Quote:
Originally Posted by llama64
...What does the Bible mean by "years"? Who the hell knows...
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Anyone who can read the Bible in its original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, or anyone who can read any of the very thoroughly researched and meticulously composed standard translations of the available manuscripts whould have no problem whatsoever understanding what the Bible means by what it says. The Old Earth Creationist's attempt to reconcile the veracity of the ridiculous doctrine of inerrency and infallibility with the re-interpretation of the seven days from Genesis 1 as geological ages are deluding themselves. The truth of the matter is that when the Book of Genesis was written (it was probably composed during the Persian period from a variety of local legends and ancient religious myths) people ACTUALLY BELIEVED that the earth was only 3500–4000 years old, and generally accepted that there was a God, and that he created everything in the span of 144 ACTUAL hours...
AND THEY WERE WRONG
The Bible is a complicated, bewildering collection of a wide variety of literature, and while it should be read "plainly", it should never be applied literally. For centuries, Jews and Christians had no problem with contradictions and errors in Scripture: Hell, the idealized gospel presentation of Jesus even proposes
imporvements to the Sacred Writings (cf. the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain from Matthew 7 and Luke 5, and take special notice of all the instances where Jesus says: "You have heard it said...but I say unto you..."
If you respect the Bible as I do; if you cherish it for what it is—a remarkable record of faith; a production of religious propoganda; and a fine collection of literature—you would never misappropriate it or misunderstand it in an idolatrous commitment to its words as something of supernatural origin. It may contain the word of God for those of us who are Christians and who take their faith very seriously, but it is NOT a replacement for God.