If there is a separation between church and state and there are people who are not religious or have a different belief than Christianity, should a person swear on the bible when this person is in a US courtroom? Why not swear on a book containing the constitution since it is the law of the land?
If a Christian must keep the Ten Commandments and most of all have love, Why did man change one of the commandment by changing the day of worship? Did God ask them to? Why not keep what God started?
If God made a perfect world before he created man, what happened to the dinosaurs? Seeing how huge these animals were, why were they not mentioned in the bible like other animals were?
Why is there a mystery about Mary being a virgin? If a woman has access to fresh semen, she can use her finger or an instrument to insert the semen into her and possibly get pregnant. It has happened.
2007-01-04 06:28:09 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Why was the tower of Babel destroyed in the attempt of people efforts to reach the heavens, while in modern times there has been little or no opposition by God for humans going to space and further with their instruments?
If God want strong love and unity among humans, why select a favorite group and call them his chosen people? Isn’t putting one group over another a situation for disaster? People even justify slavery by using phrases from the bible that promote one group over another.
2007-01-04 06:28:47 · update #1
Paragraph 1 has nothing to do with Christianity, or the Bible
2nd Question:: The Bible provides the answer as to the Sabbath. It is no longer to be kept as a ritual day, but we do enter "into God's rest". Thus, we get the entire point of the Sabbath day.
3rd Question: During the creation account, it does mention "The great sea monsters", but that's about it. The Bible is a book for man to provide religious direction. Not to prove scientific facts, nor is it a science textbook.. Thus, it's an illogical question. The dinosaurs were dead long before man showed up. The Bible teaches those creative days were eons long, and that we are still within the 7th Rest Day.
4th question on Mary, also illogical. Are Miracles Unscientific?
“Scientifically minded people believe in a ‘cause-and-effect’ relationship. They feel there is a perfectly natural explanation for everything,” states a contemporary encyclopedia. Students of the Bible also accept established scientific principles. They recognize, however, that the Bible often discusses miraculous events that cannot be explained scientifically according to present knowledge. Examples are the sun standing still in Joshua’s day and Jesus’ walking on water. (Joshua 10:12, 13; Matthew 14:23-34) However, these miracles are presented as resulting from God’s power acting in a supernatural way.
This point is crucial. If the Bible asserted that people can walk on water without divine assistance or that the sun’s apparent motion across the sky can be interrupted for no reason, it might seem to contradict scientific facts. However, when it attributes such events to God’s power, it does not so much contradict science as lead the discussion into an area where science cannot yet follow.
5th question: Because the problem wasn't reaching to the heavens. Earlier, they were given a direct command to spread themselves about the earth. Then, they were doing exactly the opposite. Trying to bunch up together, and also, in an effort to avert any future floods. It was trying to put a finger in the face of God by disobedience, not by the act per se.
6th question: Not at all. The Bible teaches that he is a person that exists with 1) Perfect Love 2) Perfect Justice 3) Perfect Power and 4) Perfect Wisdom. He cannot contaminate himself by permitting wickedness and unclean acts. He has always worked through an organization. Anyone recognizes that to get anything done, you need an organized structure and group. God selected a nation, to clean up and work in an organized manner.
It was for a purpose. To fulfill Genesis 3:15, and produce the promised seed, which happened when Jesus appeared.
2007-01-04 06:32:49 · answer #1 · answered by raVar 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
That's a lot of questions in one.
1 - yes, that would make more sense to use the constitution. I have wondered about the use of the Bible myself. I assumed it was used because in the past, people had some respect for it and maybe would be more likely to not lie if they had sworn an oath to God or something.
2 - The Sabbath laws were slightly altered by Jesus. I don't think the day itself matters really, but the heart is to take a day of rest and devote it to God. He's not so legalistic as to care what day it is. We choose sunday, some choose saturday. The real heart of the rule is still observed.
3 - There are zillions of animals, only a few are mentioned. You might as well ask why there are no dogs or cats or hamsters mentioned. It is possible that dinos lived in a different part of the world than the main chunk of the story takes place. If I'm telling you a story about Utah, do I need to mention that there are people in NY too?? They just may not have been relevant to the storyline.
4 - Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. God. He is all powerful and can do what He wants. I don't see the need for finding an alternate explanation for this pregnancy. It was a miracle, an act of God.
2007-01-04 06:37:18 · answer #2 · answered by BaseballGrrl 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nice to see good questions for a change.
"Separation between church and state" is not how the Constitution reads. It reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
2nd question: Saturday has always been the 7th day. Go look at a calendar, yup, Saturday is still the 7th day. Sunday is the first day of the week, it's not the sabbath.
3rd question: The dinosaur was invented in 1841, prior to that they were referred to as dragons. They are referred to throughout human history, but have become rare. The most common dragon alive today is the crocodile. And they ARE mentioned in the Bible. Leviathan, behomoth and the unicorn are possibly references to dragons.
There is no "mystery" about Mary being a virgin. Why try to find naturalistic explanations? If you don't want to believe it, don't! If you, (like me) choose to believe it, then believe it. I tried to play the naturalistic game when I was a biology major in both high school and college. It gets you nowhere but frustrated. I heard a debate one time between the heads of the Cal State Fullerton biology department and a couple of creationists. The creationists won hands down because the evolution guys kept relying on arguments of faith. You have to BELIEVE evolution because there is no evidence or scientific basis for it. The archeological record supports intellegent design.
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2007-01-04 06:32:50 · answer #3 · answered by s2scrm 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, lessee how we can address these concerns.
First off, we start with a couple of facts: God loves you, loves each human, and wants the best for each human. And God defines "best."
In the near future, Jesus will return and establish His reign over the entire planet "with a rod of iron." Until then, God lets humans rule so that they'll not get the idea that humans are any good at it. They do anyway, which shows how much humans are able to pay attention. Thus, the idea of "separation of church and state" is that religion shouldn't be used to rule because humans would still be involved. That said, the idea is NOT in the Constitution. In fact, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence assume a God is watching out for them. The phrase "separation of church and state" is from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote, and is a phrase no one in this country has ever voted on. So, why do we "swear on a Bible"? See above: the "founding fathers" really took Christianity and the Bible seriously, even Thomas Jefferson (tho he tore some pages out, he still thought it was important.)
All people are expected to keep the ten commandments. The Christian is the (only) one who has the Holy Spirit's help and thus becomes actually ABLE to do so. Man did not change any of the commandments. As for day of worship, the Hebrew is told to "keep holy the Sabbath." The New Testament makes clear that the Sabbath rest is only even possible in Jesus Christ. Once one has that salvation, however, literally every day is Sabbath day of rest from working for salvation. Salvation by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary is "what God started." That we keep assiduously.
God made a perfect world, and God made man perfect. Wanting to share His love with another creature able to love Him back, God then gave man free will to choose to love and obey or ignore and disobey. We all know which Adam chose. Adam's sin ramified thru everything Adam ruled over, which is the whole of creation. At that point, death began. God made everything "good" but Adam and every man since then has only ruined it. One must, therefore, be careful to not blame God for what others do.
Mary asked Gabriel an intriguing question that many miss. When the angel tells her that she will conceive, she asks, "How can this be, seeing I know (had sex with) not a man?" She's asking Gabriel the mechanism because she needs to know whether she does anything (such as what you suggest) to help. Gabriel's answer is your answer: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). So, yeah, she could've, but didn't. She merely carried the second and last human to be supernaturally created, by God, from nothing. Adam was the first; Jesus was the second and the last.
2007-01-04 06:54:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A person who is not a Christian does not have to put a hand on a Bible. There are other ways to swear a person in court.
About the Ten Commandments and day of worship--I don't know.
The dinosaurs existed some 65 or so *millions* of years before mankind reared their ugly head. So all the allegorical stories in Genesis happened way after the dinosaurs vanished. The animals brought aboard the ark by Senior Noah are the ones we are all familiar with.
Mary and the virgin birth: hmm, I personally don't believe it. As for other theories, they're just as good as any other theory.
2007-01-04 06:36:57 · answer #5 · answered by Sick Puppy 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Interesting that you say this...
1) The colonies that became the countries of North America were founded on what religion's principles? Christianity i believe.
2) So if your country was founded on the christian principles ( I live in Canada) would not it be fit for thos in a courtroom to swear on the bible. This has been a tradition that has been followed for many years.
3) No one said the dinosaurs never lived. If we have found their bones then they have obviously lived. Christiana do not contradict that. I also do not know why they were not mentioned like the other animals.
4) Mary was a virgin and if the bible does not lie. She did not ever have sex prior to her marriage to Joseph. She was not married to Joseph when she became pregnant with Jesus. She was the only woman who found favor with God (She was probably pretty devout with her beliefs and was at a pretty good place with God
5) Seeing that she was not married to Joseph and that she was very religious, why would she have had sex out of wedlock? I am sure if she was that religous, to be the only woman on earth with favour from God, she would have know the consequences of her actions had she had sex prior to marriage.
6) I am also sure that she would not have wanted to displease her husband who i presume was also a virgin (not so sure about that though).
7) Mary became pregnant through the holy spirit. When Joseph found out that she was pregnant proir to their marriage, he sought to put her away silently, An angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him not to carry out his plan to dismiss Mary.
2007-01-04 06:43:24 · answer #6 · answered by Master O 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The court has not protected the US Constitution any better than it has demonstrated Christian principles. The alleged separation of church and state is a sham. It was derived from a letter Jefferson wrote to a Baptist pastor who made him mad. It is not intended to be a way to interpret the Constitution. This has had a devastating effect on our culture and history. It is sad.
2007-01-04 06:34:35 · answer #7 · answered by Boilerfan 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I can swear on a Dr. Seuss book if I so choose The Cat In The Hat as my savior.
2007-01-04 06:29:51 · answer #8 · answered by Cold Fart 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
1) God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He does not change. 3) God always planned to create man. He was just waiting for the appropriate time.
2016-03-29 07:41:10 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not sure where you are, but (and I may be completely wrong here..if so I am sure that I will be corrected :-)......) but I think that here in the UK the individual can swear on whichever book he believes and has faith in...........anyone?
2007-01-04 06:36:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋