| [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Thread Index] | [Date Prev] | [Date Next] | [Date Index] |
|
Dear Paleonetters,
I have been thinking about what has happened since
my first letter of 12th of January. It seems to me that I have just about
started a wildfire of words and meanings. I think if I try to answer everything
I will soon be in hot water.
I started out trying to say that the
creation/evolution problem was caused by confusion resulting from
misunderstanding of words. I think to understand what anybody is really saying
we have to know what that person means by the words he is using.
I think some of my readers have disregarded my
definitions of some of the words I used which makes it impossible for you to
understand what I am really saying.
I said that as I understand it the God of the Bible
is truth and I defined truth as the laws of nature plus space and time. Taking
this into consideration it seems to me that the existence of God and that 'He'
is the creator is indisputable. As I understand it scientists devote their lives
to searching out and using this truth. I think some people have become biased
against some concepts and would like to throw out things like God and belief and
faith but I don't think we can do that without loosing more than we gain. What I
think we need to do is understand them and get them in their proper places and
order in our minds.
The use of masculine pronouns in referring to God
as I see it is not because He is a sexual being but because of the imagery of
the Bible which pictures men as images of God and women as images of
God's church. This is a spiritual relationship and results in 'concepts'
developing in the mind. I see the Bible as a book full of illustrations
of truth not as a history book. Teachers and preachers today use both history
and fiction to express what they are on about so it doesn't bother me if the
stories of Adam and Eve are fictional. The four rivers that went out of the
Garden of Eden are many miles apart where is the evidence that they were ever
connected together? I suppose that these rivers were chosen for their symbolic
significance of which I am totally ignorant at this stage and that that is the
only connection they ever had. I think we should have sense enough to realize
this and not try to make out that everything in the Bible is literal history. If
you don't believe there is fiction in the Bible just look up what a cockatrice
is! Seeing the Bible this way seems to me to remove all the problems without
giving up anything of practical value.
Note for Sandy-- I say you shouldn't regard the
Bible as absolute truth. In the last column I wrote for our Church
program sheet I said 'words are not truth, even Bible words are not truth they
are merely symbols that represent truth'. As I see it truth is an
abstract thing that existed before there were men to invent words I think truth
never changes. You may be aware of the principle of uniformitarianism on which I
believe paleontology depends. As I see it the truth that the Bible represents is
the principles that we are supposed to derive from the stories in it. I think
the Lord and His disciples later have given us many examples of this.You might
like to consider this in your search.
I think allegory would have been a vital part
of education before writing was invented. Some may not like to think that
organized education existed before writing but it seems to me that because it is
so important now it must have played a big part in the evolution of our bigger
brains. I am not pretending to be able to prove any of this. It just seems
logical to me and I submit it in the hope that it will be of interest to
someone.
Peter
|
Partial index: