There are not many verbal ways available to mankind for proving anything. Even when we have proved something in one context, it loses its authority in the next, and may become fable – true at one time, but not so currently. It may return to its former favorable status at some future date. God is identified in the Christian context as being the source, in his nature, of love and truth as well as being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent – favorite subjects for theologians. Lay persons seem generally accepting with how God functions with mankind so leaving intellectual search to the specialist. In general, the Christian simply wants to know how to apply Christianity to daily life and personal faith performance. There appears to be a tacit acknowledgement of ignorance in mankind that is to be covered by faith which is a belief providing assurance that God is, has communicated, is to be obeyed, and awards immortality to those who follow his commandments (qualifications) for heavenly citizenship – all this after requesting and being granted his redemptive procedure. That includes repentance, faith, and maturing in righteousness.
In the world, deference to elite intellectuals is common in any field. Nearly all laypersons would agree that Einstein was a genius, that relativity is true, and that time relates to a beginning in some pre-mortal period, but the practical concern is how all this affects the lives of the mass of citizens who not only do not understand the theories, but are quite unsure how scientists got to where they are. Reporters are often informing us that the theories of the past are changed in some new discovery. A linguistic study suggests that the rib (noted in the translations) used by God to form Eve was not from Adam’s rib cage but the penis bone of Adam. The reviewer cites the book by Ziony Zevit, What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden, and. published by Yale University Press in 2013. The reviewer, Mary Joan Winn Leith, is persuaded from the Zevit evidence: (part of the argument is that the story explains why human males differ from many mammals by not having one). (The reference is to the penis bone.) 1. Page 51 Biblical Archaeology Review
When I was a young Christian I was sometimes faced with skeptics using clever references to Scripture such as the full rib cage of modern man suggests that the story of the first chapters of Genesis were fairy tales. In current times there is considerably less effort to deny biblical facts in that so many have been verified. There has been a recent study of the circumstances of the deaths of Saul and Jonathan – that Scripture may be amiss in having them impaled on a wall, a wall that the diggers at the site have not found. Even the Zevit book makes a leap in his review of Eden in judging that the occasion did not refer to a fall of mankind. Evidence for or against this point would be far more important than anything related to a bone of Adam used to form Eve. So much of the search of secularists to disprove biblical narrative focuses on unimportant detail that has little or nothing to do with the meaning of the narrative. This juggling of ideas and evidence is part of the human condition. It relates to trial and error; to the complexity of life; to the changes that occur in the order of things; and, to the unknowns that we have difficulty in finding or factoring in the courses of interest and study. Recent evidence shows that some concepts that gained acceptance following World War II appear to have evolved from assumptions more than evidence. Results have introduced paradoxes. An article notes the differences in the acceptance of ideas. The Big Bang is commonly assumed by scientists, but laypersons seem stumped by origins. Contradictions also appear in global warming, and the age of the earth. Another article stated: In no case now is the evidence of protection (of certain foods) judged to be convincing. More than 4,000 studies held that certain foods held off stomach cancer, and some added: held off colon and thyroid cancer. In 2007, a major follow up all but reversed the findings. At a cancer research meeting drawing over 18,000 persons in research, arguing for proper diet, the reporter wrote: that in the evening they were treated to a sumptuous buffet of rich foods and a grand celebration known for its dessert buffet. It seems clear that we are in varying stages of finding truth, understanding it, organizing it to find wisdom for action. Christian faith assists us to live in righteous context for following a discipline of moderation, using what we have, for full and healthy life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020