There is a pretty intense scriptural training and a great deal of informational knowledge that is studied. Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Mystical writings and Oral traditions that have been greatly cataloged beyond what we call the Old Testament. With this interpretation, Jesus would have been referring to those who may be able to cite scripture down to the letter, and even reason from these citation, but have no actual real-life experience of the benefits and practical meanings of scripture and religious practices. He similarly spoke ill of those who guard the gates of heaven from the masses and don’t even enter themselves. Those people are missing the entire point of the teaching that he was trying to give with his life (the whole of it, not just the getting crucified part).

Along similar lines, one could argue that being “resurrected in the flesh” does not equate to any post portem events, but rather awakening to one’s own life and living it fully and appreciatively. The bible becomes a lot more interesting when you quit making the accounts of miracles out to be a necessity. I mean the mythos is pretty nice in an allegorical sense (depending on how you look at it), but there’s no need to assume anything particularly miraculous happened. I personally don’t put too much stock in 2000+ year old non-eye-witness accounts of miraculous events.

Here are a few facts for you to digest (unless, of course, you worry that this might cause you to be prideful and foolish rather than educated).

1. Evolution is an observable fact. It had been observed long before Darwin came up with this theory of how it worked to create a variety of different species. What a sub-set of American Christians and their international converts object to is the _explanation_ of how evolution works, not the obvious and observable fact that it happens. Even the convicted criminal Ken Hovind, has had to concede that evolution happens at what he chooses to call “micro” level.

2. The development of new species have been observed, both in the wild and in the laboratory.

3. There is overwhelming support for the correctness of the main tenets of Darwin’s theory of how evolution worked to create the world’s species and phylla. The field of genetics, for example, has acquired retro-virus material in human DNA back down the evolutionary tree (and its branches) to ancestors of the apes.

4. The prophecies (aka predictions) made on the basis of Darwin’s theory of how evolution works to create new species have been fulfilled many, many times over. Moreover, these prophecies are far more precise and accurate than those in the Bible.

Precise and clear prophecies in the Bible don’t fare all that well. Many or them failed. Bible literalists engage in intellectual dishonesty by either ignoring them in favor of vague “prophecies” which can be “interpreted” to fit any one of lots of suitably twistable current or past events, or or they engage in semantic gymnastics to “explain” why the failed prediction did not really fail.

The many failed predictions of the “second coming” are a good case in point. Unless you do some creative word-to-meaning reorganization, it is clear that the earliest writers of the New Testament believed (wrongly) that Jesus would return in their lifetime. He didn’t.

If you follow the scientific method you through out a theory which spectacularly fails to be confirmed and you look for one which is a better fit to observable phenomena. The rule of logic and science is that the theory must fit the facts or be discarded. Religion, on the other hand, demands that if the facts do not fit the theory then the facts must be discarded or distorted. It is deeply dishonest.

A belief system which provides a false sense of superiority over those who normally make one feel inferior is a very seductive one. It allows the believer to experience “righteous” pride in their position. [I am right and you fools are all wrong. I am better than you. One day I will be rewarded and all you idiots will be tortured forever. Ha Ha. I'm the King of the Castle and you're the Dirty Rascals. If you want to be superior like me then you will have to come grovel before me while I tell you the truth you stupidly cannot see. I am better than you, so there. I win. You lose.]

People with a low sense of self-esteem in other areas will find it very difficult to let go of such a positively uplifting belief set. It’s easier if you have cause to proud of your accomplishments or place in the world. Nonetheless, it was hard for some of us to do so. It was not even easy to challenge our indoctrinated belief sets in the first place. Having the sands of your world view shift under your feet is so anxiety provoking for most people that they will resist it like crazy.

So, Russ, it could be reasonably argued that you are a scared person of low self-esteem who is using a logically untenable belief system to provide a false sense of pride and superiority. That is cause for pity, not emulation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Go ahead and type in evolution into the search box.

Evolution, as I understand it, comes from the adaptation of organisms to better survive in their environments and persist. However, evolution can take many years and adaptations, at least the ones which are most useful and permanant (eg – physical), often result from genetic mutation which is not half as common as people like to think, especially in the case when it actually helps said organism.

Perhaps the reason that new species have not yet evolved again is because they, were they exist, is pretty darn good for them, and no further adaptations are necessary for their survival, or they have no yet had a mutation in their DNA that allows them to either a, pass on said mutation or b, survive the environmental conditions without hindering them further. Or perhaps the reason is that they have not found the right mutation quick enough to stop the extinction of their species.

Or maybe the reason is because there are too many other things happening in the world that impacts upon their environment that they cannot solve with a few adaptions – pollution and ice caps melting to name a few.

Just because new species of organisms haven’t been discovered (and by the way, they have – it’s called viruses) and species continue to decline in numbers, doesn’t mean that God or a diety of some sort has deemed it so because they’re ‘resting’. Your statement simply implies that you blame God’s resting for the extinction of animals, rather than humans or climate or many other factors that contribute to the aforementioned problem.

Regards
infinityxdream

How do you know that ANY of the bible is right, then?? If the bible is not the inerrant word of God, where are you getting ‘what you think about the nature of God’ from? Are you making it all up in your head? If so, it’s only good enough for you, and WE can’t be expected to follow along with it.

http://talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html

Your understanding of entropy is fundamentally flawed.

The sun provides energy to the earth, things on earth increase in complexity. Evolution shows that things have increased in complexity through time from atoms to molecules to biomolecules to life to multicellular life. Because humans also use energy, things we make get more complex all the time. Just look at our technological advances.

As far as god creating things according to their kind, please explain speciation to me. (Let me guess, you don’t know what speciation is? Speciation is when populations of related animals evolve to a point such that they cannot interbreed anymore.)

According to scientists, about one species per hour goes extinct. This extinction rate existed long before the industrial revolution. Every day several species go extinct however, in all of recorded history no one has ever observed a new species come into existence. This again is consistent with the scientific law of entropy.

Not only is this consistent with the law of entropy, it is consistent with the Biblical account of creation:

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb [that] yields seed, [and] the fruit tree [that] yields fruit ACCORDING TO ITS KIND…
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb [that] yields seed ACCORDING TO ITS KIND, and the tree [that] yields fruit, whose seed [is] in itself ACCORDING TO ITS KIND…
God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, ACCORDING TO THEIR KIND, and every winged bird ACCORDING TO ITS KIND …
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creatures ACCORDING TO ITS KIND: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, [each] ACCORDING TO ITS KIND…
And God made the beast of the earth ACCORDING TO ITS KIND; cattle ACCORDING TO ITS KIND and everything that creeps on the earth ACCORDING TO ITS KIND…

And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

We do not see new species because God has rested. All we see now is the downward deterioration of the universe and the elimination of many species.

Oh, and there’s that whole discovery that dinasaurs had a wish bone, just like today’s birds do – a long suspected connection of which evidence was finally found.