by cjwilhelmi on Sat Dec 09, 2006 2:11 pm
And we're back to religion (I love how this thread jumps)...
WARNING:: JP Style Long Post Ahead
As most of you know my undergrad (Harding U) is a very conservative Christian school and as most of you know my opinions vary a lot from their thoughts and beliefs (not a surprise to you Harding guys reading this). However, I do have a minor in Biblical Theology, so here is an explanation. I will be speaking as if God is a true supreme being, I know that we have individuals on this board with all sorts of religious or nonreligious backgrounds so just please be patient.
The Biblical account of creation states that God created the Heavens and the Earth on the first day. It does not just say that he created only the Earth on the first day, but that he created all. Now there is a lot of discussion among Christian fundamentalists and those who are more liberal with what a Day truly means. There wasn't an anctient historian there counting the seconds or hours and saying "oh there is 24, must be a day". Actually if I remember right, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuturonomy were all written by Moses, hundreds of years after the fact. Could it be that God just gave him the Cliff Notes version of creation? Then there is the issue that at that point in human history, history was passed down orally, not in written form. I digress... Back to Water on Mars...
The far Christian right believe that the days are literal, that the dinasours were created on Day 5 and Humans the day after. Actually if you look at the Biblical account, God created man and woman on Day 6, along with all the animals, the water based creatures were created on Day 5. It is however, confusing when looking at the Biblical account because Moses writes about the creation of Adam and Eve after the 7th rest day.
If you actually talk to a lot of Christians, especially those with a more open mind, they wont dispute the fact that the Earth is probably millions of years old and that dinosaurs existed a long time before man. There is an interesting paradox in the creation account that they will bring up. How do we talk aout a day? We define a day as light and dark. The first day light and dark were created, however the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day. So how could there be light and dark on the first day to define that it was a true 24 hour day? Some people say that it is God created good and evil and separating them, wait wait thats a long discussion for another time...
There is nothing wrong Biblically with God creating science. Science would hold that if certain chemicals get together that water could form on Mars, or that bacteria (early life) could possibly form. Christians, probably 95% of them, would agree that none of the living forms besides humans have a soul, and are therefore not the children of God and gaining access to Heaven. Where you would find a lot of Christians fighting life on Mars, come on thats where this water thing is going anyway, is that it was simple life and not another Human race. If you look at Evolution, there is a chance scientifically for humans to exist, that is the basis of Evolutionary theory. However, the odds are so miniscule that for them to happen once is just absurd but to happen again on another planet the odds are so small that there is virtually (I won't say absolutely) no chance of them happening. Now is there bacterial or some other single cell organism on another planet? Most Christians would say that that is a pretty good probability. Is there other intelligent life out there? Most Christians would say absolutely not.
So back to water on Mars and the possibility of life and the effect of this on religion. You will not see a mass exidous from religion just for water being found on another planet. Water is one of the many prerequisites for life but does not mean life itself. Relgious groups, at least those that base theirs off the first five books of the Bible, have nothing to worry about and you won't see many people leaving.
So what do I personally believe on the topic? I personally believe that evolution did probably exist at some level. I do not believe in the literal 7 days of creation, but rather that dinosaurs ruled for millions of years before something happened. We don't know for a fact what happened millions of years ago, what we do have is scientific speculation - some of it with some real good compelling arguments. It could also be the hand of God allowing things to happen within his perfect plan (a more liberal Christian position).
Now I am not saying that Christianity is the absolute right way or that they have it all together. I am personally a morally decent observer of human life. Do I claim one religious denomination or another? No. Call it my indifference from being at a conservative college and working for a conservative high school for a year afterwards.
So there in a nutshell is a very quick and coarse description of how Christians view creationism and the water on Mars, now back to your regularly scheduled discussion on boobs....
