Quoran Medley: Creationism and Other Roman Catholic

All of below

are from six years ago, answers and comment exchange.

Q I

How do people know Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth?
https://www.quora.com/How-do-people-know-Adam-and-Eve-were-the-first-people-on-Earth-1/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Self Employed at Writer and Composer

1. We have God's word for it.
2. We also have a fairly good reasoning from purely historic (not archaeologic, but historic) facts.

Here it is.

In Eden, Adam was told by God that God had created him. God then gave Adam half and half of an occasion to know He had created Eve, even if Adam had to trust God's word on this.

Suppose Adam had not been the first man. Suppose "God" had been a "trickster" who deceived Adam.

Well, sooner or later Adam's descendants would come across someone not descended from Adam but from the pre-Adamites.

Same, if Flood had not been world wide, sooner or later Noah's descendants would have come across someone with no memory of the Flood.

This never conclusively happened.

As for Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark not being just characters in a story book, we have the fact it was a story taken as historic, and not as made up, from the first and as far as we can follow it.

As for rival tales also taken for history, they never seem to match the historic detail of Genesis.

Q II

Who is Saint Lucy, and what did she do to become a Saint?
https://www.quora.com/Who-is-Saint-Lucy-and-what-did-she-do-to-become-a-Saint/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Converted to Roman Catholic Church, Novus Ordo version, then to Trad.

I think you refer to St Lucy of Sicily.

She died for her faith, rejecting a pagan suitor because preferring Jesus Christ and she was executed - as a teen.

Martyrs are fairly obvious saints. Her feast was 13th of December.

Q III

Was Martin Luther (the one in the Protestant reformation) a fundamentalist?
https://www.quora.com/Was-Martin-Luther-the-one-in-the-Protestant-reformation-a-fundamentalist/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Self Employed at Writer and Composer

Neither more nor less than the Catholics condemning him, or perhaps a bit less, since he was willing to fidget about Epistle of St James.

So, yes, Martin Luther from Eisleben or Wittenberg was basically about as Fundamentalist as Cardinal Cajetan who debated him or as Pope Leo X who first condemned him (one bull of warning, Exsurge Domine, and, after Cajetan’s mission was in vain, another bull of actual condemnation, Decet Romanum Pontificem).

The guys who were NOT Fundamentalists back then, in religion, were the Socinian reformers, Lelio and Fausto Sozzini. They were equally condemned by Catholics and by Lutherans.

Q IV

With regards to creationism and earth's age, why do many Christians not amend their interpretation of biblical text to realistically stay within the confines of what modern science has proven, or make bold claims without proper research or evidence?
https://www.quora.com/With-regards-to-creationism-and-earths-age-why-do-many-Christians-not-amend-their-interpretation-of-biblical-text-to-realistically-stay-within-the-confines-of-what-modern-science-has-proven-or-make-bold-claims-without-proper-research-or-evidence/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Answer requested by

Joseph Holliday

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Blog : "http://creavsevolu.blogspot.com". Debating evolutionists for 15 years +.

"With regards to creationism and earth's age,"

Yes, a nice topic.

"why do many Christians not amend their interpretation of biblical text"

There are two text versions in the main, for Christians. LXX and Masoretic (the latter includes KJV but also Vulgate, as far as chronology is concerned).

Of the LXX, there seems to be some more wiggle room, the more so as "the second Cainan" is not in all LXX manuscripts.

But for "day age" and for "gap theory" as in a long gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, Mark 10:6 and even Exodus 20:11 leaves no wiggle room.

This means, with any given version, we are really and truyly stuck with the "Ussher methodology" - the one used way before Ussher by Syncellus and St Jerome on LXX texts.

No other method of interpretation is really Christian, since no other one can be reconciled with God speaking to Moses in Exodus 20 and no other one can be reconciled to Jesus being God in the Flesh, when He spoke in Mark 10:6.

"to realistically stay within the confines of what modern science has proven,"

Modern science has proven strictly nothing against LXX ages, and as to carbon buildup presumed as explanation for "long carbon dated ages" (a carbon date for before 5500 BC is carbon 14 both decaying AND starting out as lower than modern atmospheric content : the percentage it was lower is as much a part of the modern expert's carbon date as the percentage it actually lowered over actual years). As to this, well, I am confident the carbon buildup cannot be proven as too drastic for LXX dates, and awaiting whether it be so for Masoretic dates.

"or make bold claims without proper research or evidence?"

The Bible as such, to a Christian, is proper evidence. If you do not believe the Bible is inerrant (or at least believe in errors of such marginal type which would finally not be able to account for errors here), it is evidence.

If you don't believe it, too bad for you, you are missing out on the most important piece of evidence.

That said, we certainly do "proper research" - as I am doing about carbon dates and especially how the carbon buildup can be explained in the post-Flood world, as also on other things.

Your ignoring what we do is not tantamount to our not doing it.

Joseph Holliday

I didn't mean all Christians, I meant many of the ones that I've encountered. I grew up in a Christian household in an area that many call the "bible belt". I personally identify as a Christian myself, but I have a lot of interest in science and scientific research. The main reason I ask the question is my entire family and most people I know locally who are Christian are against my interests in science and expect me to accept everything that they tell me as fact without doing any research myself. They think it's wrong for me to even question anything regarding our beliefs. I'm trying to understand why they are so against my interests in science and why they think I must blindly accept everything without asking questions. Normally, I would explain these sorts of things in the "question details" section of my questions, but Quora removed the "question details" feature, making it difficult to get what I'm actually trying to ask across.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

How about combining the interests by doing some research in creation science?

As to why your family act as they do, well most people in any culture or environment don’t do any research at all.

Do you like palaeontology?

You might enjoy my attempts (so far not too stymied) to refute the “geological column”, like here:

Question for Madagascar ...

Or, if you like carbon date questions, you might like this:

Tas Walker and Myself on C14 : Glacial Maximum and End

And this:

How Fast was Carbon 14 Forming During Babel Event?

There is a lot more material, of course, on CMI:

Creation | Creation Ministries International

Sorry for mentioning my much more successful rivals after myself, but you will not overlook them that way either.

As to your family’s reaction, they might be unduly worried that the evidence you examine must bring you away from the faith, as they have not seen how much their position (which on this question is correct) is backed up by good research.

“Normally, I would explain these sorts of things in the "question details" section of my questions, but Quora removed the "question details" feature, making it difficult to get what I'm actually trying to ask across.”

Now question details are given in obligatorily non-anonymous comments on question. The question details previously given still exist, there, with “quora question details bot” or sth as “user name”.

Q V

Is it a sin for Catholics to watch movies online for free?
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-a-sin-for-Catholics-to-watch-movies-online-for-free/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Been going to movies most of my childhood and teens.

It is a sin for Catholics to watch bad movies, like porn, or like Last Temptation for Christ.

Watching a movie for free online, watching it online after paying, or watching it offline (television or cinema) after paying or being invited is not relevant.

If you shoplift a video in order to watch the movie, the shoplifting is a sin, watching the movie does not add to the sin, but not giving the video back (perhaps in a way not tracking your to the shoplifting) does add to the sin.