This question goes out to everyone. Devout creationists, mild creationists, even non creationists I guess.
I sort of believe in God existing. I think my strongest beliefs for this stem from creationist ideas.
1)I believe something had to create the universe or the big bang.
2)I also believe that something is guiding evolution. I completely believe in evolution, but I believe something has to be guiding it. Everything is simply too complex, intricate, and specialized to be completely random.
So these are my beliefs. I know people will hold a lot of contention with my second belief. I admit I'm definitely no expert in evolution science. But I was just wondering if others have any creationist style beliefs out there.
Do You Have Any Creationist style beliefs?
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Man_With_A_Plan
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Post #11
Much can be (and has been!) said on this topic.
Regarding the nature of a theistic God, Jesus himself said that not a hair on your head is unaccounted for. Taken to its logical end, God is therefore perfectly aware and knowledgeable of every particle of matter and every point in space. In other words, God is omniscient; similar to how a computer is omniscient of everything in a virtual world it runs, God is perpetually aware of (and perpetually willing) everything in existence. (Following this logic, it's understandable why looking for empirical "evidence" of God's "intervention" is impossible.)
Regarding "creationism," first I would say that reading the Old Testament like a science textbook is a novel idea. In the early centuries of Christianity, many writers regarded Genesis as something other than literal history and science.
To quote Origen:
" For who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? and that the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? and again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally."
And St. Augustine's prescient words:
"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for a nonbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.
"If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion."
Regarding the nature of a theistic God, Jesus himself said that not a hair on your head is unaccounted for. Taken to its logical end, God is therefore perfectly aware and knowledgeable of every particle of matter and every point in space. In other words, God is omniscient; similar to how a computer is omniscient of everything in a virtual world it runs, God is perpetually aware of (and perpetually willing) everything in existence. (Following this logic, it's understandable why looking for empirical "evidence" of God's "intervention" is impossible.)
Regarding "creationism," first I would say that reading the Old Testament like a science textbook is a novel idea. In the early centuries of Christianity, many writers regarded Genesis as something other than literal history and science.
To quote Origen:
" For who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? and that the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? and again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally."
And St. Augustine's prescient words:
"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for a nonbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.
"If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion."
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Daddieslittlehelper
- Scholar
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Re: Do You Have Any Creationist style beliefs?
Post #12Nothing cannot create anything.jgh7 wrote: This question goes out to everyone. Devout creationists, mild creationists, even non creationists I guess.
I sort of believe in God existing. I think my strongest beliefs for this stem from creationist ideas.
1)I believe something had to create the universe or the big bang.
