political impact of monotheism and the Bible. In pre-Bible times, as in the Hammurabi Code, it is only the king who was said to have been created in Godās image.
The Bible created Western civilization, and changed all that in Genesis 1:26- And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
That means all people, not just kings. All individuals have lives with meaning and purpose, and that extends to other. We owe that to God.
Lest any imagine that all religions are the same, Leviticus 19:34
34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Compared to this: āNew York Mufti says, Muslims cannot integrate: āMuslims should hate non-Muslimsā āThe general principleā¦ is to love and to hate for the sake of Allah,ā New York Mufti says, Muslims cannot integrate: āMuslims should hate non-Muslimsā
The difference between what produce Western civilizationā¦and some other on less accommodating to humanity.