Steven Hawking

dam1953 · 11-01-2014, 02:04 PM

I'm a Catholic, biologist with numerous grad-level courses in speciation, evolution, paleobiology, etc. My under-grad major professor, who taught evolution, used to invite priests and ministers to class to "debate" the issue of evolution. The Catholic priests were no fun because the Church had basically signed off on evolution, even back then in the 1970's. The fundamentalists told us that fossils were buried in the ground by the devil to confuse man and if we believed in evolution we were all going to hell.

One of my sister-in-laws married a member of the Church of Christ. We used to have fun debating the issue of creation, but finally we had to declare a truce since neither of us were going to change our position.

I always got/get a kick out of fundamentalists who are willing to "interpret" some passages of the Old Testament, but insist on reading others (Creation) literally. I guess they are just more comfortable with having criminals in the blood line a few generations back (don't we all) than having monkeys in the blood line a million years ago. Go figure.

My point when debating my brother-in-law was that you have to remember that the Old Testament was written over 2000 year ago for a people who had absolutely no understanding of any of the sciences. A good author always keeps the "grade level" of the reader in mind. Taking this into consideration, it is really amazing how close some of the "principals" of the story of Creation come to current theories of astronomy and evolution.

stickman · 11-05-2014, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by dam1953

My point when debating my brother-in-law was that you have to remember that the Old Testament was written over 2000 year ago for a people who had absolutely no understanding of any of the sciences. A good author always keeps the "grade level" of the reader in mind. Taking this into consideration, it is really amazing how close some of the "principals" of the story of Creation come to current theories of astronomy and evolution.

Not only written 2000 years ago, but, definitely not written in English. None of us have any idea what was lost in the translation.

11-01-2014, 02:04 PM	#1
dam1953 1000 Posts + Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 4,645	Re: Steven Hawking I'm a Catholic, biologist with numerous grad-level courses in speciation, evolution, paleobiology, etc. My under-grad major professor, who taught evolution, used to invite priests and ministers to class to "debate" the issue of evolution. The Catholic priests were no fun because the Church had basically signed off on evolution, even back then in the 1970's. The fundamentalists told us that fossils were buried in the ground by the devil to confuse man and if we believed in evolution we were all going to hell. One of my sister-in-laws married a member of the Church of Christ. We used to have fun debating the issue of creation, but finally we had to declare a truce since neither of us were going to change our position. I always got/get a kick out of fundamentalists who are willing to "interpret" some passages of the Old Testament, but insist on reading others (Creation) literally. I guess they are just more comfortable with having criminals in the blood line a few generations back (don't we all) than having monkeys in the blood line a million years ago. Go figure. My point when debating my brother-in-law was that you have to remember that the Old Testament was written over 2000 year ago for a people who had absolutely no understanding of any of the sciences. A good author always keeps the "grade level" of the reader in mind. Taking this into consideration, it is really amazing how close some of the "principals" of the story of Creation come to current theories of astronomy and evolution. Danno likes this.
	”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

11-05-2014, 02:38 PM	#2
stickman 1000 Posts + Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Gonzales, LA Posts: 1,795	Re: Steven Hawking Originally Posted by dam1953 My point when debating my brother-in-law was that you have to remember that the Old Testament was written over 2000 year ago for a people who had absolutely no understanding of any of the sciences. A good author always keeps the "grade level" of the reader in mind. Taking this into consideration, it is really amazing how close some of the "principals" of the story of Creation come to current theories of astronomy and evolution. Not only written 2000 years ago, but, definitely not written in English. None of us have any idea what was lost in the translation. dam1953 likes this.