On Creationism

Having looked at Zechariah, I thought I would look at some other minor prophets. This is a brief overview of ten of the last twelve books of the Old Testament, known as the Minor Prophets (Hosea and Zechariah being the other two). Just 39 chapters between the ten of them. All these books except Jonah have the same general theme of anger at the sinful nature of the people, the threat of God visiting terrible calamities if it goes on, but the promise of greatness for Israel if they live according to God's laws. We can see the beginning of the Pharisaic position here; they believed that following God's laws were vital too, but the greatness for Israel had evolved into the messianic age, the coming of the kingdom of God including the resurrection of the dead. There is, however, very little to suggest The Messiah, as opposed to a messiah, a new king. Today, Christianity gives us the carrot and stick, where the carrot is the promise of heaven, and the stick is the threat of hel...

Zechariah chapters 1 to 8 are generally believed to be authentic, i.e., actually written by Zechariah around 518 BCE. The later chapters, 9 to 14, are considered later additions, though perhaps not much later, possibly added by a disciple of Zechariah a generation or so later. Background In 539 BCE, the Persians conquered Babylon, and the following year a decree by Cyrus allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem. Between 520 and 515, under the rule of Darius the Great (son-in-law of Cyrus), the second temple was built - the Persians believed in keeping their vassals happy to prevent them rebelling. Darius was considered a messiah for his actions. At this time, the High Priest was Joshua, and the Jews were ruled by Zerubbabel, who was the grandson of Jeconiah, the king who had ruled for just three months before capture by Babylon. Although Zerubbabel was of royal descent, he was not king, but rather he was governor of that province. Note that both Joshua and Zerubbabel were considered m...

Christianity is adamant that the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52-53 is a prophecy about Jesus. The alternative position is that it is about the nation of Israel. Note that there is some evidence that Jews also took the position this was a messianic prophecy, only abandoning that when Christianity became strong. However, that certainly does not indicate it was originally intended in that way. Isaiah lived shortly before the Babylonia captivity, and many scholars believe chapters 1-39 date from that time. Chapters 40 to 55 appear to have been written much later, during the captivity, and 56 to 66 after the captivity. The evidence for this is largely internal. Only the earlier chapters mention the name "Isaiah". The part we are interested presents itself as written during the Babylonia Captivity, and it is generally accepted that that is the case. It does, however, look to a time when the Jews are free to return to Jerusalem (not relevant here, but worth noting for completene...

Cold-Case Christianity is a book by J Warner Wallace. Wallace is (was?) a detective, and he uses the techniques he learned as a cop to look at the resurrection of Jesus, among other things (a PDF of the book can be found on-line). The first 35 pages of the book are about thinking like a detective. How to look at clues, how to be logical, and how to avoid presuppositions. On page 40, we get to Jesus: An Ancient Death-Scene Investigation Now it’s time to apply this form of reasoning to a death scene that has been the topic of discussion for over two thousand years. What happened to Jesus of Nazareth? How can we explain His empty tomb? Did His disciples steal His body? Was He only injured on the cross and later recovered? Did He actually die and resurrect from the dead? We can approach these questions as detectives, using abductive reasoning. And right from the first paragraph, we see the author has presupposed something! He is assuming an empty tomb. In fairness, he goes on to...

Some Christians argue that the Gospel of Luke was written early because (among other things) it is cited by Paul. The labourer is worthy of his reward 1 Tim. 5:17 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. 18 For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. Here it is in Luke: Luke 10:7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. This argument has a number of issues... The Epistle was not written by Paul Most modern scholars believe 1 Timothy to be pseudographa, written later first century or even second century. This gives it plenty of time to quote Luke. A Compilation The author of Luke makes no claim to be an eye witness, but instead is a compiler. He has collected various texts and accounts and woven them into one ...

Daniel is written from the perspective of someone living at the time of the Babylonian Captivity, and the first half is about the author keeping his faith despite many tribulations. The second half, from chapter nine onwards, are a supposed prophesy detailing what will befall Israel in the next five centuries. This prophesy is amazingly accurate up to a point, then suddenly gets a lot wrong, and most modern scholars date the book to that point, about 167 BC. Context At the time Daniel was written (assuming a later dating), Israel was ruled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, of the Seleucid Empire. The Jews were split between those who embraced Hellenisation and those who did not. Rumours had circulate Jerusalem that Antiochus had died in battle in Egypt, and the traditionalist Jews took the opportunity to seize power. The rumours were untrue, and when Antiochus returned, he sided with the Hellenised Jews, and set about stopping the traditional practices of Judaism, and among other things ...

The Book of Daniel was one of the last written in the OT, and in many ways one of the most important. Many Christians say it prophesises Jesus, and according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus himself referenced it (also Mark 14:15, but without explicitly saying Daniel): Matthew 24:15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. There are two schools of thought on the dating of the Book of Daniel. It is written from the perspective of a man living through the Babylonia Captivity, seeing a vision of the future. He is told to seal up the words until they are needed: Dan 12:4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.” Accordingly, the text was unsealed around ,164 BC, and the book became well known. This then is the earlier dating. ...

How much of this planet is habitable? Without building a boat, plane or platform, we are limited to dry land, and a zone about about 2 m high - and even some of that is not habitable. According to here , the habitable land is slightly over 100 million km 2 , which is 10 8 km 2 or 10 14 m 2 . The habitable volume is then about 2x10 14 m 3 . But hey, we will be generous, and suppose mankind can spread across the entire world (5x10 14 m 2 ), and build up to a 1000 m up (highest building is 828 m, but still). So there is a living volume of 5x10 17 m3 on Earth. Sounds like a lot, right? Compared to how much of the solar system we cannot live it, that is nothing. The nearest star is slight over 4 light years away, so we can safely consider the solar system to be contained in a sphere of radius 2 light years (in fact that stil allows plenty of empty space between star systems). That is nearly 2x10 16 m. This gives a volume of: 4/3x3.142x(2x10 16 ) 3 3x10 49 m 3 The per...