When did you accept God in your life, or realize you did not believe in him?

http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2002/03/did-israels-exodus-from-egypt-actually.php

 

I read the link, G, and I've gotta say that's a heck of a strong case. I'm going to do some researching on my own and see if I can dig up anything to refute that. I have to admit, I'm a little shaken -- not my faith, but in my confidence in this part of the Biblical record. I will revisit this...

 

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism


Worship of a single god within a pantheon and the abolition of all others may be monotheism, as in the case of the Aten cult in the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, under the wifely influence of the Eastern-originating Nefertiti. Iconoclasm during this pharaoh's rule is considered a chief origin for Abrahamic destruction of idols, holding no other God before the preferred deity (dually and subtly acknowledging the existence of the other gods, but only as foes to be destroyed for their drawing of attention away from the primary diety). The monotheism as inherited by the Israelites in Exodus by Moses, is supposed, by those who hold that the Israelites are the Hyksos, to be an inheritance of Akhenaten's religious policies, as the Jews were formerly polytheist like the Egyptians. Other issues like the Divine Right of Kings also stems from pharaohic laws on the ruler being the demigod or representative of the Creator on Earth. The massive tombs in the Egyptian pyramids which aligned with astronomical observations, exemplifies this relationship between the pharaoh and the heavens and was subsequently adopted by Christian royalty by claiming a direct lease on ruling by God.

Zoroastrianism is considered by some to be the earliest monotheistic belief to have evolved among humanity, though some derivatives of it are not fully so, as the chief god in derivatives such as Zurvanism is not the sole creator. It has been theorised that Judaism was influenced by Zoroastrianism, mostly during the babylonian captivity, after which the many parts of the Old Testament were written and redacted. Earlier Judaism is assumed to have claimed only that YHVH was a tribal deity (possibly related to Yaw) who was the patron of the descendants of Abraham, or that there were many gods but that theirs was the most powerful. This view is not compatible with the modern self-understanding of the Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - which traditionally insist that exclusive monotheism is the original religion of all mankind, all other gods being viewed as idols and creatures which wrongly came to be worshipped as deities.

Several professors of archaeology have made the controversial claim that many stories in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, including important chronicles about Moses, Solomon, and others, were actually initially developed by scribes employed by King Josiah (7th century BC) to rationalize monotheistic belief in YHVH. This theory observes that the neighbouring countries, such as Egypt, Persia etc, although keeping written records, have no writings about the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. Such claims are detailed in Who Were the Early Israelites? by William G. Dever, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI (2003). Another such book is The Bible Unearthed by Neil A. Silberman and colleagues, Simon and Schuster, New York (2001).

 

But where exactly where those chariots found? If they were found in the middle of the sea, then yes, that's perplexing, but if it was near the shore, more than likely, the waters shifted to cover those chariots. I remember watching something on the Discovery Channel where they mentioned a city on the coast of Egypt that is not underwater, but at one time was on land like 2000 years ago. There was also a ship that had sank partially into the mud in Texas 170 years ago, and now it's completely underwater. Basically what I'm saying is, the oceans constantly change.

 

I know, and when exactly will we know? 1000 years ago at the dawn of the first millennia AD, that was supposed to be when Christ came back, and with the Y2K thing in 2000, my preacher (not the crooked one) would have bet his life that Jesus was coming down on his white horse when that clock struck midnight. Haven't all of those vague predictions come true?

 

Yep, I was about to post that same site in response to you first post, but he beat me to it. Plus I had forgotten to bookmark it and I couldnt remember the name of it

 

so all genes would have had to have been present in the original organism?

 

is that supposed to be the logical extension of my statement?

to answer the question, tho, no. for evolution to work, genetic material would need to be mainly hereditary with the potential for genetic mutation at some point between generations. i have no particular theory about how this would come to pass, but i don't believe it's a deal breaker for evolution. i mean, if you accept the idea that our entire physical being is encoded into a microscopic bit of genetic material that directs out bodies to produce the right chemical at the right time to not only form a new life, but to also guide it through the myriad changes it goes thru as it matures and eventually grows old... if you can can accept that is a chemical process, then i think it's not hard to accept that those genes might get a bit more or less material every now and again.

plus, human are frequently born with additional chromosomes. no reason to think other animals aren't.

 

Agreed. But as far as I know, those chariots and armor pieces were found roughly in the middle.

 

The short answer is, we won't know until it actually happens. And there really isn't any way of knowing when that will be. People have made educated guesses about when it will happen, but obviously they were mistaken. Y2K was a popular one, as was 1948.