Just The theme is the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham. As you wrote, 'we are all a little selfish'. The whole purpose of God is to persuade people to rise above that selfishness and treat their neighbours fairly. Some do, some don't. Adam
On Sep 30, 11:29 pm, Justintruth <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Adam, > > I have one important question and one irrelevant comment if you have > the time to indulge me. You wrote: > > >... I believe it (the bible) to be true because it all hangs together.... > >You also wrote: > I found a consistent theme running through the whole book. > >This > convinced me that it was true. > > Can you explain more about that? What theme and what does "hangs > together" mean and why does that convince you that what is in it is > true? Is it that the stories are related or the theme is always there > or ??? If there were two books that hung together and had consistent > themes but told different contradictory stories how would you know > which was true? > > Second question is more of a comment. You wrote > > > That (meaning assuming that selfishness was passed down culturally instead > > of genetically) would assume that all cultures teach the same thing. > > I don't see why you say that. It seems that all cultures could teach > all kinds of very different things as long as they all teach > selfishness. So I think you must establish 1) That we are in fact > universally selfish and 2) That that trait is genetically based. > > I have trouble believing 1) completely. Ok, we are all a little > selfish but there is a lot of generosity. One day a man even jumped on > someone who had fallen on a railroad subway track and held him as the > cars passed over them in order to save his life. That man risked > everything for a stranger. I am also reminded of the man from... can't > remember the name of the town but it is in the bible..ahh I remember ! > the good Samaritan, I think he was from Samaria or something. He was > from a different place and was the only one to stop and help. So it > seems to me that at least sometimes we are not selfish. (Or perhaps it > was a wise selfish gene that he had and he was trying to preserve all > of humanity as most of our genes are common? Either way he did not > seem selfish. Nor does it seem that... was it Peter who wanted to be > crucified upside down? .... was that selfish?) > > As an aside I do not think the selfish gene means a gene that makes > someone selfish. I think it means that all genes seem selfish because > only by creating traits that cause themselves to survive do they in > fact survive. In fact there are many "unselfish" genes. Many mutations > cause harmful effects and are therefore self sacrificial. Those > "unselfish" genes do not survive. So if you had a mutation that caused > you to be a terribly selfish person but that made you sterile then no > matter how selfish you were, from a genetic point of view, the gene > would have been completely unselfish, self sacrificial, and not > competitive. It would die. > > But this is just an aside and it is unimportant compared to the > question above so fee free not to respond except to the question if > you don't have time. > > Thanks --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
