"To me it’s equivalent to thinking Beowulf is literal"

Ah but that is the crux of this discussion... Beowulf IS literal as is the Torah.... unfortunately we have no frame of reference to understand the imagery in the writing....

For instance....

The King James version of the bible mentions the word "heaven" hundreds of times... however heaven does not mean a "celestial reward" in King James english...

It means outer space...


With a frame of reference it is easy to see that most of the works we do not take literally were, at the time of their creation, meant to represent truth.... we just dont understand the syntax.

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I was banned from godlike productions(over 400 times)... and loved it.

"I haven't made you angry, have I?" -Malcolm Reynolds

I don't think so. Natural selection is sometimes 'survival of the fittest'. How does this prove that we came from apes? Biologists may agree in some form of evolution, but they do not agree that we descended from apes. For instance, the Neanderthals died. All of them. No descendants there.

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Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens. It's a dumb question... skip it.

Actually, Biologists are almost 100% in agreement that humans and apes both descended from a common ancestor. That's not exactly the same as being descended from apes, which is the usual line. And they all also agree that Neanderthals are a separate evolutionary line, so of course there are no descendants there. There were several other separate lines, as well. They find unrelated humanoid remains all the time.

BTW: I know some Jews believe in a literal OT, but they are few in number. Standard Jewish theology does not.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

"I don't think so. Natural selection is sometimes 'survival of the fittest'. How does this prove that we came from apes? Biologists may agree in some form of evolution, but they do not agree that we descended from apes. For instance, the Neanderthals died. All of them. No descendants there. "

They are nothing more than a dead branch in the tree of humanity....



Yes, I believe in the THEORY of evolution.... I believe that tree dwelling simians forced a segement of their population out of the trees and those ex-patriot tree dwellers had to adapt to living on the plains.... Hence the upright stance.... Hence the EVOLUTION of buttocks(for balance when running)

But those simians spread out and adapted over the course of time to the various and sundry climates they settled.... leading to many different "phases" of development...

That is just a SLIVER of information about evolution... It makes perfect sense to me and I assume many others...

Kindly explain a SLIVER of how a diety could have CREATED life... also explain fossil remains of dinosaurs, the discrepancy between biblical time and our verifible carbon tested timeline... Explain where Cain and Abel got their multiple wives... Locate the Garden of Eden...

I await....

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I was banned from godlike productions(over 400 times)... and loved it.

"I haven't made you angry, have I?" -Malcolm Reynolds

Again, we did not descend from apes. Both humans and apes descended from a common apelike ancestor. But whatever. Natural selection is not really "survival of the fittest". It's the process by which some genes are selected for in the environment. It's not really the same thing. Natural selection is the process by which evolution takes place.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

If imagery is used, then it’s not literal. For example, what “syntax” would make you believe that Noah got two of every creature on earth onto one boat? These stories are just that – stories. The point is to learn something, not to take it at face value.

Or, any lawyer will tell you that courtroom dramas are stylized version of the truth. So while there are some remnants of truth it’s not a literal representation of the system.

But some people here in Dixie think Noah really did get two of every animal on a boat (Penguins and rare insects alike), fed them for 40 days and nights and then sent them all back to where they came from when things dried up. Completely absurd? Of course it is. But hey, whatever floats your ark.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

why do they have to be exclusive?

it's either one of the other (and only one has any evidence). If you don't, you are 100% correct. You could indeed have both.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

How could an omniscient, omnipotent diety create life? Sin, I'm ashamed of you. Isn't it a stretch to believe that we happened by chance?

There used to be dinosaurs.

They once found a skeleton in a cave and carbon tested it to be gazillion years old. It made big news though I can't think of the name they gave this particular missing link. Later, not so big news. The skeleton was found to be that of a man who had died forty years earlier and had arthritis which deformed some of his bones. Carbon testing is not the masterpiece of science it's made out to be. They can test one end of a log and get drastically different results than the other end of the same log.

I'm too lazy for this one.

It has been "found" many times, but why is this important? How could anyone prove that they found the real one? Does the ark on Mt. Ararat do anything for you?

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Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens. It's a dumb question... skip it.