The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Evolution, The Flood, and God’s True Nature

I have been posted from my phone a lot lately, so I have made a few typos, also didn’t convey some things I wanted to convey properly. Anyhow, I wanted to add the following thoughts on the matter.

Evolution is loaded word. What I mean by evolution and every other person is likely different in some way. It is far to broad of a term. People try and box someone in a corner with micro and macro evolution. Both sides can provide very convincing arguments. But what I wanted to present is my viewpoint, only for the sake of find someone common ground of fairness.

Science is always self correcting, at some point. It might take a while, but eventually the truth wins out and builds upon more truth. Knowing this, I find it very unfeasible to say that everything we have learned in the last 100 years of astronomy is ‘incorrect’ and while I know I am sweeping with a broad brush, possibly misrepresenting those who disagree with me, I’ll say this: True science builds upon verifying theories. If the model is flawed, it can implode and rightly so. However, sometimes a model is needed, much like putting a puzzle together. Just because we are missing some pieces of the puzzle, doesn’t mean that what we have is incorrect. Imagine putting a puzzle together. It is a picture of a horse… You see some legs, and a tail, part of a head. Everyone thinks it is a horse - but, of course, it might not be. Still, is it wrong to guess? Should take the puzzle apart because there isn’t enough evidence that it is a horse, or do we keep trying pieces? I’d argue the latter.

Who created the universe? God. How did he do it? He just did it! Great, now the conversation is over. No need to study astronomy, because we know God did it. Unfortunately, that is basically how I see young earthers.

Who created the universe? God. How did he do it? I don’t know, but I want to figure it out! I want to learn. That is how I view Christian Evolutionists, so to speak, even those that don’t necessarily believe in all the wild theories of evolution.

Open theism helps me to explain the Health and Prosperity gospel of Joel Osteen. Or to put it into “new age language”, the “law of Attraction”. In other words, our attitudes, thoughts, feelings, prayers, etc. - influence how God responds.

We could say God knows everything, including our free will choices. And we can follow the logic of Calvinist Matt Slick at If God knows our free will choices, do we still have free will?. In which he says this:

We can take the position of theologian A.E. Knoch, where we don’t have fee will. God knows all our choices, but it is God pulling the strings.
We can take the position of folks like Greg Boyd, that God knows all possible or probable outcomes
Etc.

Take a framework (i.e. Hermano, Paidion, etc.), and run with it - whatever works for you. :smiley:

As to What is the Parousia?, from the “Calvinism in Disquiet”, Got Questions site:

That’s what potentially saves mankind. And also implements the Health and Prosperity gospel or law of attraction.

Yes, there is “expectancy”, if you watch TV evangelist Joel Osteen. We expect the best, as children of God. But sometimes God knows a better probably outcome for us, then what we envision.

Hey Randy, you said:

Can you expound? :confused:

We are not locked into a script. We have many possibilities - that God knows. But we have a say, in which probability gets manifested. God does respond to our thoughts, feeling, etc., with possibilities. Either directly, or indirectly (i.e. though the saints or the holy angels). It’s a side benefit of Christ’s death and resurrection. I have to watch some un-redeeming shows tonight. But let me know what’s unclear and I’ll try to clear it up. Keep in mind, I am just working with a framework. Much like choosing Open Theism, Immanuel Kant’s epistemological framework, etc.

These frameworks work for me. But if you find other frameworks work for you, then run with them. :smiley:

I found this article helpful, in explaining the connection:

The Link Between Open Theism and the Prosperity Gospel

HFPZ said:

I’m with you. :open_mouth: :laughing:

Amen. I believe in miracles! And they happen every day :smiley:

Hermano, I don’t believe that prophecy (spiritual wisdom) comes by way of divination as in some magical powers or crystal ball stuff. This is warned against in the Bible. As you mentioned in Acts, the case of knowing of the famine to come, there are many noted famines in the Bible. Famines have occurred in the past and still occur today. Besides which, what kind of famine are they talking about? It could be literal or spiritual as in a lack of manna from heaven meaning people have basically lost the Spirit of God. In any case, if one has wisdom he/she would be able to see it coming as there will be signs. Literally speaking, if people are not working the fields, rotating the crops, making sure there is enough water supply, planting in proper soil, diversifying so as not to put all the eggs in one basket per se etc.etc., then yes, there will be a famine. Spiritually speaking, if people are not following the ways of God, hearts are waxing cold, greed and dishonesty are running rampant, families and communities are falling apart etc. etc. then again there will be a famine. Take the housing market crash for example. If one did not see this coming, I would say they had no wisdom.

As for the Anti-Christ, there are many antichrists. These are the people who do not follow God. They come and go as well. I also believe there are many Christs, meaning anointed ones of God.

Speaking of evolution, I don’t see much evolving going on, as in advancing into a higher intellectual being. Have we gotten any smarter spiritually or even increased in knowledge? I would say not. People today are pulling the same crap they were thousands of years ago. And as for knowledge, how many of us know how to grow crops, pluck a chicken, make candles, milk a cow etc. etc. I think if all the grocery stores went out of business, we would basically starve. No doubt,we all know how to push buttons to get instantaneous results. From what I understand, monkeys can do this. I think knowledge that once was becomes lost and is replaced by knowledge of other things.

or

youtube.com/watch?v=IOYyCHGWJq4

Well, let’s look at Open Theism , via the world of quantum physics. I share this BBC article today on Twitter:

‘Dead or alive’ cat in physics top 10

This article summarizes some important experimental validations, of themes in Quantum physics. I’ll just share the one regarding the cat:

For folks who like to know more about social media projections in 2017, here’s one I shared also - on Twitter today:

Experts Share Social Media Predictions for 2017

Before Davo responds, perhaps you both should read this article:

Does Isaiah 8:12 Debunk Conspiracies?

I am thoroughly convinced that the plain and literal reading of the Bible, even considered as inerrant, contradicts the scientific consensus on only a single point: the biological evolution of man from non-humans, which is precluded by a literal reading of Genesis 2:7 and 2:22.

This was also the view of the early 20th-century Fundamentalists, who wrote The Fundamentals (from which we get our term “fundamentalist”) in 1910-15. They believed that the Bible either outright taught or was at least consistent with the universe and planet Earth being billions of years old, of life being billions of years old, of the biological evolution of plants and animals, and of Noah’s Flood being a local flood that killed all of mankind except for the eight on the ark. Their only beef with the scientists of their day was over the biological evolution of mankind.

The old-fashioned Protestant Fundamentalists did not subscribe to Young Earth Creationism, which is more an outgrowth in the latter half of the 20th century of the theories of George McCready Price, who tried to give scientific justification to the flood visions of the Seventh-Day Adventist prophetess, Ellen G. White. YEC, far from being “that old-time religion”, is a new-fangled thing.

Well, call me “new-fangled”!! :wink:
**
[size=120]Speaking of conspiracies, have you seen “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”[/size]? **

Kevin Miller XI’s 2008 documentary film [embedded below] starring Ben Stein contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design (ID) in nature and who criticize evidence supporting Darwinian evolution and the modern evolutionary synthesis as part of a scientific conspiracy to keep God out of the nation’s laboratories and classrooms.

The scientific theory of evolution is portrayed by the film as contributing to communism, fascism, atheism, eugenics and, in particular, Nazi atrocities in the Holocaust. Richard Dawkins is one of the people interviewed. The film is in the top 20 highest grossing documentaries since 1982. (Wikipedia)

( or, if it doesn’t load above, just go to youtube.com/watch?v=V5EPymcWp-g )

**Expelled was certainly better received by evangelicals than Kevin Miller’s later Hellbound?**, which questions the traditional hell of eternal torment. If you haven’t seen Hellbound?, I love that one, too!

[size=120]Again, I believe spiritual deception knows no barriers, whether in the arena of religion, politics, or the hard sciences.[/size]

Blessings.

I certainly do not believe that life could evolve without God controlling all the atoms.

There is a certain irony in contemplating that evolution with God is easy, while without God it is basically impossible.

Like multiple, diverse Flood legends from around the world, there are multiple diverse fire-breathing dragon and dinosaur legends from around the world. Are they based in fact, “from way back when”? Did man and dinosaurs coexist?

Gabe, I linked to ***Ancient Dinosaur Depictions***, which shows numerous depictions of dinosaurs, including the Acámbaro (ah KOMM bah roh) figurines here in Mexico. There is a lot of evidence there that man and giant reptiles indeed lived contemporaneously. One could scrutinize that picture-rich page all day long.

But I wanted to add some possible evidence for dinosaurs ***from the Bible itself. ***

On the fifth day, we read, “So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds…And God saw that it was good.” Gen 1:21.

Would this include some reptiles, and marine dinosaurs? I suggest here that if everything was “good” at this point, then these and other physical beings were not yet violent or carnivorous at that point. With help from sinful Satan, violence and physical death came into the physical world through man’s sin.

Of course, the creatures who came to Noah’s ark did not have to all be adults: they could have been infants or juveniles. And genetically, like Adam and Eve themselves, the various Bible “kinds” had a lot more potential genetic variation back then than today. (Genetic drift causes random fixation of alleles and the loss of variation.)

We must remember the term “dinosaur” didn’t come into use until 1841. And, as far as we know, dinosaurs are extinct in 2017.

Behemoth: Job 40.

Leviathan: Job 41, Psalms 74:14, 104:25-26, Is 27:1.

Finally, regarding the Acámbaro figurines of Mexico (discovered about 90 minutes from my niece’s house in the state of Guanajuato), below I embed a fascinating discussion by Dr. Don Patton. I confess he is not the most engaging speaker; nevertheless, you will find the story that he shares of Waldemar Julsrud, amateur German archeologist, to be absolutely fascinating. Please take the time to watch the video below in its entirety. I promise you won’t regret it.

Certainly, the story is shrouded in obscurity and controversy. In Mexico, as in the U.S., there is no room for the Bible in education generally, or in the sciences, particularly. This story has a heavy lid on it. (I wager none of you had never heard of this find. Certainly no one in my family ever had. Is there possibly a spiritual element to that? Man coexisting with dinosaurs is anathema to the predominate paradigm of Darwinian Evolution.)

Dinosaur Figurines, Fact or Fraud - Dr. Don Patton:


Speaking of archeology, another of my favorite amateur archeologists was Ron Wyatt, an anesthetist from Tennessee. (And yes, Randy, he was a Seventh Day Adventist, although he finally left them.)

Professor Lennart Möller (of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden), with whom I have corresponded, has corroborated some of Wyatt’s discoveries, including his evidence of the Red Sea Crossing.

Behemoth moved his tail like a cedar tree. The text does not say that Behemoth had a tail that looked like a cedar tree.

Thank you for posting the video about the Acámbaro figurines. I watched roughly the first half, and I hope to watch the second half tomorrow.

I already had a slight familiarity with these figurines. Something that has long puzzled me about them, however, is the almost untroubled assumption that if the figurines are genuinely ancient, then they prove that dinosaurs and mankind coexisted. That assumption certainly does not follow. Assuming their genuineness, why could we not posit that the figurines’ ancient makers were familiar with dinosaur skeletons and made models of what they thought those dead beasts looked like in life? After all, that’s what contemporary toy makers do, but nobody assumes that these toy makers have seen living dinosaurs.

Geoffrey, I’m so glad you are taking the time to watch that video above!

As to ancient people seeing dinosaur fossils, and then from these creating imaginative depictions, I think it certainly possible, but unlikely, because there are so many pictograph and art examples, from so many different places.

Here are some interesting examples of written narratives:

And here is a nice table I just found, with additional material of some more possible evidence from more recent times:

Table of Evidence of Dinosaur Encounters with Man

And let’s not forget an engrossing chapter called, “[size=115]Dinosaurs from Anglo-Saxon and other Records[/size],” from After the Flood, by Bill Cooper. (This book was recommended to me a while ago by “Pilgrim” of this forum, and can be found online, or in pdf format)

At a minimum, I find these examples intriguing food for thought, and hope you do, too.

Oops, here’s another interesting possibility:

Eyewitnesses to Extinction: Testimonies to the Life and Death of Dinosaurs

Blessings.

Yep

God is able to strongly influence people if He so desires. I believe He will correct people post-mortem in “the Lake of Fire” (the fire of God’s LOVE) and that he will also manifest the completed Sons of God and send them to the people who will be in this place (or condition) of correction— who will have been resurrected to condemnation (John 5:29). These Sons of God will be sent as a witness to them.

Those who are being corrected, continue to have free will. They will not be forced to repent or to submit to the Lordship of the Anointed One. Perhaps some of them will hold out for a long time. But, in being subject to this correction, are they capable of holding out FOREVER? If any of them are, then they must have wills as strong as that of God. I doubt that that would be the case.

I read an article today in Newsweek about the discovery of a “living fossil” ancient shark still swimming around, believed to have remained “unevolved” after “at least 80 million years” because of a poor diet…

A BBC reporter “dubbed it a ‘monster of the deep,’ and…the first scientist to study the frilled shark thought its snake-like movements may have inspired sailors’ stories of sea serpents.”

Newsweek: Prehistoric, Dinosaur-era Shark With Insane Teeth Found Swimming Off Coast Of Portugal
.

"]…When I think about our universe running its course for 14 billion years…
Measurements of time are based on suppositions. A redshift occurs whenever a light source moves away from an observer. The Red Shift used in astronomy to support Big Bang supposes a constant rate of expansion, going out from an initial explosion of all matter. But some scientists believe there was an initial rapid expansion in the first seconds at a very accelerated rate, before the steady rate that is now observed began.

Many years ago, in a secular science magazine, I read a physicist arguing that almost the entire distance outward currently reached by the celestial bodies could have been attained in the first milliseconds after an initial explosion, before those bodies decelerated to their current sub-lightspeed steady velocity. And he had math that showed his model to be feasible. Can’t find it now. But I’ve seen this again from others, since then. For example: “The Inflation Theory proposes a period of extremely rapid (exponential) expansion of the universe during its first few moments. It was developed around 1980 to explain several puzzles with the standard Big Bang theory, in which the universe expands relatively gradually throughout its history.” Suddenly we can go from 14 billion to a several thousand years, depending on the model.

Also, Red Shift assumes the speed of light is a constant, it assumes light has always traveled at the same rate, and it assumes that the light has not traveled through anything that may change its speed and/or appearance. But physicists have succeeded in both speeding up, and slowing down the speed of light! (See here, here, and here.)

Einstein hypothesized that at the speed of light, time stops. And that at greater than the speed of light, one could move back and forth in time. (I believe that the book of Revelation shows that the author, John, went forward in time.)

Radiocarbon dating techniques used in geology and archeology assume the atmosphere has had the same Carbon 14 concentration in the past as now. And it assumes a constant decay rate. However, there is evidence that radioactive decay rates and concentrations have not been constant in the past. Again, you can go from billions of years, to thousands, depending on your suppositions.

I think you would agree that it would be impossible for anyone to provide real scientific evidence for the origin of time, space, and matter. To discuss something’s origin, we must go beyond time, space, and matter, which takes us outside the realm of science.

Blessings.

Hermano - since I’m out of my area of expertise on this subject, I asked a good friend and a man of incredible learning, who I know is of some contrary views, to respond.
This is NOTHING personal, ok? It’s only meant to sharpen up one another’s thinking.

From Jim Gentry:
1st paragraph- Hubble’s observation of the redshift of galaxies merely showed that the universe was expanding. It was not suggested that the expansion rate was constant. Quite the opposite in fact…,there was much conjecture as to whether gravity should stop the expansion and further pull everything back into a “big crunch” or whether the velocity would overcome gravity. No constant rate was imagined by anyone I’m aware of. The “inflation” hypothesis is suggested because it has explanatory ability about how an extremely even expansion coalesced into stars & galaxies, not because it has been demonstrated. (Also at 10^-43 seconds, the “event horizon,” when our current laws of physics came into being, no information is available prior to that as to the state of things.) There is no “steady state that is now observed” (see above) as “dark energy” is accelerating the expansion. “Dark energy” is that “space density expansion force” discovered around 1997, where space that is sufficiently distant from a gravity source itself expands, causing, currently, an accelerating universe. Prior to this phenomena becoming extant it is thought that gravity probably was slowing the expansion til this transition point was reached. We are now in an accelerating expansion.

2ond paragraph-is a remembered renditionfrom an article by “a physicist” that “almost the entire distance reached by the celestial bodies could have been attained in the first milliseconds after an initial explosion.” This (as written) has enormous masses traveling at speeds billions of times faster than light, before “decelerating” to their current “light speed steady velocity.” Stars & galaxies did this? They are currently traveling at the speed of light?
“Suddenly we can go from 14 billion to several thousand years” Let’s see…, what happened to the centrifugal forces of the masses coalescing into galaxies during these fantastic speeds? This paragraph makes no sense whatsoever!

3rd paragraph-Physicists have indeed caused light to slow…, by providing interventions not extant naturally. The 1987 supernova provided observed proof that light is not slowing down in the universe. Triangulation from the nova to Earth and from the nova to a distant reflective cloud, and from there to earth provided the observable phenomena that light traveled without slowing down over the different distances.

4th paragraph- What happened to the masses in paragraph one traveling at billions of times the speed of light? Where in time did they land? Our time dimension has been shown to be relative to matter/energy…, part & parcel of it.
I’m not aware that Einstein suggested that at above light speeds we could move forward & back in “time.” I think he said that nothing (with mass) could travel faster than light…, rather.

5th paragraph-Radio carbondating is useless for anything older than 5-20 thousand years, or for something that was never alive. Other elemental half-lives must be used, such as uranium to lead, for estimations in geologic time.
He is right that original contents cannot be confirmed, but neither are the laws of physics chaotic. The burden of proof would seem to be on him. I suggest the measurements are reasonable estimates, most of the time.

Closing paragraph- I don’t agree…, time, space and matter did originate. :slight_smile: When it did so can be reasonably estimated at 13.7 billion years ±300 million. Expansion rate (YES!) and other factors. Causes are anther matter, which is what he means, I’m sure.

“The earth is young because some have posited questions? And because my favorite interpretation of my favorite translation is not to be questioned?