As a former science teacher...

[Kevin Lang]

No, I do not believe that it is: the question used "god" in the singular, proper noun sort of way, not in a generic way. By definition, as it is asserting that 3 discreet religions all worship the same, specific divine entity.



Any of the 3 religions specified would describe the divine entity that they worship, were they to use the word "god" to do so, as "God". I believe that this question should do the same, both from a grammatical perspective and out of proper deference; it shouldn't offend anyone, right?



BTW the religious private school that I at one time attended did not inform me of that Job 40 bit. I only learned of it somewhat recently. My school was a bit behind the curve lol. Public school failed to teach me, well, anything really but its supposedly unbiased science program failed to mention tidbits that support a young earth theory and accepted carbon dating as a flawless, exact science; "don't ask how it works, know only that it does, and ignore anything to the contrary as that's what 'unbiased' means :grin:"



This test seems sketchy, I agree (especially with 5/7ths of it being true/false; no challenge), but I still maintain that we can find equally biased (and absurdly easy) tests for old earth/macroevolution theory in public school.

 

[EddieS'04]

The first "God" is refering to the Christian God specifically, and thereforeshould be capitalized. The second "gods" is the generic usage, and is therefore properly lowercase.

10 commandments actually was given to the Jews'. Christians do beleive in the same God. No Gods before me was speaking of the pagan gods. In the Christian world that could also mean. Anything or someone you put before God.

As a Christian myself Im guilty of that.:banghead:

 

[Bill V]

the question used "god" in the singular, proper noun sort of way, not in a generic way.

??? It used it in the very definition of a generic way.

 

[Mark K 2]

God is capitalized by Christians and Jews when referring to the their god. It is lower case when referring to any deity.

 

[Richard L]

Mark,

I think that only applies to the word "God" when written in English or other modern western languages. I don't think that Hebrew, or Arabic have the concept of capitalization so they would not capitalize anything???? I think I heard something about that a few years ago on some old History Channel documentary?



...Rich

 

[Mark K 2]

You're right, Rich. IIRC, the hardcore Jews aren't even allowed to spell "God." They do it this way: G-d.

 

[Robert Thomas]

Even if you are not a believer, why not capitalize it anyway, just to cover all your bases.



You never really know. I would hate to be standing at the gates trying to explain why I didn't.



Sort of like putting on new tires to avoid a accident later. :driving::driving:

 

[Richard L]

Redfish,

Good plan :supercool: But then you still run the risk of offending someone who does not believe in capitalizing God, or even believes God exists for that matter. So in the end you can never be politically correct no matter which ever you choose to do :banghead:



I don't even think that the word "Politics" is politically correct anymore..:bwahaha:



...Rich

 

[Robert Thomas]

Rich,



I'm right 98% of the time, the other 3% I don't worry about.



I'm going with the capital "G". One has to make a decision and that is mine. I will live or die with ramifications. It's only fair since I use the capital "I" for myself.



As for the word "Politics", I use the words "Verbosely Inarticulate Deranged Babble" to avoid any political correctness. No Religion, Group, Country, or Person has ever complained. (Not including Frank)



:bwahaha::bwahaha: Who do we see about getting more of these little Guys :bwahaha::bwahaha:

 

[H D]

Related link below.



For a moment, forget about the content, ask yourself why there was a quarter mile long line of people to see this. What are they searching for? How the universe was created or why? Does only one of those questions matter? If so, which one? I believe both matter and both work to the same conclusion in the end.



I don't agree/disagree with the content because I haven't yet read the full argument Hawking is making but I do believe evolution and the existence of God are not mutually exclusive. It must be comforting to some (evolutionists and creationists alike) to think that they have the history of the universe figured out. I'm not sure how the question of "why" gets ignored, though.



The problem Christianity has in modernity is that the Bible school lessons taught to kids are not researched any further by many adult Christians and everything in the Bible happened by "God-magic" as taught to 4 year olds rather than a set of natural circumstances and cultural influences of the time. Goliath was a giant by antiquity standards because he may have been 6'5" (completely made up number) when the rest of humanity was under 5' tall, not because he was two stories tall as in the children's picture books. Or Sodom was destroyed by fire because it was built of flammable material, and the city was a known sin-city so it was reasonable God would choose to destroy, or allow to be destoryed, the evil city in the rationalization of the culture (the same was applied by some to New Orleans, don't pretend you didn't hear or read those comments). Or Moses crossed the Reed Sea during a short window of low water during the Exodus rather than whacking the water with his magic God-stick. When you tell rational thinking adults these stories as they are told for children to understand, it's no wonder Christians are often thought of as irrational by non-Christians. Goliath was a giant because he was abnormally large for the time; Sodom burned because it was built with sulfur; Moses crossed the Reed Sea (often misinterpreted for the Red Sea) because the tide was low due to natural circumstances. My point is that there are scientific explanations for the occurrences described in the Bible. That doesn't change the message, though. It makes it all the more miraculous in my opinion than Moses hitting water with a magic stick or God raining fire from the Heavens on Sodom.



It spills over into the origins of Earth as well. How foolish must a person be (sorry if this offends anyone as I'm sure it will) to believe that the world is only 3,000 years old because written history begins around that time and the genealogy of the Israelites described in the Bible only goes back that far. It is irrational for a Christian to believe that your 24 hour day somehow constrains the work God could or would do in a period of time, or to even believe that God operates within constraints of something as man made, for our organizational purposes only, as time.



Science is a method of understanding HOW God operates but only a personal relationship will fill you in on WHY. Those who search for the answer to only one of the questions may end up closer to the answer to one or the other but won't get the full picture. How sad is the scientist that knows how but not why? How silly does the believer sound when he tells stories of God-magic to explain why? How even more absurd is it for the two to argue each other?

 

[Bill V]

God is capitalized by Christians and Jews when referring to the their god. It is lower case when referring to any deity.

Exactly Mark. And you capitalized it properly with "god" there, even though it was talking about Christians and Jews referring to their god. It's still a lower case.



Redfish, I can't believe that God, as described in any Christian or Jewish tradition, is going to get too upset over a capitalization of a letter either way.

 

[Robert Thomas]

Bill V



I am going with the capital "G", as I can't afford to take a chance on even one point. I stated in my first post that my only hope is that the grading is on a curve for, in this case, I might be standing on a trap door.



:haveabeer::haveabeer: these little guys could costing me a few points.

 

[Bill V]

Hugh, very well put.



Part of the reason the Old Testament stories are written the way they are is because of a lesser understanding of science and mathematics than we have in the modern day--just as we have a lesser understanding of those fields than people will have in the future. Something would happen that they couldn't explain, so they would come up with a divinity-based theory on the subject, and it would become accepted truth.



Other parts are based on "fish stories," growing every time they were retold. David beat Goliath, a man who was larger than average for the day. To make the hero story sound more impressive, every retelling would make Goliath out to be larger and larger, to the point where we have the "giant" stories told today. We've all heard plenty of modern stories like that.



And still other stories, I'm convinced, were written with the intent to be wholly allegorical to tach a lesson, and have then been misinterpretted by people unable or unwilling to comprehend the allegory.



There's an old story often told in business training seminars, about two people who are out camping when they see a bear running at them. The one wants to start running to get away, but the other stops to put on running shoes. "Are you crazy?", the other person asks, "even with running shoes, you're not going to outrun the bear!" The person putting on the shoes responds, "I don't need to outrun the bear--I just need to outrun you."



The point of the story is to teach the lesson that, in business, sometimes there are better solutions to problems than the most obvious one. But no one who hears it actually thinks that the situation actually happened--that two people were actually chased by a bear, and one of them actually stopped to put on running shoes or that the conversation actually happened.



But for some reason, a significant portion of the population is unable to comprehend or accept that the Biblical story of creation (among others) is that sort of allegorical tale. They take it as absolute truth--The world was created in 7 days, Adam and Eve bit an apple, and they were then kicked out of Eden--naked, except for leaves. And possibly running shoes.

 

[Richard L]

I agree with both Hugh and Bill V.



The people who wrote the Bible (not God) did so from the stories told by others. They explained thing in the very limited technology they knew at the time, and does not even touch on how much others have embellished these stories over the years.



Also, we much consider the numerous errors in translation that have occurred as the original scriptures were translated from one language to another. Even now, many Biblical and language scholars disagree on some words used in translating the original scriptures to Greek. Ancient Hebrew and Arabic languages have words that are very unique and are very difficult to translate into more modern languages.



If you look at the root word of Theology it's Theory. Religion is a Theory, and Science starts as a Theory until proven right or wrong. Those who only believe in the religious explanation (theories) should also be willing to accept the scientific theories.



...Rich

 

[Mark K 2]

Follow-up to the original posting...

 

[H D]

Quoted from the above.

I feel so bad for those children (and I know a few who were raised that way and rebelled in a big way once they hit the age of 18)

Don't we all.

 

[Gavin Allan]

God Money I'd do anything for you...