The Debate Rages: Do We Have a Right to Determine How We Die?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 30 March 2005 0 Comments
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Question

Based on the sequences in the Genesis creation story, there seems to be a serious discrepancy in the timing of the creation of light. Light appeared on the first day but the sun, moon and stars did not appear until the fourth day. How do creationists rationalize that anomaly as being literally accurate? Also Adam and Eve were the first humans according to creationists but with only Cain and Abel mentioned in the Bible, where did their wives come from unless they evolved from somewhere else or sibling incest occurred with Eve herself? The same situation for propagating the earth seems to occur after the flood? If God created everything 8000 to 10,000 years ago as some believe, (although now the Department of the Interior seems to insist that the Noah flood created the Grand Canyon) then God must also have created the ability for science to clone, to adapt stem cells to new purposes, etc., etc. In fact nothing can ever be done through science that God did not create the ability to accomplish in those terms. Yet fundamentalists insist cloning and the use of stem cells is unethical. Of course the other option is that God created everything in God's own time (15 billion years or so ago for the universe, 4

Answer

Your comments indicate that you are trying to confront the anti-evolutionists on a rational basis. My experience is that this is a waste of time. Their objections to evolution have little to do with rationality. It is rather an emotional attempt to minister to their fractured religious certainty. I am no longer willing to have rational conversations with or to take seriously the point of view of people such as the members of the flat earth society, creationists or those who think homosexuals choose to be depraved. Life is far too short to waste any of its precious moments in meaningless conversations with irrational ignorance.

There is no doubt that this planet earth is between 4

 

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