Are you familiar with the book of Revelation? If you read the first few verses you will note that revelation is not a book of prophesy. It is a historical account of the end of the world. God took John of patmos and placed him in a position to record all that he saw, and told him to do his best to describe the following events. John did not live at that time, yet God gave him a oppertunity to witness it.
Genesis would have happened in a similiar way.
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Why, sure, that's how Genesis was written. God zapped St. Marty McFly with the old time travel ray and that's how we know god did it all.
On the other hand, Occam's razor tells us that, rather than buying into this tub of BS, we continue to search for a reality-driven response to the question how did the universe begin.
Funny how during the end of the world all of modern technology has disappeared and we will once again be riding horses and fighting with swords. I mean, you'd think at least one firearm would still be operational.
Also strange that John forgot to write about things like electric lights or automobiles, something which would have blown a bronze-ager's mind more than the mushrooms he ingested to get the inspiration for Revelation.
" If you read the first few verses you will note that revelation is not a book of prophesy. It is a historical account of the end of the world."
The Reagan regime in the 1980s used this historical account to get the drop on the atheistic Soviets, because it was clear that the events in revelation were discribing 1983, and the end of the world was at most a few years away.
Or maybe you were born yesterday and are easily conned.
No, Revelation is not prophecy. It is merely one example of a genre of religious inspirational literature collectively called "apocalypses." We have or have references to numerous other examples, including an Apocalypse of Peter (which many thought should be part of the New Testament canon), an Apocalypse of Moses, an Apocalypse of Mary and even an Apocalypse of Adam. There is also The Shepherd of Hermas, another book many thought should be in the New testament. The apocalypses shared two major themes and several genre conventions. Overall, Revelation does not stand out from the rest of its genre in any significant way.
So how did the Apocalypse of John aka Revelation get into the canon? First of all, its was older than a lot of the others in the genre. Second, it was written by someone who shared the name of a disciple, but wasn't obviously forged in the name of that disciple. That would allow the priests to dupe their followers into thinking the book had apostolic authority.
Do come back the next time you need a lesson in your religion.
"Genesis would have happened in a similiar way."
So, you're admitting that the stories in Genesis didn't actually happen, eh?
It is a historical account of the end of the world.
Unless the world already ended, it can't possibly be a historical account.
Let me get this straight.
Revelation (which is a written account of a bad acid trip) is a historical account of the end of the world? I don't know about you, but you can't have a historical account of something that hasn't happened yet.
No, Revelations isn't a prophetic account of an end to the world: it's a condemnation of the Roman Empire under Nero vicariously depicting that empire's fall, written at a time Rome was butally suppressing Jewish revolt and vigorously persecuting 1st century Christians.
Now now, fellas.
The Book of Revelation is no more of an acid trip than the earlier (Old Testament) Book of Daniel:
“After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule."
-- Daniel 7:6
It is a historical account of the end of the world.
Learn2English, idiot. You can't have a historical account of something that is still to happen in the far future.
From Dictionary.com :
proph·e·sy [prof-uh-sahy] Show IPA verb, proph·e·sied, proph·e·sy·ing.
verb (used with object)
1. to foretell or predict.
2. to indicate beforehand.
3. to declare or foretell by or as if by divine inspiration.
4. to utter in prophecy or as a prophet.
verb (used without object)
5. to make predictions.
6. to make inspired declarations of what is to come.
7. to speak as a mediator between God and humankind or in God's stead.
8. Archaic. to teach religious subjects.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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