Creation

Many Christians believe that the world was created ex nihilo by God around 6,000 years ago. However, this is not supported by science, nor is the belief strictly in accordance with the Bible.

Until the early centuries of Christianity, Christians based their beliefs more literally on the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, but these beliefs are less commonly held today. Because there are two creation stories in Genesis: (1) verses 1:1 to 2:4a; (2) 2:4b to 2:22, Christianity generally preferred the version in Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a for its understanding of the creation of the world in six days. However, Christianity does use the second story for its literal understanding of the creation of Adam.

The first of these (1:1-2:4a) is recognised by scholars as the work of the Priestly (P) source, based on a Mesopotamian mythe encountered by the Jews in Babylon. So, the creation account that has the world created in six days, which every Christian learns as a child, did not even exist prior to the sixth century BCE. A summary follows, in order to show that there really are two creation accounts in Genesis: In Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was already present and a wind moved across the surface. The seas rested on the dry land, which appeared on day 3 when God gathered the waters together. The order of creation was as follows: (Day 1) light [day]; (2) the firmament, which was believed to separate the waters of the heavens from the lower waters; (3) By gathering the lower waters in one place the land appeared. Grasses and trees; (4) sun; moon and stars - the lights in the firmament; (5) fish, land creatures and fowl; (6) man, both male and female. Notice that the light of day was not yet understood to have originated from the sun, although the sun was universally understood to rule the day. That is why it was possible to have grass and trees before the sun was created.

Genesis 2:4b to 2:15 says that there was pre-existing dry land, but God had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and God took some moist clay and made Adam. After Adam, he made the creatures of earth, one by one, then finally Eve. This account could scarcely be different from the previous version.

Some Christians hold to what they regard as a literal reading of the Bible, with the world and all life on it created just 6000 years ago, while others seek to accommodate the biblical stories within a much longer timeframe. Finally, some Christians who acknowledge that the world is far older than stated in the biblical account accept that it was formed by natural processes. Many see a compromise between science and religion and hold to "theistic evolution" as the explanation for the world we live in.

For a more detailed explanation of different views, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Day by day, God created the universe and everything in it (Genesis ch.1).God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30). Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth. The light was not the same as that of the sun. Rather, it was light that God created before the sun, and which emanated from a point in space without any physical source; like what we might term a "white hole."
  
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
  
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
  
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
  
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
  
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
  
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.
  

See also:

Is there evidence of Creation?

Can you show that God exists?

Seeing God's wisdom

The following meaning of Rodney comes from "Behind the Name." The meaning is different from the one you have indicated.

RODNEY

Gender: Masculine

Usage: English

Pronounced: RAHD-nee

From a surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning "Hroda's island" in Old English. Hroda is a Germanic name meaning "fame".

Source: http://www.behindthename.com/name/rodney

Before the earth got here, there had to be a universe - the stars and the sun, around which our world revolves. The universe is considered to have started with a "Big Bang", when a single primordal point of matter and energy exploded, eventually expanding to form the universe as we know it. Science tells us that the Earth was then formed from hot gases around the Sun. Present estimates put the age of the earth at 4.54 billion years, plus or minus 45 million years.

Of course, this scientific explanation differs from theological views on creation, which can be reviewed at: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

The Old Testament

Noah And Ham

Genesis 9:21 - 27 (KJV) And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Sodom

The Violence Of Homosexuals

Genesis 19:4 - 11 (KJV) But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

Nakedness

Leviticus 18:22 (KJV) Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 18:26 (KJV) Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

Leviticus 18:29 (KJV) For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Homosexuality

Leviticus 20:13 (KJV) If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

The Homosexuals At Gibeah

Judges Chapter 19

Judges 19:22 (KJV) Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

Judges 19:23 (KJV) And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

Judges Chapter 20

The New Testament

God Gave Them Up To Vile Affections

Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Romans 1:27 (KJV) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Romans 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, THAT THEY WHICH COMMIT SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Leviticus 18:22

Leviticus 23:17

Leviticus 23:18

Kings 14:24

Those are only a few. You'll have to look those up yourself because WikiAnswers deems some of the words in the passages obscene.

A life with no regrets.

Answer

One where you have been born into a good and loving family.

Where you get satisfaction from going to school or your job.

You have good and true friends.

Where you have a desire to help people.

Where you have a God in whome you can trust.

One where you have been gifted in some way.

Trials and tribulations to help you gain strength.

Having the power to forgive and forget.

Having the desire to love thy neighbour.

Having the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you when necessary.

Where you know you are not perfect but are striving towards perfection.

To be content with your lot, and make the most out of bad things.

Understand and know the power of prayer.

First of all, let's make it clear that there is a distinction between evolution the biological phenomenon on one side, and evolution the model explaining observations in terms of what we know about that phenomenon on the other. I propose that acceptance of an observed fact is hardly an interesting subject for a question and that the above question therefore deals exclusively with the acceptance of the theoretical model of evolution.

There can be any number of reasons for people to believe in evolutionary theory.

The first category of 'believers' is of course the one that contains the scientists in relevant fields of research, such as evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists, geneticists, molecular biologists, developmental biologists, and so on. They accept evolutionary theory as fundamentally accurate because it has been verified, proven to be a fundamentally accurate reflection of the available data. As the people in this group are intimately familiar with both the proposed theories and hypotheses as well as the observational data on which they are based, they have good reason to do so.

But the group of people accepting evolutionary theory because of their familiarity with the subject matter and supporting data is not at all limited to scientists. Many laymen have a more or less proficient understanding of the proposed models, as well as the relevant observational data, and, not unimportantly, scientific principles in general.

There is a much larger group of people that are remotely aware of the existence of the theory and some of the supporting observations, but not intimately enough to form an educated opinion for themselves. Many of these people accept evolutionary theory primarily on the basis that it's the prevailing (and indeed only) theory among experts in the relevant fields of science. This is a more or less valid reason to accept any scientific model, but it will be clear that such people cannot be expected to argue the correctness of their belief in other terms.

A group of people that is perhaps equally large simply don't ponder the question. Perhaps because they have more important matters to attend to (like surviving), perhaps because such matters are simply never brought under their attention, or perhaps because the subject simply doesn't interest them. While they cannot be said to actively reject the model, they can't be said to deny it either, which is why I will mention them here.

Finally, there will be a much smaller group of people who believe evolutionary theory is true, not because of knowledge of the subject, or trust in the scientific establishment, but for personal or ideological motivations, such as an inability to accept claims involving gods or aliens.

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Charles Darwin, although not the first to recognise that species must have evolved over the ages, spent several decades of his life researching his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. When you have read The Origin of Species, that research is an impressive achievement.

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Others have continued the work of Darwin, over the ensuing 150 years. And the fossil record had added significantly to our understanding of evolution.

Evolution on the other hand cannot at all be likened to the law of gravity since it has not been proven. It also has many scientific facts against it. The fact that those who believe it frequently liken it or seek to associate it with the Law of Gravity indicates that they have more than just science in mind. They fervently believe in it as part of a naturalistic world view.

Some other people, possibly the majority, believe evolution because they have been taught it in school as a fact of science and are not aware of the whole picture which science has to offer. Nor are they aware of the many facts of science which are against it, nor of the deliberate frauds which have been put forward in favor of it.

Darwin himself saw problems with the many gaps in the fossil record in his day but believed they would be 'filled in' in time. However, despite much more research the missing links are still missing. The fossil record has indeed added significantly to the scientific understanding of the tenuous status of the theory of evolution. It does not support it. This adds further to the perception that belief in evolution is more than just following the scientific facts.

No, life is not meaningless, because you have some meaning and something to give in life, and you always make an impact whether positive or negative. You could perhaps join a religion or social group. You can contribute to the world and shape it in so many ways.

So the answer is no, life is not meaningless, life is what you make of it and what you do in life that counts.

Another answer from our community:

Love and compassion for his fellow creatures here on earth!

Love.love,not in bed love,but real honest to god love.like true love.

With the exception of mankind, we are only told what God made, not how He made it. That fact is in order to stress mankind's importance.

To make man, God fashioned the appropriate shape from dirt and breathed a soul into it (Genesis ch.2). He then made the first woman by fashioning her from a piece of the man's flesh (ibid).

Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

See also the Related Links.

Link: Evidence for Creation

Link: Can you show that God exists

Link: God's wisdom seen in His creations

• The principle idea behind creationism is that the origin of natural objects is supernatural. As an example, the Judeo/Christian tradition is that the land, sky, plants and animals were created by a supernatural being called God. Within this basic idea are themes are variations; some cultures believe that plants and animal species are unchanging, others believe that different species can arise from existing species but the "original" species were put into being in a supernatural way. Some think the creation event happened very recently - within historical times - others place the event in "deep" time; thousands of millions of years before the present era (BPE).

Some people have passionate (although not necessarily seriously thought out) feelings about this. It should be emphasized that amongst the scientific community it really is only a tiny minority (as in less than 1%) who consider a supernatural solution at all plausable. Such solutions are not discussed in any peer-reviewed scientific publications, except as critiques.

• Many cultures and religions have creation myths; IMHO, the Hindu one is particularly beautiful and places the creation date of the Earth not that far from the date which has been calculated from radioactive and Sun formation theory dates.

• Ultimately, it is a literal interpretation of a particular Creation story, of which there are dozens, depending on the culture. As far as reasoning and evidence are concerned, there are no "main ideas". In my opinion, Creationism stems from an ignorance of modern science.

• The main ideas in Creationism are that God created the Heavens and the Earth and that we did not come from organisms or monkeys.

Definition of Creation

• From the Greek root kreas, which means flesh.
• When something new is made.
• Biblically, when producing something from nothing.
• The divine act by which, according to various religious and philosophical traditions, the world was brought into existence.

Answer2: The art of creating, or causing existence of, someone or something. It can also refer to that which has been created or brought into existence. Creation, as explained in the Bible, means that Almighty God designed and brought into existence the universe, including spirit persons and the basic kinds of life upon the earth. The Hebrew ba.ra' and the Greek kti'zo both meaning "create, " are used exclusively with reference to divine creation. Throughout the Scriptures Jehovah God is identified as the Creator. Isaiah 45:18. (see Insight on the Scriptures vol 1 p 256 on Jehovah's Witnesses official website)

There is no single verse in the Bible that will end all discussions on Creationism and Evolution. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, does give an account of how the world was created.

Even Creationists believe in some forms of evolution, such as a population of lizards who spends its entire life in a cave, in total darkness. The lizards will eventually develop ways to see in the darkness, so they evolve and adapt. The theory of Evolution however is far more drastic than this, stating that all life was created from a single cell, although it offers no explanation or any evidence for the cell or what forces began the process needed to form life from that cell.

If you are truly interested in learning more about how the Bible teaches Creationism and explains life, you will find researching Apologetics, which is Greek for "the defense", or as the apostle Paul said "defending the gospel". There are many books available on the subject and they give a counterpoint to the explanations that science has for the subject of how the world was created. Answer

• Physical universe: The Bible describes the designer of it as the true God; "the Creator of the heavens and the Grand One stretching them out." Isa. 42:5; 40:26; Ps. 19:1.
• Planet Earth: The Bible's conclusion is reasonable when it states: "Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God." Heb. 3:4.
• Human brain: Bible writer David said to God: "I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, as my soul is very well aware." Ps. 139:14.
• Living cell: The words of Psalm 104:24: "How many your works are, O God! All of them in wisdom you have made"!

"Let the earth bring forth grass" Plants are made on the third day before there was a sun to drive their photosynthetic processes (1:14-19). Notice, though, that God lets "the earth bring forth" the plants, rather than creating them directly. Maybe Genesis is not so anti-evolution after all.

Answer: Wait a minute . Firstly it is unfortunate that so many feel that they have to believe "despite the evidence". In fact the evidence of modern science is being shown to be very much in support of creation. One of the best known Atheists of the 20th Century Anthony Flew actually gave up his Atheism because of the evidence for design, which he saw in DNA (this is of course not to assume he became a Christian before his death). The bible itself encourages us to 'ask, seek and knock' (Matthew 7:7-8) and this is what led many of the great scientists of the past such as Keppler, Newton, and Maxwell to seek to understand God's creation. Many PhD scientists today also believe in biblical creation, whether they are involved in specific creationist research or other science. It is important to understand this before we go on to some extra Bible verses.

One of the best passages actually prophecies many of the current attitudes toward the bible and the creation.

2 Peter 3:3-6 " Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished:"

Willing ignorance is the attitude the Bible here uses to describe those who ignore the evidence which is before their eyes.

Another good verse is found in Jeremiah 10:12 "He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion."

Here is something to think about: despite decades of research, scientist have yet to come up with an explanation evolution that they can all agree on. Scientists cannot agree on evolution-and they are supposed to be experts.

Scientist claim everything in the universe came as a result of a random big bang

Scientist claim humans evolved from animals.

Scientist claim evolution is fact.

See Jehovah's official website for something to think about.