Exploring possibilities- part one

Every person has a certain level of tolerance for those around them; some people are very open-minded, others so judgmental it's almost sickening.

For the most part, intolerance for any reason is propelled by a lack of knowledge about the person or idea that isn't tolerated, sometimes due to false stereotypes through the media, or passed along in a family.

I like to think about myself as a very tolerant person. I don't follow any sort of political ideals because very often they insist their way is the only way. I also tend to steer away from religion, but decided to share some thoughts today. I generally avoid conflict, and these, among other things, are hot topics for debate.

Here's the disclaimer for this blog. If you have very strong beliefs and a closed mind, you might be offended, angered, or upset because my views are not congruent with your own. I also must stress that I AM NOT presenting this in ANY way as the truth, just examining possibilities that I've considered, which may or may not be correct. If you are going to read all of this, be prepared to have an open mind- and if you'd like, you can share your own ideas with me through comment or at ashlw87@yahoo.com. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to change anyones views, just encouraging people to have an open mind to consider that their views are not the only way to look at things, and we should not judge each other or be hateful because of differing perspectives. For a story about different perspectives, click here to read about considering perspective. Also, please remember that I am not judging or discriminating, just exploring possibilities.

Today, I've been thinking about religion- who am I to name the higher power and spread the word, if I never heard the words myself? People are by nature sinful; how can we trust that the writers of the bible are accurate, honest, or even sane? We have no verification for this except the writings of other people. However, they can't be discredited either, because they migh be correct. I believe there us someplace we all go, but there's no way for a human being to determine the guidelines for where we go and why.

As far as evolution and creation theory are involved, it's possible that they could havehappened simultaneously. First the earth came to be. Is it possible that God (or any other higher power) made an explosion such as...say, a BIG BANG, which formed the planet? Absolutely. Is that what happened? I'm not in the position to say for certain, nor is any other human being. As far as the time frame- a minute in God's or any other realm could be thousands or millions of years. If he took a whole day to create the heavens and earth, I certainly see how it could be possible that the evolution of the earth could have happened in that time frame, so the evolutionists have their view, with fossils and carbon-dating, them there's the possibility that this planet that evolved could have been created by a higher power.

The Christian bible proposes that first light and dark were created, then the water from the skies on day 2, land emerges on day 3 and plants, grass and trees, separating light from dark to create days, seasons and years. In earth time, this could have occurred in any number of years, but it was defined as 'days' by the bible. Considering measurement of time was not thoroughly developed until well after the 13th century, it's feasible that a day could last any amount of time in ancient time, since we only know they had "very primitive" methods (but not tools) with which to tell time.

When tools were developed to tell time, they varied between cultures and regions. Keeping a definition of time that would be used all over the world would not be created until the 19th and 20th century. Therefore, determination of the time perspective from both a higher power and communicating time between regions before documented, recorded time is pretty much frivolous. A variety of explanations can be hypothesized, but there's really no reliable way to be certain.

For now, that's all I care to talk about as far as religion goes, although I have a feeling that my perspectives on these things. Of course, all of this material is open for individual interpretation (and yes, I could be wrong too).