Now I think it is time to set the matters straight. At least, I am going to have a damn good try. Using the neatly clipped editions available on You Tube I am going to point out places where discussion of alternative conclusions might have been inserted to make the series priceless.
Here is the first part of Episode 1: https://youtu.be/YpbevfWrYg0
Five and an half minutes into the programme, the narrator speaks about discoveries in Southern Africa. Could the Barberton mountains be a region from before the life on earth began?
There is no reason to suppose it might not be but a body would be a fool to pass over any alternative consideration. Not that it makes any difference to any that did or didn't live way back them. They will all be dead by now. But it IS something that brings creature comfort to monkeys.
But any man who considers himself to be a monkey automatically denies he is a creature, since he no longer believes in creation. So creature comforts are thus denied him. Hence I have no problems discomfiting such.
The most obvious reason for the lack of fossils in any region is the likelihood for their not forming, not that they never could have.
So what alternatives are there?
1. The mountains were already mountains at the time of fossil formation.
2. All subsequent layering never happened, despite the presence of life in the region.
3. The fossils were all washed away somehow.
These were just ideas I came up with in the last few minutes, at the time of wring this post. What the narrator goes on to suggest is actually stupid:
6:15: Two hundred years ago, people in the western world would have believed quite literally in the story of creation. Genesis tells us that god created the earth and all the living creatures in JUST six days...
But it doesn't. And who really knows what anyone believed 200 years ago?
Since there were people willing to commit hideous crimes (just as there are today) some obviously subscribed to the idea of Survival of the Fittest.
6:30 He says that the biblical account implies earth and human history began at the same moment.
The truth is that in the western world, since the dark ages, all so called Christian beliefs were controlled by the Pope. Any that protested the hierarchy were dealt with violently. The facts are that the Catholic idea of creation was very wide of the bare statements about creation mentioned in the bible. And as for the chronology of that church's fathers, they officially believed in a geo-centric solar system and universe until very recently.
A man may be excused for his ignorance but to fail to check his facts and making such monstrous errors is a great pity. But not unusual. I don't wish to put anyone off looking for himself but here is the description Moses came up with:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now
the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day."
It doesn't mention anything about life outside the spiritual universe. It does mention a day. But it doesn't say where.
It mentions waters but we don't know what is meant by the term "waters". If there was no light until the spirit started warming the chaos up, there is unlikely to have been any heat either since they are one and the same thing.
If there was no heat, there was no water. Not literal water, at least. But be honest, considering he was a single man working off his own bat with little of no guidance from the other monkeys, you have to admit that what Moses wrote has stood the test of time remarkably well.
Now do yourself a favour and look up the meaning of Right Ascension. Mr Manning never. But then he never read my blog, did he?
These days everyone has access to any amount of translations of the Genesis account. Here is Young's version but I have brought the language up to date:
In the beginning of God’s preparing the heavens and the earth the
earth existed waste and void and darkness on the face of
the deep and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters and God said, ‘Let light be;’ and light is.
And God saw the light, that [it is] good, and God separated the light and the darkness and
God called the light ‘Day,’ and the darkness He called
‘Night;’ and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day one.
I may have taken liberties but than Young did the same. For one example, the original languages used completely different forms of punctuation. Obvious difficulties existed in translation especially in his day. But since then more versions and copies of earlier versions have been found.
***
And that is the end of part One of Episode 1.
I am rather tempted to continue...
