[/quote]One thing I should mention. It is possible to believe in God and ALSO believe in evolution. Some christians believe you cannot believe in evolution if you believe in God.
In my honest opinion, The story of Adam and Eve is actually a parabol. I believe we did evolve from a monkey based species. Adam and Eve couldn't of been the first people on the planet, or else there would of been a LOT of incest going on.
I would dearly love to know what parts of the bible are factual and which are stories to help understand various concepts that God wants us to know.
I will not shove my beliefs down anyone's throat, but I pray everyone will respect other's opinion, as long as they don't bash others for thinking differently.
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Greetings,
The bible teaches that Evolution is not how things came about. And evolution points to the fact that God can not make a universe or man at some fully realized state. Say, Adam at 30 years old on his first day alive. Evolution states that God is not powerful enough to do this, that Adam had to have come from another life form, etc. So, one can not be a Child of God and believe in Evolution.
Adam and Eve is a parrable in one way. Scripture was breathed from God, Jesus is also the Word, and the Word was from the beginning and was God. Jesus only spoke in parrables. So scripture can easily be looked at as a parrable. Except that it does not always meet the expectation of a 'usually short ficticous story'. The Mustard seed is a parable. Genesis does not fit the Usual part.
There was a lot of incest going on. For a very long time. God did not discontinue it for a while, at which time it then became a moral issue/sin. Why can you not believe that Adam and Eve were the first two, but you are able to believe that man originates from a Monkey? Not to mention that the monkey or what ever came from some other land forms, that came from sea creatures, that came from sea forms, that....
The bibles only purpose is to teach salvation. What parts are literal and what are not is not the main challenge. Every story, every sentance, every word is about Salvation. It also teaches along side Salvation historical information and parables . But the teaching is of Salvation.
A true Child of God may share improperly sometimes and even often. But that is not how it is to be done. They are just sinning and not being a good whitness for Christ. That could be me or anyone else at any given time. I will say that sometimes it is very sad to see that too many people in this country do not believe in God any more. But worse than that, they will call out a Christians failings and have more animosity towards Christians than they will towards Mohammadans that are killing, torturing, blowing things up, and just being a source of evil and chaos.
Christians are far from perfect. Just like most people. But they do not plan the take over of countries, the murder and torture of none Christians, etc. However, if you look at how Christians are treated in China, too many Islamic states in Africa and the ME, Indonisia, etc. you will see a much different picture. Go to Voice of the Martyers web site and you will see stories of Hindis that kill Christians, burn down their houses while they are still in there, attack churches during services, beat up leaders and followers, etc. And that might just be the police! How anyone could follow a religion where the girls are thrown back into the burning school because not all of the boys have come out yet, is beyond me. But that is how Mohammadans treat their Own!
Some horrible things have been done in the name of Christianity. Abortion clinic bombings, murder of abortion Drs., and other things. But looking at the last couple hundred years you will see that Christianity is not affraid to move into the next century. Too many other religions are still in the 14th century because that is how the Men stay in power and that is how those with power stay in power, which is the men. A cast system in India, Shira laws in Islamic nations, ancestral worship in asian countries. And the most powerful country in the world a predominantly Christian one, even now. And it is buckeling at its knees as it slides towards immorality, worship of other gods, and feels guilty for its success.
It is also being led by Hollywood and its actors more and more each year. Actors that live a life that we can not even immagine and we live one that they can not relate to At All. They asked NBA stars what they think the average US wage was. Thier answers averaged to $100k per year. How out of touch with reality is that? And many came from the streets.
Hollywood rarely comes from the streets. Jane Fonda going to Vietnam? Man, what a disgrace. Sean Penn going to Iran and hearing all thier sweet stories? Never mind that they lied for 20 years or so about Not have a Nuclear program. Then we found out they were lieing, and now they don't know why we don't trust them? 4 fiths of the ME does not trust Iran. They are an oil rich country that says they are spending billions of dollars to develop peacefull nuclear energy? Though they lied once and they are wasting their money as they have enough oil to power thier country a million times over? Why would they need or want nuclear?
Christians do not all ways make the best whitness. But why does Hollywood, the college campus, the teachers, and those that know so little about what Christianity is about ridicule and attack it day after day after day after day. Jefferson said he would not see a Federal Govt that would subsidise a state religion. He did not say that govt and church are to be separate. Far from it and the opposite of it. But what is the predominant view? Even from many Christians? That there constituionaly is to be a separation of church and state.
The witch trials are over. Those ignorant Christians no longer walk this countries land in any but a hugely insignificant number and no one would allow that to come to bear again. But, we have those ultra CA liberals leading the charge to eradicate Christianity from this country. To make Homosexuality a good and public thing yet to force Christianity into the church and the home and to never be seen from again any where else. I think if we truely add up where we are in this time and are honest with our selves we can only come to the conclusion that as our Christian beliefs are beat down and taught over and replaced with other prideful and empty ideas that we can only see a continueing degrading of society. Look at the Off Topic Forum and this is a pretty clean one. But look at how many people have no problem posting and bringing up topics that harm the human mind, talk in a way they would not if someone were holding them accountable other than themselves, post in a way that they could not if morals and ethics were at the top of thier list.
Freedom is great. But it comes with responsibilities. How many here have illegal software, movies, music, etc. on thier PC's. I would hate to see the %. Maybe 70%+?
On the side-
The copyright law was not set up to ensure ownership to the creater for the rest of their lives. It is in fact the opposite. Copyrights give an entitlement to the creators because what they create is actually considered to be owned by society to a greater degree.
Free speach is not about saying what you want any time any where. It is about having the right of the press to be a watch dog on the feds to protect and be another check and balance in the name of the people. It is not about providing so that one can walk around just saying the F-bomb loudly in public all day. That is not what free speach was designed for. We let it go to a certain degree so that we don't curb the press. But it does not come with out morals and ethics. Just like every other right.
To those of you that made it this far in my rant I salute you and you may now fall asleep, wake back up and go to bed, rest your eyes, etc.
Peace and Blessings