Sunday, July 20, 2008

Answering Bible Contradictions: Part 3

Odd genetic engineering
GEN 30:39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

There is nowhere in scripture whether the use of the rods was commanded by God or if it was Jacob's own idea.The key to the flocks coming forth ringstraked, speckled, and grisled was not the rods placed before the cattle, but the fact that "...God hath taken away the cattle..." of Laban and given them to Jacob. Whether God told Jacob to place the rods before the cattle or not doesn't matter. If he was commanded to do so, it was his obedience to God's word that brought forth his prosperity. If God tells you to do something, do it. Don't ask questions, just do it!

The shape of the earth
ISA 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

MAT 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; Astromical bodies are spherical, and you cannot see the entire exterior surface from anyplace. The kingdoms of Egypt, China, Greece, Crete, sections of Asia Minor, India, Maya (in Mexico), Carthage (North Africa), Rome (Italy), Korea, and other settlements from these kingdoms of the world were widely distributed.

Refers to Satan showing the kingdoms of the world to Jesus spiritually. Satan is beyond the realm of men. He wasn't literally showing all the kingdoms to Jesus physically. What's your point here?

Snakes, while built low, do not eat dirt
GEN 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Snakes do indeed eat dust. Have you considered that there is an organ in the roof of a snake’s mouth called 'Jacobson's organ'? This helps the snake to smell in addition to its nose. Its darting, forked tongue samples bits of dust by picking them up on the points of the fork, which it then presents to its matching pair of sensory organs inside its mouth. Once it has 'smelt' them in this way, the tongue must be cleaned so the process can be repeated immediately.

Earth supported?
JOB 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
JOB 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Heaven supported too
JOB 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.

Metaphores.

The hydrological cycle
ECC 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
JOB 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, Storehouses are not part of the cycle

More metaphores. God has power over everything. What's your point?

Order of creation
Here is the order in the first (Genesis 1), the Priestly tradition:

Day 1: Sky, Earth, light
Day 2: Water, both in ocean basins and above the sky(!)
Day 3: Plants
Day 4: Sun, Moon, stars (as calendrical and navigational aids)
Day 5: Sea monsters (whales), fish, birds, land animals, creepy-crawlies (reptiles, insects, etc.)
Day 6: Humans (apparently both sexes at the same time)
Day 7: Nothing (the Gods took the first day off anyone ever did)
Note that there are "days", "evenings", and "mornings" before the Sun was created. Here, the Deity is referred to as "Elohim", which is a plural, thus the literal translation, "the Gods". In this tale, the Gods seem satisfied with what they have done, saying after each step that "it was good".
The second one (Genesis 2), the Yahwist tradition, goes:
Earth and heavens (misty)
Adam, the first man (on a desolate Earth)
Plants
Animals
Eve, the first woman (from Adam's rib)

1. Yes, God created the sky, Earth, and light on the first day.

2. You seem confused about how there was water in the sky. Let's talk about that a bit.

First, let's quote Genesis 1:6-8:
"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

From this description you can easily conclude that the firmament consisted of two layers of water that were separated from each other with a firmament centered inside, enclosing the globe.

Some people would say, "No, no. There were two layers. Were you aware that there are subterranean water chambers below the surface of the earth? Then there are also oceans above the earth's surface. So the firmament could be the dirt!"

Sounds reasonable, and yes, there are indeed subterranean water chambers below the earth, but the Bible says that the birds flew in the firmament. The birds fly in the air. The birds do not fly in the dirt. They fly within the firmament. So we understand that the firmament consisted of two layers of water above the earth.

Many people still think this to be the "sky" or the "atmosphere," and some believe in the "water-vapor canopy theory," which says that the whole of the earth was cover with a thick covering of water vapor. There are numerous problems with this theory, however, like the heat on earth it would produce, for example.

There's another theory, however, called the "solid canopy theory" which is especially supported by creationist Dr. Carl Baugh, who wrote a book entitled "Panorama of Creation" which includes his idea of what the firmament really was. He described in his book:

"We believe the firmament was approximately eleven miles above the surface because there exists a heat sink at that elevation. Nearer to the earth it is warmer for at least some space. If we were to amass the amounts of water present on the earth, and assimilate the greater amount of water within the earth, this would leave the approximate remainder of a few inches thick lineal deminsion double encasement in solid crystalline form as the firmament."

The Hebrew word used in Genesis to describe "firmament" is "raquia," which Hebrew scholars recognize as meaning "to compress or pound out, and stretch out this arch of heaven in thin metal sheets." ... Thin metal sheets? This is very interesting, considering the fact that the helmets of the astronauts have an extremely thin sheet of solid gold lining the whole of their helmet window. They can see fine through it. Was this what the firmament was?

That may be an interesting fact, but it was not what composed the firmament. According to Baugh in his book (that I've previously mentioned),

"Researcher Dan Cook spoke to one of the physicists involved in the hydrogen bomb project at Laurence Livermore National Laboratories. That physicist related to him that scientists there, some years back, took the elements of water and compressed them under super cold, cryogenic circumstances. Hydrogen became near-metallic in form, and took on the characteristics of metal. It became crystalline, transparent, fiber optic, superconductive and ferromagnetic."

If there were two layers of crystalline water eleven miles above the earth, the "firmament" in the center would be pressurized. If it were under this tremendous super cold pressure the the center would become what the Bible described as being "thin metal sheets," which gives us a perfect understanding of the Hebrew word used.

If this was the canopy, Baugh described,

"On day number four, when the sun was created, the energy of the sun upon this hydrogen would have caused a gentle pink glow. At high noon there would have been a light pink coloration in the sky; at sunrise and sunset there would have been a vivid pink coloration; and at midnight there would have been a gentle pink sky. In other words, the sky before the flood was never totally dark."

Remember, God said that the lesser light should rule the night, not the darkness. Many have thought that to be the moon, but the moon isn't always visible, is it? What a beautiful world it would have been before the flood.

Harmful shortwave radiation would have been blocked by the canopy with the beneficial longwave radiation filtered in for us. The firmament would have acted also as an enhancer for light, making the stars at night more clear, and some starlight waves from afar off visible. The magnetic field would've acted as the support for the firmament because of the magnetic nature of the pressurized hydrogen. The harmful x-rays would have also been filtered out. X-rays bombard us everyday, eventually making us wrinkled up when we age. Adam lived to be 912, the Bible says. He probably looked 25 when he finally died.

Baugh also said in his book,

"Scientists and researchers are finding that the most important color of the spectrum is pink. This is the color that is produced by energized hydrogen. They find that plants grow better under pink light and that individuals respond more positively in mood to pink light. Researchers have fould that when a person is affected by the right spectrum of pink light, the brain secretes norepinephren. Norepinephren is a natural tranquilizer and neurotransmitter. Before the flood, man was dominated by various spectra of pink light. The tranquility of his environment offered him the ability to have his brain work at maximum efficiency. The firmament made that possible with greater light ruling the day and lesser light ruling the night."

3. Correct.

4. Right again.

5. Correct again! Good job!

6. Where does it say humans? It says man. And no, God did not create them both simultaneously.

7. Correct.

8. On creating light before the sun and stars, let us look closer at this scripture. God said, "And let there be light" and there was light. When you read factual books about sound and its miracles it can produce, you will see that this is indeed possible. It has been proven in the lab that if you heat sound in a condensed area underwater, it will produce a small sphere of light which can illuminate, heat, and energize the area, or room which it is in. Now, it says that God said, "Let there be light." But even before it says this, it says,

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

He moved toward the earth and said "Let there be light." This huge reaction of massive sound must have produced an acceptable source of light, heat, and energy for the plants to have survived until the time when He created the sun, moon, and stars. These were literal days, not "periods of time" as some day-age theorists claim. But of course, God is God, and doesn't need these sources of nature to make something happen. I'm just saying that it has been proven that this can be proved rationally without only blind faith to believe on. But if there is an evolutionist talking to me, then he would ask such a question as "Where did god come from?" and I don't know. Evolutionists believe that there was a Big Bang that created the universe from a piece of dirt that spun 'round and 'round until BOOM: Big Bang. Now, I would ask that certain evolutionist, "Now then where did the dirt come from?" and he doesn't know either. Now we have two declarations. There was either:

In the beginning God...

or

In the beginning Dirt...

Which one sounds more logical to you? Think about it.

9. You are also wrong on "Elohim" being plural when it is not. There's a certain scripture: "Thou shalt not revile the gods." --Exodus 22:28 This supposed scripture on "gods" is not speaking of "gods" at all! The scripture says, "Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people."

The Hebrew word for "gods" in this passage is a singular plural for "God" or "Elohim." It could also mean "the judges," and not be speaking of God at all. But either way, it does not mean 'gods' literally."

10. Desolate earth? You are going by what the Gap Theory teaches. This is clearly not true and very unscriptural. Why do you use it? Where is it in scripture?

11. On Genesis 2, this isn't referring back and doing a recap of the exact order of creation. It isn't talking about the creation here. It's talking about Day 6 alone. God made man, then He made the garden. Then He put Adam into the garden and made each animal out of the ground before him to name. Then He made Eve.

How orderly were things created?
#1: Step-by-step. The only discrepancy is that there is no Sun or Moon or stars on the first three "days".
#2: God fixes things up as he goes. The first man is lonely, and is not satisfied with animals. God finally creates a woman for him. (funny thing that an omniscient god would forget things)

1. See #8 on my previous answer.

2. Who said God "fixed up things as He went"? Where in scripture does it say this? Also, where does it say God forgot anything? Hm? God wanted Adam to choose who he wanted for a mate. Adam did have free will. So finally when Adam didn't want any of the animals as his mate (Genesis 2:20), and he wanted a mate in the likeness of himself, God made the woman for Adam (Genesis 2:21-25). How unclear is this to you?

How satisfied with creation was he?
#1: God says "it was good" after each of his labors, and rests on the seventh day, evidently very satisfied.
#2: God has to fix up his creation as he goes, and he would certainly not be very satisfied with the disobedience of that primordial couple. (funny thing that an omniscient god would forget things)

1. Who said God labored?

2. No, God never "fixed" the creation as He went. Who said the first man and woman were "primordial"? It was Adam and Eve who sinned, not God. God just gave them free will, just as He gave you free will to turn your back on Him. God never "forgot" anything as you seem to presume.

Moses' personality
Num.12:3: "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the fact of the earth."

Num.31:14, 17, 18: "And Moses was wroth...And Moses said unto them, "Have ye saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman, ... But all the women children ... keep alive for yourselves."

This was God's command to Moses. They were in the middle of a war. You take much of these scriptures out of context. Moses was wroth at the generals. Moses killed only the women who had sex and were therefore a bad example for the people of Israel because they might teach Israel's children to do the sins of adultery, fornication, etc., and teach them sex in the wrong way. They were evil people. Moses killed the male children because they were a threat to the nation and might rise up and demolish the people. All the women children were kept alive to be children of the Israelites and learn not to be in sin like the people they had just destroyed in the war.

2 comments:

Amy, a redeemed sheep said...

I am very, very impressed, Harrison! I'm so glad you started your blog!!

Amy from the Swap

axe414 said...

Beautiful refutation!


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