To shepherdless
Towerwatchman,
you say you cant accept most Christians do not believe in a "supernatural
intelligent designer"
Never said that,
I accept everyone. It is their beliefs I do not accept.
Just as an
example: I was brought up in a strict Catholic family, and went entirely to
Catholic schools, taught by a mix if priests, nuns and secular teachers (mostly
practising Catholics). (I have never been a JW - I found myself married to
one.) I can specifically remember the point being made at school many times
that Genesis should not be read literally. I remember one Jesuit priest saying
it was "childish" (exact word) to think it literally occurred.
I went through
that also. I was taught the Bible and evolution in Catholic School. Let’s take
it one stop further. Jesus quoted extensively from the OT; therefore
acknowledging their validity. When it comes to Jesus I don’t argue. Now is
there anything in the creation account ‘found in Genesis’ that hints to
evolution. That somehow the days are not literal days but periods?
In Genesis day is
interpreted from [yowm /yome/] which translates as “day” 2008 times, “time” 64
times, “chronicles ” 37 times, “daily” 32 times, “ever” 17 times, “year” 14
times, “continually” 10 times, “when” 10 times, “as” 10 times, “while” eight
times, “full always” four times, “whole” four times, “alway” four times, and
translated miscellaneously 44 times. The semantic range of a word is all the
possible meanings of that word in the given language. Yome’s semantic range is
restricted to only five meanings. 1.a period of light in a day night cycle, 2.
a period of twenty four hours 3. a general or vague concept of time. 4. a
specific point of time 5. a period of a year.
The fallacy in
Day Age lies in the supposition that the meaning of “yome” in the context of
Genesis is much broader than Genesis allows and attempts to explain into
Genesis a different meaning from its semantic range. To properly interpret the
meaning of a word, the meaning must be determined by how it is used in the
specific context, not by possible meanings in unrelated contexts. It should be
noted that when yome is used for a period of time it is heavily modified by
other time indicators such as the word for year or month.
And even in those
cases, it is that others time unit word that gives its length of duration, not
the use of yome.
What is ignored
is the interesting pattern yome has in Genesis 1 in the original language,
which is not reflected in English translations. The first day has a cardinal
number [one] with a definite article, “the” others have ordinal numbers
[second, third, fourth]. Genesis 1:5 begins the cycle of the day, with the
creation of day and night. Evening is the transition from light/day to
darkness/ night and morning is the transition from darkness/night to light/day.
Having an evening and a morning amounts to having one full day. Hence, the
following equation is what Genesis 1:5 expresses, 1 evening + 1 morning = one
day. Therefore, by using a most unusual grammatical construction, Genesis 1:5
is defining what a day is, a simple 24 hour period.
From talking to
people and a bit of research, I can not identify ANY mainstream Christian
religion that rejects evolution. The only ones I can identify that do reject
evolution, are the fundamentalist ones, mostly from the USA. I do agree, however, that pre-Darwin or
thereabouts, most Christians were creationists.
The majority of Christian I know and have known do not believe in
evolution. You were probably born in
USA, or at least exposed to a fundamentalist US religion from a young age. You
were almost certainly indoctrinated with the "creation story" right
from when you were a little baby. Your entire terms of reference for how you view
the world around you, stems from that indoctrination.
You have part of
it right. I am in the US and have been brought up believing in the Creation
story. But notice something about human nature, it starts with faith and then
it is replaced with fact. Yes I was brought up believing the literal account of
creation. I don’t believe it because someone told me to believe it when I was
six. It is based on science, logic and reason.
1.
Science
does support, and I do believe in micro evolution; but science does not support
macro evolution. That is more imagination than anything.
2.
Science
point more and more to an intelligent designer.
3.
Jesus’
extensive use of the Hebrew Scriptures verified their truthfulness.
You seek evidence
to support your viewpoint (aka confirmation bias). You are good at debating,
and seek further comfort by projecting your views on others and shouting them
down if they disagree.
Communication is
about 30% verbal and the balance nonverbal. It is hard to comprehend the tone
when reading a post. It is never my intention to shout anyone down, but there
are some here, and in almost any forum, that find their enjoyment in being rude.
Those I have zero consideration.
