The point being that evolutionary theory and creationist theory does not contradict in this area.

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lambaste me not

have it your way then, a trout beaches itself and instead of dying it spawns a new species due to its "changed attitude"...

Do they have to listen to motivational tapes to do this? How do they pull it off?

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"You sound like a gen-x coffee house dick" - From the outtakes to Office Space

Part of the definition of literal is “avoiding exaggeration, metaphor or embellishment”. The simple fact that instead of saying “The Hebrews crossed the Red Sea”, it says that the sea parted to let them pass makes it not literal. I can’t believe that the people who wrote it down didn’t understand that. (Come to think of it, maybe they understood it well enough to know that the average “grunt” would believe it.)

I remember being taught that the Torah, and by extension the Bible, should be looked at like Epic poetry. Embellished, allegorical, and not literal.

This is all an academic debate, but I just don’t understand how people can take the bible literally, but not every other book ever written. What the difference between the Bible and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, if the only difference between what’s literal and what’s not is the author’s syntax? Maybe that’s all true too and we just don’t understand Tolkien’s syntax.

"However, I fail to see how childhood cancer disproves the existence of a creator. '

explanations such as "God needs more angels" etc, are themselves childish - "free will" doesn't explain it either because there was no "will" to begin with.

Actually, that's matter of opinion. This link, for example, directly refutes Ms. Hunt's assertions...
http://www.thedarwinpapers.com/oldsi...r6/number6.htm

[quote="audrasun";p="101165"]Good point...

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"You sound like a gen-x coffee house dick" - From the outtakes to Office Space

Sorry. I'm not following you at all. How exactly does childhood cancer disprove the existence of a creator? What does "free will" have to do the topic?

"These scientists who don't believe something until they have it proven to them, correct me if I'm wrong about one thing, they don't know and haven't had it proven to them that the bacteria on Earth came from a meteor have they? Didn't think so. "

Actually they DO know that... they have found the crater and located the bacteria in a meteorite fragment... but keep on trying to "poke" the theory....


And, yet again, a trout is a fish...

And Audrasun... you and I are agreeing in different terms...

"I remember being taught that the Torah, and by extension the Bible, should be looked at like Epic poetry. Embellished, allegorical, and not literal. "

Exactly! BUT... the Epic poetry was trying to tell you the story of what happened.... It was a literal event that has become a "tall tale" in the telling....

Try "Eaters of the Dead".. it is a work of fiction of course but it helps illustrates how Beowulf could have very well been a real person that had his story turned into a Legend....

"This is all an academic debate, but I just don’t understand how people can take the bible literally, but not every other book ever written. What the difference between the Bible and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, if the only difference between what’s literal and what’s not is the author’s syntax? Maybe that’s all true too and we just don’t understand Tolkien’s syntax."

True.. and it really is a moot point as well... What I am trying to articulate here is that I also do not see how people can view the bible, or the torah, or the koran as LITERAL.... What I am trying to say is that those works have a historical basis and should be viewed as such.... Simply put, a person has to look past the stories of dieties and read between the lines....

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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

So it is the why do bad things happen to good people refute. Maybe children get cancer becuase man kind is cursed by the actions of Adam and Eve, that man was kicked out of paradise and with that curse comes pain.

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lambaste me not

SO THEY FOUND A CRATER! Dude, any crater on Earth is going to have bacteria in it. That doesn't prove it is "alien bacteria" and that the bacteria started life on Earth. And, to state the obvious, there is no scientific consensus about there being life anywhere else.


What exactly is it then that you believe decided to leave the ocean and become human? Please tell us.

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"You sound like a gen-x coffee house dick" - From the outtakes to Office Space