I'm having some trouble with the colors on this post, but there's one color for something that someone else said and then there's my response in another color. Also, I apologize for it taking me so long to reply to this. It's almost finals week here and things have gotten to be a bit crazy! One more week to go!

Nephilim: Um, the Fall? Original Sin? Ring any bells? Being kicked out of Eden because of it-- they knew of good and evil, and so could not be allowed to eat from the tree of life. God did not create humans to sin, thus they were meant to be in Eden. Yes, they were in Eden, but when God was telling them what to do and what not to do, he didn?t say anything about leaving Eden. That?s why I say that God never intended for them to only be in Eden. But I see what you?re saying about them being kicked out. But they were also locked out. Perhaps when they had multiplied several times, there would be a need to expand to the area outside of Eden, though the area would still remain unlocked. So, I see what you?re saying, though it seems to me that there?s nothing in the bible which says that they were only to inhabit Eden.

No wait, you're wrong.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." [...]
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning?the sixth day.
This clearly takes place during creation. [color=yellow]You?re absolutely correct. I focused too much on the wording. He actually did say ?be fruitful and multiply? to a man later in the bible under the circumstances which I?ve already stated. But you?re right, he did say something to that effect to Adam and Eve. Sorry, they've gotten us focusing on the wording of sentences in my english class.

Ghamu: Why are we left with that question? Why did it have to 'come' from anywhere? Far as we know, it could have been around forever. Because no scientific mind would settle with ?well, it just happens?. That?s the foundation of science: figuring out why stuff happens.There?s no such thing as ?forever?. There had to be a starting point. If we can?t agree on that, then we can?t discuss any of this. There had to be a beginning. That?s just basic. And we know that nothing just happens on it?s own. So, I don?t have any answers. But it had to start at some point. And even if there was simply a ?big bang,? something made that happen and the material had to come from somewhere. So, you?re left with just as many questions as you had before. But this can all the thrown in the face of the faithful. Even if God did create the material and made stuff happen, where did God come from? Who created him? We?re still left with questions which we cannot answer. But we are still left with those questions.

Isn't trying to do the 'right' quite admirable, though? The christian doesn't have to bother with that, but can be as cantankerous and unpleasant as he/she likes, because it's not actions, but rather what you believe in that determines your worth? Ofcourse it's admirable. And ofcourse the Christian does have to bother with that. Like Christians can just do whatever and have it be okay? Yes, forgiveness is part of the thing. And everybody is guilty. There is nobody who is free from it. I think know exactly what you?re talking about and I think I know exactly the type of people that you?re talking about, believe me! But I?m not really talking about those people when I talk about Christians. I?m talking about the right kind-and there are not too many of ?em around.

The Greeks have already been mentioned, so I thought I'd point that what little classical Greek literature I'm familiar with (pretty much limited to Homer's 'The Iliad', though, so I might be a bit biased) the Greek gods pretty much did nothing else but meddle in the affairs of mortals and 'descend to Earth' to cause trouble (or to fix some mess some other god had caused). And then there's the hinduist god Krishna that comes here every once in while to hang around with pretty ladies and whatnot.

But all that aside, every religion has something that makes it unique, for if it didn't, we wouldn't call it by a seperate name. Well, ok, I guess there's always the kind of people that try to reinvent 'truths' that been around for decades or hundreds of years by giving them a new name. Can't think of any at the top of my head, but anyone's welcome to chime in with whatever examples they can think of.

I'd also like to point out that there are other stories of creation than the christian '7 days'-version, and that I think human science probably had very little to do with creating the Universe. (Hey, that's what the original question seemed to suggest! To me, at least...) I?ve also studied the Greeks. All in all, you?re left with interesting story lines, but it doesn?t seem to me to be the same sort of thing as Christianity. God reveals himself through Jesus. There is proof that Jesus existed and that people saw what people believe he has done first hand. I haven?t seen anything from the Greeks which suggested that any of what they believed, they actually saw happen. That leads me to believe that they were more along the lines of stories that do seem reasonable to simple minds.

SimbaTheLion: Um, yes it is lol, just you have to be very good at physics to understand most of the reasons why ... I didn?t realize that physics had anything to do with what we are presently talking about. But I?m all ears. Care to fill me in? I?ve taken some physics courses. And there?s actually not many things which can?t be explained to general audiences if you dumb the language down. So, care to do that for me? I?m not trying to be a smart aleck-I just havent heard anything along those lines and am curious. But other than that, I?ve actually recently worked with the scientific material involving this topic and there is actually not any scientific proof that there does not exist God. Evolution doesn?t disprove God. Nothing in science disproves God. But faith does have proof of God. We have a person who ran around the Earth performing miracles, walking on water, coming back from the dead and (for all intents and purposes) screaming to everyone that he has come from God, that he knows God and that God is the way. I mean, what more proof do you need than that? People cannot do that. People saw him do this firsthand. I just don?t see why people act like it is much more reasonable for people to believe in science than faith. Science has nothing to offer as to why it couldn?t happen, faith has someone who?s run around doing things that are not possible, telling them that it is because of God. For me, it seems much more reasonable to believe Jesus than to stand with a test tube claiming ?one of these days...I?ll find a way to disprove it?.