Pyramids

Then, simply, you are at odds with Jesus, Himself. who saw Genesis as literal in the very sense that we are debating.

I thought you were having a fit when I gigged you about calling Genesis apocalyptic. Now, you're right back there doing it again. If you mean that Genesis is a certain genre of Scripture, one of which being apocalyptic, another being poetry, then say it that way. Lesson in hermeneutics is free...

So figures of speech are beyond you in common English usage, but you can figure them out for the ancient Hebrew in Genesis... Right... :wavey:

Guess that depends on the context of the viewer. Yes, we know that a meteor flashing across the sky as it enters the atmosphere of earth is not a "falling star" but in the common parlance of our culture, it is in fact a "falling star" and much has been written in that context.

The bigger picture here is not semantics -- and I do not believe you are arguing semantics -- it is the literal truth of what was said. A meteor, called a falling star or a meteor, is still the same thing and everyone knows what it is. Why is that not true for Genesis?

So, in essence, you are saying that Jesus did not hold Genesis to be literal... What was it that drove you to that opinion, against all odds, and against virtually every scholar that has said otherwise down through the centuries?

See, here is where you have a problem... You can test the speed of light NOW and factor what it is. Can you test the speed of light all the way back to Creation? (The answer is, no.) Upon what are you basing your faith that the speed of light was always the same? Especially when some scientific evidence now suggests that it has not always been the same.

BTW, I don't believe that I've actually called you a heretic (yet, we may be getting close to that point). I believe that i have said that some of the views that you hold are heretical in nature. There is a difference in those two statements, and seeing as how we are arguing some fine nuances of language, I would expect you to grasp that difference lest you prove yourself even more incompetent to continue this debate.

My reason is informed by my faith and my faith is informed by my reason. I do not exclude reason in any means. I have been using it in this series of arguments all along, which you, frankly, dislike very much.

I have no qualms about all truth being God's truth. As far as we being the center of the cosmos, it does indeed appear that way from our vantage point, doesn't it... That would mean that the writers of Scripture, writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit spoke truth when they placed the earth at the center of all things in the cosmos -- that may indeed be literally true -- and if not, how could we possibly measure it if, from all practical appearances, it is indeed reality?

You can show me verses that say the earth is flat? :laugh: I can show you verses that speak of the curve of the earth. I'd like to see the ones you think speak of a flat earth. (BTW, that the Church saw the earth as flat is a myth promulgated by a historian of Columbus that wanted to make the Church look stupid. Check it out...)

String theory is but one of the ways that current cosmologists are attempting to use to get around the fact that the cosmos had a beginning and that things that began had a beginner. The First Cause argument is a very powerful argument indeed.

Check out the Kalam Cosmological Argument while you're at it... Many have sought a way around it and have failed. The only way to get around that argument is to invent something like the string theory or a multi-verse theory, but in fact neither actually accomplishes their designed intent, for all they do is press the actual beginning of the cosmos to a place where it can never be tested, and in so doing, they make the argument one of metaphysics (religion or philosophy) and not science, for how can one test what one cannot ever disprove or falsify? That is not science -- it is faith, and as long as we're going to apply faith anyway, why not keep it simple and claim the Revealed Creator God?