River Jordan said:
So when I point out inconsistencies I'm being "condescending".....what do we call it when you do it?
Well if that is what you actually did and left the attitude out, you'd probably get better responses but as it's not what you do, you reap what you sow. I don't purport to be a saint.
River Jordan said:
And by studying His creation we find that His eternal power includes creating populations that evolve.
Let's just be clear that evolving and evolution are not the same thing. The God-given ability for people, animals and plants to adapt, is not quite the same thing either. There are plenty of examples in nature itself of organisms that have always been the same and have never undergone any type of evolution. I could name a ton, but that's not what this thread is about, despite your efforts to try to make it so.
River Jordan said:
Are bacteria and viruses part of His creation?
Indeed and we know all we need to know, in that he created them. I keep telling you the Bible is not a science book, but it is a historical account of how mankind came to be on this planet including its creator. It is also a biography of all those that came before us and a depiction of how God works with his people. It runs the gamut of Old Testament and New Testament. But it was finished over two thousand years ago and since that time mankind has learned a lot. The fact is that mankind would have learned a lot more had God not kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden. I don't live in a world of what if.
River Jordan said:
The point is, in a discussion about the idea of learning more about God by studying His creation, you tried to shoot the idea down by saying "His word tells us all we need to know about his creation". That raises an obvious issue, i.e., that things like bacteria and viruses are part of His creation but aren't mentioned in His word, which implies that you are basically arguing that we had no business learning about those things. IOW, if the Bible tells us everything we need to know about His creation and bacteria and viruses aren't mentioned in the Bible, then the existence and nature of bacteria and viruses are in the category of "things we don't need to know".
Many things are not mentioned in the Bible and again as I said they weren't meant to be. God gave mankind intelligence for a reason, then he left us to our own devices for a reason that did not preclude us continuing to walk in faith with him it just precluded that he didn't have to teach us much. Sadly man has made many bad decisions over the Millennia in terms of whether or not to walk with God and in terms of whether or not to believe what his written word tells us. The point of this thread is to learn more about God through his creation not deviate from it.
Learning more about God through his creation will never teach us things that the word of God doesn't about God. Learning things through our own intelligence and understanding apart from the word of God will indeed lead mankind away from God as it always has. Your rationale here was faulty and predictably so as you structure it to support your own point of view. Fortunately most of us are not swayed but your type of logic. In contacts my comments are quite reasonable and on topic where is you continue to try to take this thread off topic.
River Jordan said:
Yes, yes....we all know that anyone who reads scripture differently than StanJ simply "doesn't believe what the Bible says", because StanJ is the absolute and infallible arbiter of the proper way to read scripture.
Well if you really believe that then you wouldn't be here arguing the contrary. Facetious comments like this don't really score points with anybody and just show your inability to express yourself in an acceptable fashion. How long have you been a Christian RJ and how long have you studied the Bible? Now on the opposite side of that, how much studying have you done about Evolution and how long have you done it? Do you have a degree? I think your answers will tell us a great deal about where your priorities are.