Creation vs. Evolution

[Thalassamania]

My, my, my... aren't we a little high on our horse this morning? While I don't doubt the preciousness of your time, or your lordship over its use, I do think you've chosen a rather unfortunate wording for that sentiment.
Rick

Perhaps the wording is unforunate, but I must admit I share Soggy's emotion and had to add adza to my ignore list before I wrote something similar. Try and have some sympathy and show some of that famous Christian charity.

 

[Soggy]

My, my, my... aren't we a little high on our horse this morning? While I don't doubt the preciousness of your time, or your lordship over its use, I do think you've chosen a rather unfortunate wording for that sentiment.
Rick

Not high on any horse. Adza is beyond reason. Anyone can believe what they want to believe, but the nature of his particular belief (evolution is not a science) is simply ignorance that he is unwilling to correct. I originally thought he was a rational person with some bad information. Now I know that is not correct and I no longer wish to waste my time on him. Thas and Andy are welcome to continue, but my forehead is too bruised and now has QWERTY written backwards on it.

 

[Hank49]

Interesting question that has nothing to do with the issues at hand.

I misunderstood your post then. Sorry.

 

[Thalassamania]

I misunderstood your post then. Sorry.

That's OK, I do that to myself all the time.<G>

 

[Rick Murchison]

Try and have some sympathy and show some of that famous Christian charity.

Yesss, yes, I am... it cuts both ways you know - keeping the conversation above questioning one's "worthiness" is my objective here.
---
For those of us who really do believe in the omnipotence of God, we realize that one possibility is that creation is *now* - with all in place for our research and wonder and enjoyment.
That doesn't mean we're not curious about the nature of things, or that we don't believe in research and science and discovery and the formulation of theory to explain what we believe to be the truth. It does mean (to me at least) that the old conundrum of "the higher we climb, the more we see, the more we see, the less we know, the less we know, the higher we climb" is one of those ultimate truths for us as humans... that the relentless pursuit of knowledge is going to forever uncover new questions to keep us busy for our brief flash of life in the cosmos. And the hope of transcending - and seeing clearly - time and space and matter and energy and gravity in the spiritual world beyond is not just comfort, but more exciting than words can express.
Rick

 

[Kim]

I wonder if it would have been any different if Apollonius of Tyana had got the publicity instead of Jesus?

 

[H2Andy]

I wonder if it would have been any different if Apollonius of Tyana had got the publicity instead of Jesus?

actually, all Apollonius needed was Saul of Tarsus, better known as St. Paul

the success of Christianity (as opposed to the Jesus Movement) rests completely on Paul's shoulders, his doctrine, his teachings, and his interpretation of Jesus

there were competing images of Jesus, but they did not survive Paul's powerful interpretation

 

[Kim]

actually, all Apollonius needed was Saul of Tarsus, better known as St. Paul

the success of Christianity (as opposed to the Jesus Movement) rests completely on Paul's shoulders, his doctrine, his teachings, and his interpretation of Jesus

there were competing images of Jesus, but they did not survive Paul's powerful interpretation

So Paul was sort of the spin doctor as you see it?

Publicity is a wonderful thing.....

 

[adurso]

Are you telling ardurso that he needs to learn our language?

You are slaughtering me!

I think andy is confusing me with the adza person. My natal tongue was gibberish though, so one never knows.......

 

[H2Andy]

So Paul was sort of the spin doctor as you see it?

welll.... no, i wouldn't go that far. i believe he was completely sincere.

however, it was his image of Jesus and his understanding of the Jesus message (whether right or wrong) that got accepted as "orthodoxy"

he was just a very well educated man who understood both the Jewish and the Gentile worlds, and was able to transform a Jewish sect into a "civilized" (i.e. Greco-Roman) ideology, accepted by the middle and then the upper classes of the Roman Empire (that's what guaranteed Christianity's success)

by 325 A.D. Constantine not so much adopted Christianity as the Empire's official religion as much as he recognized that it already WAS the official religion of the middle and upper classes