ward@hao.UUCP (Mike Ward) (03/17/85)
[] >I'd sign it. However, (and this obviates or vitiates much of the >point of Bill's posting) I would not sign it if a clause such as the >following were added: "Point (2) means literal week and I will never >consider whether it could possibly mean anything else." Here we have the classical "out" that is required for all who profess to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. "It don't really mean what it says!!!" Week doesn't mean week, day isn't really day. Black is white and war is peace. Come on, Paul. If Genesis is a statement of simple historical fact, then the words mean what they mean, and not whatever you feel like making them mean. Not even Hayakawa tried to make words *THAT* mushy. (Obscure reference, anyone?) -- Michael Ward, NCAR/SCD UUCP: {hplabs,nbires,brl-bmd,seismo,menlo70,stcvax}!hao!ward ARPA: hplabs!hao!ward@Berkeley BELL: 303-497-1252 USPS: POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307
beth@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (beth d. christy) (03/26/85)
Come on now, be reasonable. You simply can't force anyone to say that the week in Genesis refers to exactly the same amount of time as a week does now. A week currently refers to 7 days, with a day being the length of time it takes for the earth to rotate. Firmament wasn't seperated from the heavens until the second 'day', so there was *no* earth to rotate to give us the 24 hour unit of time currently called a day. Day clearly refers to some other length of time, and hence 6 or 7 of 'em does too.