Whatever. My horoscope is always on with the predictions. It told me I was gonna wear brown socks to work today and low-and-behold, here I am with brown socks. Can't argue with that!

Austin, that depends on whether you read it before or after you got dressed !

Astrology is almost as ridiculous as creation "science."

Creation science? Do you mean Intelligent Design? Science can help us try to understand our physical world by what we can observe and test. Those observations and experiments point to the metaphysical when looking at the origin of our universe. While the metaphysical cannot be observed or scientifically verified, an intelligent creator is actually the best and simplest explanation for the evidence we can see, and is no less valid than any other theory. I would hardly call that ridiculous, unless you feel there is a reason to reject that possibility a priori because of some preconceived bias. Unfortunately, that is how many in science approach the question. Thankfully, there are also scientists that will follow the evidence wherever it leads. Erik, while you may not believe in the Bible or in Jesus Christ, you would have to ignore a lot of powerful evidence to rule out a creator.

Hello Eric,
Good to see you are still around lurking in the shadows. I was wondering about you the other morning while I was preparing to pray, I was wondering how you were and what was going to come up in the devotions to peak your interest. I am still praying for you and will be glad when you announce your decision for Christ. For the devotion today, I have a question, can we group astrology with Chinese fortune cookies? The advice I find in them seem just as logical as the advice you read from astrologists. Just wondering. God bless and have a good day.
P.S. If people don't believe in creation then how do they explain where any of the matter come from that started everything? There had to be a starting point and if so where did that point begin?

Erik, prayed for you again last night.

RickY and Jerry: Science makes no claims about the ultimate origin of the universe. That is a question it can not address. I am specifically referring to the ridiculous notions of creationism that are promoted by people who try to turn Genesis into a science text. The earth is many billions of years old, not 6000 as the Bible teaches.

Jerry: Astrology is actually fairly complex and does contain some valuable wisdom in that it teaches us about ourselves and our mythologies. There is actually quite a bit of astrology in the Bible (the Jews were influence by Babylonian astro-mythology). Those 'wise men' who came to see Jesus were in fact astrologers. Isn't it sad to see that people still believe silly things such as astrology today?

Christ Follower- thanks for the thoughts, but unfortunately it looks like your prayers for me are having about the same effect as most
prayers.

Erik- It is not who prays that makes a prayer powerful, but who it is prayed to. After all these years I have come to realize that God works on his own time table not mine.It does not affect my faith that there are no immediate results, but I have found that there are ALWAYS results and answers to my prayers-ALWAYS.

now you sound like an astrologer

Only if I had given you a certain month, day, and time :-)

Erik - Would you please consider reading "A Case For Faith" by Lee Strobel? It has a great chapter discussing the various creation explanations. The interesting thing to me is how much scientific evidence there is for intelligent design by an Intelligent Creator. It's quite eye-opening and fascinating. DNA and the proteins involved are so incredibly complex that you begin to see just how unlikey that this all just happened to come perfectly together without a creator and designer. I would suggest giving it a try to see that we all can have confidence in how the earth was created. People throw out a few terribly unlikely theories to dismiss God as the magnificent creator that He is.

Melanie: thanks for the suggestion. I have read all of Lee Strobel's books. He is a disingenuous, self-important coward. Also I have a degree in molecular biology-- that's DNA for you folks who went to Christian schools-- and I can tell you there is ZERO evidence for any intelligent design/creator. In fact the evidence points in the exact opposite direction, to evolution by means of natural selection.

Why so angry all the time, E?

ANd you are right, one of the most complex things in the world, the double helix of DNA certainly does not point to a creator. These things just happen.

"just happens"...how much faith does that take????? good luck with that...you'll need it!

Erik: Science makes claims all the time about the origin of the universe. It generally leaves out anything supernatural as a possible cause. That's my point. With a degree in molecular biology (I went to a public school, but since it was one of the better ones, I am aware that involves DNA), I would think that you would be open to intelligent design if you had an open mind. Natural selection has no explanatory power for the origin of the universe, the origin of life, or the complexity of life. DNA is complex code that we now know contains the instructions for how build a multitude of things. When you come across complex information like that, it strongly implies that someone purposely wrote it. You can fumble around for theories that try to explain how that information could have arisen by pure chance, but an intelligent creator is a far simpler and more valid explanation, especially considering the time constraints on an earth that is 4-5 billion years-old in a universe that is not much older. Yes, I don't believe that the earth is 6,000 years old, and have no problem reconciling my beliefs with the biblical account. If that's a stumbling block for you, you should let it go and look at the scientific evidence that is all around you with an open mind.

1) I'm open to anything. There is just no evidence for intelligent design. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.
2)Natural selection does not address the origin of the universe or the origin of life.
3)Your repeating the nonsense of Professor William Dumbski, a nutjob mathematician who knows nothing about biology. "God just did it" solves nothing.

So I take it, RickY, that you don't believe those "days" in Genesis are literal 24-hour days. Is that the case?

I think you are being disingenuous by saying there is no evidence. If you said the evidence is not convincing enough for you, that would be one thing, but to say there is no evidence proves you are ignoring anything that does not fit in your world view. I've not read William Dembski (why the need to make fun of his name), although I am familiar with other ID proponents that are biologists, physicists and the like. They are scientists that have put forth good evidence for ID. Their arguments are sound and provide challenging questions for those who hold to a naturalistic view. "Nature just did it" solves nothing, either.

Rick Y, you believe the 6 day creation in Genesis is literal, yes or no?

I don't claim to know, Erik. I have no problem believing God could create everything we see in six literal days. I just don't think the evidence supports that it happened that way. I think it is more likely that the idea of a "day" in this case is a little different for God. Considering we are talking about a timeless creator, and that time itself did not exist before the creation of the universe, that does not cause any problems for me.

Ok, now we are getting somewhere. The six days thing is probably a metaphor because all the evidence shows that the earth is billions of years old rather than thousands, yes. So what else do you suppose is not literally true? Garden of Eden? Talking snake? Giant man-angels? World-wide flood?

Eric, you should accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, repent of your evil, wicked ways and then ask God those same questions, if you really want to know. Otherwise, you can use that degree of yours to calculate exactly what will happen to your molecules when they hit that lake of fire.

Thanks for that, Keith R. Bless your heart too.

The Bible tells us that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day so the creation could have taken six days or it could have taken six thousand years. But then again he is God so it could have taken six seconds, time really doesn't mean much to God. The point is, yes creation happened as the Bible says it did. We have gone over this argument many times on this forum and yet still no one has changed their minds so why don't we just agree to disagree? As I have said before if it isn't real what have I lost? If it is real what have you lost? I'll take the word of God anyday over what some one tries to disprove. It hasn't cost myself or Eric or any one else who has posted, any money. We all are going to die one day as the natural man is concerned but the spiritual man needs to be in shape for what we will face in the hereafter. Call me stupid or simple but I know I will serve the Lord.

The time frame between Genesis 1:1,2 and Genesis 1:3 could have been billions of years. This is most likely when God created the angels and then satan and 1/3 of the rest of the angels fell.

However, the creation that we know, starting in vs 3 took six days and occurred about 6500 years ago according to God. What is the point of trying to figure out if He was talking about a 24 hour day or a 1000 year day. He said 'day' so we should say 'day'. We should not try to reconcile the scripture to fit what the world says just so we don't look like idiots. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Nothing is impossible for God!!!

A day is a day, huh? Well ok, I believe you but don't tell that heretic, RickY.

I see Erik is still trying to pit Christians against Christians. Have you no shame Erik? You are all bluff for the sake of your own entertainment. God is truth. Jerry is right about no one has changed their mind based on what anyone has posted so let's just agree to disagree. People are still praying for you Erik. In God's time, in God's way....the rest of the Erik story.