Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site mhuxr.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mfs From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: Question on scientific creationism theory and The Flood Message-ID: <176@mhuxr.UUCP> Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 17:04:33 EST Article-I.D.: mhuxr.176 Posted: Tue Dec 18 17:04:33 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 19-Dec-84 02:59:02 EST References: <418@mhuxt.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 35 The whole debate about Flood vs no Flood (or for that matter about creationism vs evolution) is pretty pointless in my mind. There is data to support the postulate that much of what is now the Middle East was flooded at some point about 10,000 years ago (I am not exact on the dates, you nit-pick flamers.) To the writers of the Bible, the Middle East *was* the world. Ergo, a world flood. Which leads me to something that has been forgotten: THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN FOR ITS INTENDED AUDIENCE That means sheperds, fishermen, etc. The Bible (i.e. Genesis) was *not* intended as the "literal" word of God! It is the record of how the people of 4,000 BC explained what they saw around them. This is similar to the Romans seeing a small and a large bear in the heavens (the constellations Ursa Minor and Ursa Major) We explain what we see and hear in different ways called quantum mechanics and molecular biology. 2,000 years from now they may well have totally different explanations. You all have heard the stuff about sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic. My point is: the current theory for the creation of the Universe, the so-called Big Bang, postulates the explosion of an extremely dense ball of energy. Where does the ball come from? From God, of course (who grew bored one day and decided to have a little fun creating the universe) I am much more in awe of a deity that can create this much energy, explode it, and let the pieces fall where thay may, governed by some exquisitely chosen laws, than of a deity that resorts to clay to make human beings. After all the very same laws lead to the wonders of Saturn's rings AND to the wonders of our body's immunization system. At the Big Bang, creationism is right. But it is wrong in everything else. So there, all can gain satisfaction that your pet argument is "correct". Marcel Simon {ihnp4!allegra!..}mhuxr!mfs