The literal reading of Genesis is the simple plain reading. I don't see how it can HONESTLY be made to mean anything else.
The "Jewish faith" gets it all wrong so why should that impress me? I argued for years via email with an orthodox Jewish guy, it was interesting and I liked the guy but boy do they believe some strange stuff, most of it exactly what the Pharisees of Jesus' time taught.
From what you complain about, 90% of the Christian faith gets it wrong too. Frankly, you are using the Jewish scriptures, and telling the people whose tradition it has for a lot longer than Christian fundamentalism has existed that they are misinterpreting their own religion. After all, the Jewish scriptures are not good enough for you Christians. You call our stuff
OLD , and your stuff
NEW . Yet, you go ahead and interpret MY book, the book of the Jewish people. And frankly , you interpret it wrong. It's not your fault, because it's not your book. You don't hear Rabbi's interpreting the New testament, now DO you? (acknowledgment to Lewis Black)
I'll say it again: I'm all in favor of science, real science, the kind you can test, that gives us great technology and all that, I'm objecting to science that is purely speculative, which the old earth sciences are no matter how much screaming you all do about how theory is really fact, , I'm certainly for serious study, I'm not for making it up as you go and calling it fact, and I'm all for evidence which really only exists for real science, and in the sciences of the past the actual evidence actually supports a young earth and the flood just as well or better than it supports the establishment viewpoint. If you'd all get your bias blinders off and just THINK you might see that.
That's the thing, now isn't it. In astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography, and cosmology, it CAN and HAS been tested. It IS in serious study. You just have blinders on, and refuse to learn anything that contradicts your misinterpretation of the bible.
There might be a 'True Christianity' out there, but frankly, you don't follow it. You are following a distorted version that developed in the mid 1800's in the southern US with the rise of the Millerites.. That's not 'True Christianity'. It lost what is important.
I am reminded of Galileo's quote about God and intelligence
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.
I wish that the fundamentalist Christian would understand it too. The denial of evidence, the refusing to even LOOK at the evidence, and the distortion of the evidence to try to fit into their preconceptions is forgoing the use of reason and intellect.
Understanding how the world works, and understanding that yes, indeed, the world is billions of years old, that evolution does happen, that evidence does show that at one point about 13.7 billion years ago, our universe expanded from a single point does not mean you have to give up your faith.. your belief in God, your belief in Jesus and salvation. Hundreds of millions of Christians have that, without giving up their use of reason, and common sense. Many of these people have deep and abiding faith that lead them do to GOOD in this world. They still don't reject the conclusions of science, and evidence.
I find it odd that there are people so out there that think God is so small and petty he would send people to hell over a wrong belief in science, yet is so big and fantastic he created the universe. That sounds very anthropomorphic to me.
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