Whitty ,
You could not have been fishing at that little creek outside Darwin, a few years ago .

An old Yugoslav Territorian friend and his mate were fishing in a tidal creek when that old dinosaur "Sweetheart" some 28 foot long , grabbed hold of the outboard motor of the tinnie and tipped them and their gear into the water .

In a feat that would have Boaz David cheering and in awe at the same time, old Carl said emphatically about his quick trip to the bank ,"I walked on Water "!!.

I suspect Sweetheart had great and miraculous powers of religious transformation for all and sundry he came in contact with.

And no-one entertains the fact, that a being like ourselves, and I quote the bible, God made man in the image of him self, could be from a older part of the universe. Have a think about this. Why do we look too the stars and call what ever came from there, GOD! Its not hard to imagine, considering the fact that ancient people have drawn pictures of space beings on the walls. Planet earth was void of life for quite some time, then all of a suddenly, life just explode in all what we see today and in the past. I believe god is not what you think it is and 4.6 billions years is nothing if not quite young, if you know your stuff. So this could be a possibility.

Just a thought.

1. God is revealed in Creation by immensity, diversity, unity, intelligent order, aesthetic beauty etc.

2. God is revealed and demonstrated through the divine image of character found in human behaviour by, integrity, loyalty, truthfulness, honesty, patience, forgiveness, sacrificial love, joy, contentment, creativity, kindness, self control, deep peace, overcoming of sin and misfortune, etc. That is why People love and are inspired by people stories that express honourable aspects of His Character.

3. God is revealed in human history, even bad bits. Human injustices highlight the displeasure of such by God. God is ashamed at human sin and injustices and turns in displeasure, but takes graceous action to cure or cleanse it.

4. God is revealed in words, both expressed and demonstrated by actions - as in Jesus Christ. We ourselves reveal the God of our devotions by our attitudes. The worship of God extols the praise of his character in song, prayer and personal life. We worship God because of His Character, attitudes, creativity, actions, wisdom etc. The worship of God has a focus in one or all of these aspects because we have been inspired by one of these admirable aspects of his person and awesome revelation.

Since man has recorded songs they have been expressings the awesome handywork of the God of the Universe [read Psalms]. God does not command us to worship otherwise then it's not worship but ritual. He command us to love and demonstrate that love by action and attitude. We take time to inquire and meditate on His brilliance of character, purity and glory, as expressed in his creativity. On weekends I meet with people who are inspired by the awesome nature of God and the universe and meditate on the mind who put it together.

To make the claim that people who accept that God made the universe fail to intelligently persue science - is a spurious and naive claim. We have professors in space research, professors in botanical research, medical researchers and science teachers in our Church. They contribute to the worship of the God of creative and intelligent design

Evolution

It is possible that our planet was ‘seeded’ by beings from elsewhere in the universe. However, why that means we should prostrate ourselves to a vindictive deity and believe in virgin births leaves me flummoxed. I’m sure, if we are the result of alien intervention they would rather we continued to learn and explore and maybe meet up with them as equals at some future time.

Celivia has touched on an issue that really makes my blood boil and the Exclusive Brethren are a perfect example of this:

Religious child abuse in the form of ‘mis-education’. By ‘mis-education’ I mean preventing children from learning about the natural world and being limited to religious interpretation only. And our taxes go towards this malarky! Time religion was held to account for its actions.

Believing in superstition is a choice adults can make for themselves, but children don’t have much choice in what adults choose to teach them, this is why it is imperative that religious belief is kept out of government policies.

If religion is to be taught at all it should be as an actual subject about all religions, their history and beliefs. Then children can make informed choices for themselves, as I was able to do. Although the only religion I learnt about was Christianity, at least I had good parents who would discuss the contradictions in the bible and also gave me plenty of science books to read. I always remember my 8th birthday because this is when I received my first copy of Darwin’s Origin of the Species.

For those who would like a little light relief please check out the link below to a couple of humorous takes on creation of the universe.

http://littlurl.com/fwcuu

Foxy.. welcome back!
A verse for you: 3 John 2

<<Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.>>

WHITTY.... if you havent' read the Bible, PUH-lease try, but here is an approach.

Force yourself to get past the first chapters of Genesis.. up to chapter 11. Just take it in, but obviously you will regard some bits as a bit 'mythical'.. probably the serpent which talks is the prime candidate.

From the 11th chapter it gets very very interesting. Like a good novel.

I guess I'm a bit biased, because to me, one of the most interesting bits is the 'table of nations' in chapter 11.. to most its a 'boring genealogy' but having lived in a traditional society for over 8 yrs and 'smelling the scent' of what Genesis is on about.. man.. it just LEAPS out of the pages at me because I've seen it all in operation.

When I read of the tribal encounters, wars etc, I'm reminded of a man called 'Tubu Padan' who became a chairman of the indigenous church in North Borneo, well he showed a very large scar on his back from a machette attack in pre-Christian times. Now..the people who did it, are brothers in Christ.

You will find Genesis 12 to the end a fascinating and in places heartwarming book.

DOGMA.. Fraccy...Dogma is pretty dry stuff. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus though.. aah..now THAT's action movie :) reading in Acts how it all panned out, is just mind blowing. Reading Pauls grand theological narrative of the predicament of mankind (Romans)is gobsmacking.. reading Johns gospel and letters is heartmelting.

1 John 1

<<That which was from the beginning,
-which we have heard,
-which we have seen with our eyes,
-which we have looked at and
-our hands have touched—
THIS we proclaim concerning the Word of life.>>

You might call that a "Witness Statement" :)

Philo

You stated "For all the agnostic views held here I wonder if any of you have actually been involved in space exploration?"

ROFL!!

No, I haven't been directly involved in space travel - although (if you had read an earlier post) you would know I wished that all of us could go into space and look back at earth. I guess this is why so many of us get excited by looking at space photographs, like the ones I have posted here already. BTW, I haven't been to the Arctic but I do know there are polar bears there.

Below is a link to a photo taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_348.html

Taken any good snaps of god lately?

Peace