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Well, Craig, I try to avoid lumps whenever possible, whether making mashed potatoes or classifying people. You are correct, I was a Dylan fan from the day I bought (this must have been the eraly -VERY early 1960's) an anthology album on Folkways titled 'Broadside No. 1', which featured three of his songs, 'Only a Hobo' (still one of my favorite Dylan songs), 'John Brown' and 'Talking Devil'. They were sung by 'Blind Boy Grunt'. A few weeks later I bought his first album on Columbia, hoping that his voice would be more pleasing than Blind Boy's. Of course it wasn't, and I gradually figured out that they were the same person. Now, Craig, regarding 'questioning the core beliefs of Christianity', to me the core beliefs are these: Love God, keep His commandments, love your neighbor as yourself, help the poor, heed the message of the Sermon on the Mount. Follow His teachings and try to use His life as a guide to living your own, realizing, of course, that you will always fall short of perfection. Denying scientific facts is not a core belief of Christianity. Accepting the Bible as a textbook on biology, astronomy, or physics is not a core belief of Christianity. Beliefs like the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection are in another category entirely. These must be accepted by faith, and they vary from one manifestation of Christianity to another. Catholics, Orthodox, and some Protestants, for example, accept the Real Presence as firmly as the Divinity of Christ. Other Protestants reject the Real Presence entirely. While I have never denied any of these 'mysteries of faith', they can neither be proven nor disproven. That is not the case with scientific facts, and I don't believe one 'serves the Lord' by cutting oneself off from the real world. I note this morning another thread, not directed toward me, in which the question is posed: 'What if it could be proven that the earth is a million years old?' Caf's response is that he would believe it if it could be proven, but it hasn't been proven and he's confident it won't be proven. I share his confidence. The HUMAN RACE is at least a million years old, the animal kingdom many, many millions of years older and the earth itself more than a billion, according to scientific research. It's amazing to me that there are still people, otherwise intelligent, who muse over whether the earth could possibly be more than a few thousand years old. That's not faith, that's foolishness. That has nothing to do with serving the Lord. It is rather misuse, or outright abandonment, of the intellect that God has given us 'in His own image'. Still, I'm thankful that there is religious freedom. This must be guarded and preserved always.
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