Originally Posted by Answer
a) only on this forum, where people don't read books without pictures, would that constitute as a lengthy response
b) your question is in regards to the existence of a God, which I do not confirm nor deny. And I do address this question by stating that "Yes, the notion of God and life outside of earth can co-exist"
That may not be the answer you were expecting, but it is an answer.
If the bible stated that God created the universe, and that billions of planets existed that could potentially harbor life - or if the bible even made so much as a minor acknowledgement to the fact that there is, in fact, a universe outside of the Earth with other planets that are also evolving - and they are evolving, whether or not they host life...because to act like stars don't explode and planets don't cease to exist and the creation and destruction of black holes in which gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. If the bible even bothered to notice that the earth was around long before humanity was, and that plant/animal life was around for hundreds of millions of years before humanity could evolve - then yes. I would be more than happy to say that there's a good chance that these scriptures make sense.
According to the Bible, Earth was created for the sole purpose of being the host of humans, which were made in God's image. To suggest that there could be any *intelligent* life outside of this planet, which is mathematically inevitable (look up the drake equation) if you postulate that there are in fact billions of other planets with the potential to evolve life. Furthermore, when Adam & Eve rebelled against the creator, they brought the cosmos under his curse. Therefore, if there was life outside of Earth - it would affected them as well. The second person of the holy trinity incarnated on Earth alone, took on human nature, died for the sins of those with whom he has the kinsman-redeemer relationship, then ascended to the right hand of God the Father. He took on human nature, not the nature of a martian or any other being from any other planet. Therefore, there's no way for theories of evolution and theories of creationism from a Christian standpoint to coalesce, because 'Jesus' was, in fact - only human.
But at the end of the day, the bible never even acknowledges the possibility of intelligent life outside of earth. It's really that simple. And it makes sense when you consider that it was written from the perspective of a civilization that doesn't fully comprehend the world. A civilization that thought that the sun orbited around the earth, and had no idea what caused stars. A civilization ignorant enough to believe that God spent more time creating the earth than the universe around it. That is an example of just how highly humans think of themselves. Which, ironically, was done in a 6 day period. Well, what is a day? A day is a man-made time measurement for a global phenomena...One day is how long it takes for the earth to spin on it's axis. 24 hours. Which is entirely arbitrary considering all planets spin at a different speed. One day on Venus, for example - is 243 days on Earth. Which means that if Earth spun at the same rate, we'd say it took God 1,458 days to create. You're getting a little slow there, lord. Now, if took God 6 days to create the earth, how did 6 days even pass if there was no earth to spin? That's just a silly philosophical argument - but more seriously, God would have created the Earth, and arbitrarily set it to spin in 1/6th of the time (or 1/7th if you include the 7th day) that it took him to make it. Which makes no sense at all as it is, but realistically speaking, the earth spins once every 23.93 hours. So apparently God couldn't even get the calibrations right on the whole spinning earth deal.
And you would dare insult an omnipotent being by believe that he's so fallible in the first place?
Mind you, it was a Pope who said that evolution and catholicism could co-exist, but you and I both know that creationism doesn't fit into that puzzle anywhere. And if we were to try to create a book based on what we know now that explains the meaning of life, the universe, and everything I assure you in 2,000 years - there will be countless discoveries that disprove the things we know. Because unlike religion, knowledge continues to change.
I suggest you let me finish on that note, because I promise my next response will be at least twice the length of this one by the time I'm done
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