1st century Christianity in the 21st century
How orderly were things in creation?
#1: Step-by-step. The only discrepancy is that there is no Sun or Moon or stars n 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)
Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “Was Creation Really Orderly? Answering the Atheist”There is a problem with the creation accounts. Here is the order of 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)
Ecclesiastes 1:7 reads, “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.” This is part of a description of the hydrological cycle. However, Job 38:22-23 reads, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, while i have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” Storehouses are NOT part of the cycle! Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “Storehouses in the Hydrological Cycle? Answering the Atheist”How is the earth supported? Job 26:7 says, “He stretcheth out the noth over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Yet, Job 38:4 says, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.” Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “How is the earth supported? Answering the Atheist”Genesis 3:14 reads, “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, while built low, do not eat dirt. Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “Does a serpent really eat dirt? Answering the Atheist”What is the shape of the earth? Isaiah 40:22 says, “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.” Yet, Matthew 4:8 reads, “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.”
Astronomical bodies are spherical, and you cannot see the entire exterior surface from any place. 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. Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “What shape is the earth? Answering the Atheist”Genesis 30:39 reads, “And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.” An odd form of genetic engineering, don’t you think? Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “Strange Genetic Engineering in Flocks? Answering the Atheist”Are birds from the water or the ground? Genesis 1:20-21 reads, “And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.’ And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good.” However, Genesis 2:19 reads, “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “Are birds water or land animals? Answering the Atheist”Leviticus 11:21-23 reads, “Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.”
Insects do not have four feet! Is there a contradiction?
Continue reading “What? Insects don’t have four feet! Answering the Atheist”Leviticus 11:6 reads, “And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof, he is unclean to you.” Rabbits do not chew the cud!
“Gerah” means to chew cud or also perhaps grain, or berries. It does NOT mean dung, and there is a perfectly adequate Hebrew word for that, which could have been used. Furthermore, the phrase translated “chew the cud” in the KJV is more exactly “bring up the cud”. Rabbits do not bring up anything; they let it go all the way through, then eat it again.
The description given in Leviticus is inaccurate. Rabbits do eat their own dung; they do not bring anything up and chew on it.
Continue reading “Do rabbits really chew the cud? Answering the Atheist”