Why read the Bible literally: take two

Don't introduce it yet. There's a project I'd like to work on a bit first.

Very well. The YEC literature I think I saw shyly suggested 8 children per family in their argument.It’s interesting to me that you noted cat DNA as also devolving and correlating somewhat to that of human beings.(Edited for grammar and typos)This message has been edited by Philip, 07-01-2005 05:02 PM

Doesn't that seem awfully paltry for so many years and such strength of body? I don't get why Noah only had three sons in his 900 years myself. Cats and other animals get cancer and all kinds of diseases, but those things are the result of sin and yet we don't think of animals as capable of sin, so it seems to me it must be explained in terms of the creation's having been cursed for our sake somehow.

I think you should probably look closely at how historically the TOE "took hold".

Maybe Noah's wife had something to do with that!

"For whatever reason" doesn't mean I don't know the reason, it just means the reason is not relevant to the point.

Not only does Charles have a chance, he has a better chance than 99.999999999% of all Christians. And a heaven without the CK and Froggie would be a far diminished shadow of perfection.But back towards the topic.How does a figurative GOE and Adam and Steve diminish the Christian message? Does anyone actually believe the description of creation as found in Genesis 2? "Hey Adam, try the sheep on for size.""Well, GOD, at least they don't scratch like that Bengal Tiger but somehow it still doesn't feel right. And she's great at mowing the grass but I can't get her to fix dinner or darn my socks."Can anyone believe GOD created elephants and dinosaurs and Lions and Tigers and Bears and OhMys as a help meet?What a dork!

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Perhaps Noah's wife had additional "unmentioned" children within the 300 years Noah survived after the flood. But it seems to me to violate scriptural parsimony:Gen 9:19 states: "These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread."Also, Abram's wife (though commended (sexy) unto Egypt's Pharaoh and princes) produced a 'miracle' child (Isaac) beyond her apparent conceiving years.Nonetheless the chronology seems expedited in Gen 11 to "push" the coming in of Abram.

Sounds exhaustive to me. Not sure what you mean here, but again I have trouble grasping how they had so FEW children, and Sarah's inability to conceive, considering their health and longevity.This message has been edited by Faith, 07-01-2005 06:04 PMThis message has been edited by Faith, 07-01-2005 06:06 PM

I was merely speculating that Gen 11 scripture might perhaps hit on chronological highlights in order to usher in the relatively important scriptures concerning Abraham and his dispensation. Matthew’s gospel highlights 3x14 generations of chronology (from Abraham, Davidic Kings, and Jewish captivity) that seems (to me) to majestically usher ‘JESUS’ in as the seed-royal King and Savior.Pertinent and varying generations are stressedSome women, like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Hannah (etc.) seemed to be predestined by God to have just one man-child or 2, for various key scriptural reasons no doubt.But, I concur that the pre-patriarchs were multiplying the face of the earth (Adam, Seth, through Methuselah and Lamech) and their wives had many sons and daughters, according to scriptures:
1) Gen 5-6 states each begat sons and daughters about 9-10 times (before the flood-judgment)
2) Gen 6:1-2 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.It seems perhaps that nothing at all hindered childbearing back then. That is, I perceive families might have been consistently large for these 9 generations.

Yes, so we seem to agree on these things. Do you have an argument in support of reading Genesis 1-11 literally or Jonah? I've given two, basically the argument from many authorities starting with Jesus, and the argument that a literal reading is necessary to the overall consistency of the Biblical message. Are there others?

The Hebrew word for "day" can also be used to mean "age". Thus, In the age that you eat of it, you will die. Prior to the "Fall, there was an age of innocence. After the Fall, the Age of conscience was born. Later, Jesus broke it all down to two commandments. 1) Love God
2) Love your neighbor. By doing these two things, many less people would die in the age that we live in.
America was not deemed to be wealthy in order to be selfish. If we had spent 80 billion dollars (twice) on humanitarian world needs rather than Iraq, we would be in a safer place.

The basic idea about Heaven is that God Himself is the focus of attention and adoration rather than that hott angel with the little curve. Sex will be transcended in Heaven as everyone will be in such a state as to be feeling good enough without it. Additionally, it will serve no needed function. does that make any sense, Charles? Of course we are speaking hypothetically since neither of us has as yet been to heaven.

Hi Faith (et al),
Just sticking my nose in to mention Sceaf, supposedly Noah's fourth son: According to the Qur'an, he was born before the flood and refused to go onboard; whilst in Norse/Saxon folklore he was born onboard and various nobles have claimed descent from him.I stubled accross this factoid by chance, so if anyone wants to follow it up you're on your own...

So according to the Quran he just died in the Flood, or if not, how did he survive it? Did they tie him up and carry him on board, or did he get translated to paradise to wait out the Flood with 72 virgins or what?