The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #142452   Message #3284554
Posted By: GUEST,Shining Wit
04-Jan-12 - 05:53 AM
Thread Name: BS: Young Earth Creationism Eureka!
Subject: RE: BS: Young Earth Creationism Eureka!
"The flood has some historical/geologic evidence."

You mean A flood surely? This has nothing to do with the Biblical flood which was global on nature. There are countless neocatastrophic events recorded in the geological record, including the regression/transgression of seas etc, and creationists etc love to trot these out as evidence for Noah's flood. For a delightfully misguided creationist interpretation of Mount St Helens and it's relevance to the study of the Biblical flood have a pike at this: Mount St Helens— exploding the old-earth paradigm[pdf]. This analysis is so bereft of scientific interpretation and full of supposition that it's impressive; it's also a typical YE/Creationist document.

LH:
"If the writing is allegorical and symbolic, then one must attempt to understand it in a non-literal way to get anything useful from it. One must ask questions, think, analyze, think some more, follow intution, and find the best interpretation one is capable of."

Even if this interpretation is not in any way what the original authors intended? It seems to me that if it's up to the individual to interpret religious texts based on nothing more than reflection and intuition then these texts are little more value than a scrying glass or tarot cards. When I read the Mabinogion can I really be sure I'm fully understanding the symbolism of the story? Probably not, even though that text is from one of my own cultural traditions. And I'm not arguing against intuition and reflection; they are part of the scientific process but they can only take you so far before you need hard data.

There are many paths to God . . . but I'd argue that what people understand as God is the underlying sense of our own place in the universe. The universe contemplating itself, discovering it's true nature by harnessing our natural curiosity. This is a profoundly spiritual concept but doesn't need a supreme being or a divine act of creation to give it credence - it is testable, reproducible and explicable by science - your very existence is evidence of that, and that is a truly wonderful revelation.