Is God's mechanism for entering heaven INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED or EVOLUTNARILY ADAPTED?

Question

1. God himself is born of a virgin, dies & three days later rises from the grave. This makes the entire thing so difficult to believe as to reduce the potential market for acceptance.

2. God/Jesus preaches in parables that are difficult to understand.

3. God installs Paul as the chief interpreter of Christianity, practically lowering Jesus' own teaching to second place.

4. God places all these things in a series of books, then proceeds to lose the originals of all the books. The existing copies are filled with inconsistencies & must be voted on by committees to reach the "consensus" definition of the "word of God."

5. The weighing of "faith" versus "works" is so heavily contested that hundreds of denominations exist, each with their own idea of what the real formula for entrance to heaven is.

So is this a sign of intelligent design or an example of evolutionary variations of ideas, each of which is adapted to its own environment?

TYPO!!! (sorry)

EVOLUTIONARILY

Answer 1

Neither. The "mechanism" has human fingerprints all over it. There is intelligence, but it's human intelligence.

1. Patriarchal, tribal societies prize virginity in women. Tick the box. Death isn't final? Another tick. This increases, not decreases, the market for the "meme" (thanks, Superatheist).

2. Jesus' parables aren't that all that hard to understand: most people in Greek influenced first century Palestine knew an analogy when they saw one.

3. Hmmm. Pass.

4. Like I said, human fingerprints.

5. See (4).

Answer 2

Considering the story of Genesis purportedly occured at the beginning of the human race, I'd say that the SPIRIT of man is somewhat the same as it has always been. Expect there to be an entire range of evil and good from beginning to end. However, I think I read somewhere that someone who was born in the 1800's would not be able to survive the times we live in, and vice versa. I do not know if it is true, but it adheres to a certain Great Plan.

Intelligent design is just another way of explaining our purpose in a seemingly purposeless existence. Leave the poor buggers alone.

Answer 3

It's about faith. If you don't have faith and don't want faith then you don't need to worry about it. BUT- if you wand faith then realize that God is perfect and His plan for each individual is different.

Paul didn't lower Jesus to second place, you are sadly misguided there. He boosted Christianity with his letters, missions and the way he lived his life was always in praise of Jesus and humbled before Him. He never took any credit for himself. Maybe you need to read it again and really understand it.

Any events that happen in the way the bible was put together happened for a purpose.

Jesus' parables are only difficult to understand by those who are spiritually blinded and don't want to understand. In other words that is actually written in the bible somewhere.

God knows we are not perfect and I believe that if He sees a person follow Jesus the best way He knows how and asks for forgiveness, He will accept that person into heaven.

Answer 4

1) Yeshua is Yahweh, thus He created death, so He could manipulte it anyway He likes. As God, his body may die, but His essenses will always be alive, because God exists in eternity.

2) Take the time and allow the Holy Spirit to rouse you, and then you can capture what is being told.

3) Yeshua's preachings will always be number one, because He is the Lord.

4) Apocrypha is everywhere, and is widely available. If you wanted to, you could pick and choose books, and compile your own Bible. Read, and decipher what you believe to be is truth, and what isn't. For example the Book of Daniel makes a reference to the Book of Enoch. I have yet to read Enoch, much to my dissapointment, however, upon doing so, I could make my own decision as to accept as truth, or disreguard it as fiction.

5) Hundreds of demoninations exist, but as long as your heart fully belongs to the Lord, and you try your best to believe in Him, and live a god-centered life, then surely, the Lord will write your name in the Book of Life.


It is intelligent design of course. God knows what He's doing with His children across the globe, no matter how much it doesn't make any sense to us. We must remember, that like Job couldn't see the enitre picture, neither could we.

Answer 5

It's a meme, and so it adapts to survive in a variable environment.

Despite all the holes it has, and the near-total disconnect with known reality, it's still remarkably successful - largely as a result of the adaptations it has made to move with the times, however slowly.

Consider that in a few decades, all this wailing over homosexuality will have died down, and religion will be smugly proud of how progressive it is.

CD

Answer 6

Number three of your question is one of the greatest facts of the whole scenario, and most people don't notice.

Paul took Jesus' message and watered it down and made it digestible for the gentiles -- effectively ensuring that god's "chosen people" would never accept it, not that they were going to anyway.

Today it's Paul, not Jesus, that's always quoted in Baptist and other churches. Jesus they cannot comprehend.

Answer 7

I like

3

and

4

I think an Alzheimer's type of God explains things much better

like the unfortunate Shuffleboarder in the movie "dogma"

Answer 8

I believe that falls under the category of UNintelligently designed.

Answer 9

cant speak on god dont believe in him but the religion end has been evolving for who knows now long and through how many different gods-----just my thoughts--smile and enjoy the night

Answer 10

Answers like the one 'blessed'posted just make cringe... What a crock! right back..