[Alan McDougall (OP)]

Does god want us to murder each other because of self perceived morals that simply do not interest this colossal mind ?

I think if he is "original awareness". "the thought behind all existence", "the uncaused cause" "the alpha and omega points", "the immovable rock", "source and sustainer of existence" he just might not care.

Do we care if cockroaches eat each other or is god more personal to man?

Presuming god is infinite then we humans are much closer to a cockroach than an infinite god. Or are we made uniquely in the image of his mind, be it on a minute scale?

Thus my thread on fundamental constants! Who ran around the universe putting up traffic signs saying faster than light speed forbidden. Why the heck must we be limited to C. Maybe god made it this way to keep us firmly based on planet earth.

Regards

Alan

[_Stefan_]

Alan, please. If you have no evidence, what is the point of going on about the designer?

Re: Steven Hawking. From what I've read about this, he is not rejecting the big bang. He is simply trying to adjust the model. Can someone who is more familiar with this, fill us in please?

Mad man, were these records contemporaneous? Do you have any references?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are religious texts. Why should they be considered seriously?

Soul Surfer,

I personally consider that without the large scale long term unification of the first complex societies that were greated by religion we would still be roaming around in small tribal groups hunting and gathering and killing people off when things got overcrowded.

Does the evidence support this hypothesis, though?

Is religion simply a side effect of developing complex societies, rather than an aide to them?

Much of the Bible is instructive. Also, where is the metaphor in the trinity, and how does this logically connect to your interpretations?

[that mad man]

Mad man, were these records contemporaneous? Do you have any references?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are religious texts. Why should they be considered seriously?

The Roman records may not have been contemporaneous but were written within a few years of each other and have remained untouched or unaltered, unlike the modern bibles books. I don't have any references with me or any sources as this was from studying many years ago but I would think the net would have plenty of references.

Although the Dead Sea Scrolls are religious texts they have remained unaltered and untouched since being written and do depict the history of a Jewish religious sect.
Most of the translations or what is known about them seem to back up and reinforce the Old Testament writings which were written down at the time and remain for most part unaltered. Its the modern New Testament which has changed with books and some dubious writings being added later to reinforce the new "Christian" doctrine.

[_Stefan_]

Thanks Mad man, I'll look them up when I get the time.

[Alan McDougall (OP)]

Just to add;

When For instance the modern version of the book of Isiah was compared to the approx 3000 year old Dead sea scroll version, they were found to be identical