Good points from John which I think conclusively answer beliefs some (not myself) Christians may have that moral ideas and equality were absent pre 30-33AD.I've appreciate both standpoints in this Blog! I think the source of Jesus' & Paul's beliefs has to be founded in OT theology due to their context which was most certainly Jewish?

(James Thompson, on "Atheism and the Good Life")

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Appendice: Varieties of ‘Creationism’

Evolutionary Theism  (essentially not creationism at all) (eg. Asa Gray, B.B. Warfield, Teilhard de Chardin, Kenneth Miller)
•    God guided evolution to form human beings and the world as we know it.
•    Noah’s flood unlikely to be global or possibly not literal at all.
•    Garden of Eden may be poetic not literal language.
•    An ancient earth.

 Pre-history evolution & geology according to mainstream science. Recorded history going back tens of thousands of years.
Humans became ‘spiritual beings’ either through evolutionary processes or by divine creation of soul. 

Creationist Day-Age Theory  (eg. G.F. Wright, W.J. Bryan)
•    ‘day’ in Genesis 1 is non-literal and each day represents aeons of time, which allows for evolutionary processes to have occurred.
•    An ancient earth.
•    Noah’s flood not necessarily worldwide.
 Day 1
Matter created



 Day 2





 Day 3




 
 Day 4
 Fossils laid down



 Day 5
 Fossils laid down



 Day 6
Humans appear in present form
 
 Day 7
Recorded history →



 present
 

Creationist Gap-Theory (also called ‘Ruin & Restoration’) (eg. C. Hodge H. Rimmer)
•    Evolutionary processes occurred prior to creation of human beings.
•    An ancient earth.
•    Noah’s flood not necessarily worldwide.
Pre-history of millions of years, formation of earth, fossils laid down
6,000 years ago, Eden ‘restored’ to earth and Adam & Eve created.
 Recorded History  - present
       
‘Strict’ Creationist Literal Six Day Creation (based on ‘Deluge / Flood Geology’) also called “Scientific Creationism” (eg. Ken Ham, George McCready Price, J. Whitcomb)
•    Genesis 1 refers to literal 24 hour days.
•    A young earth, not older than 10,000 years.
•    Cataclysmic global flood destroyed Edenic earth, laid down fossils and changed climate (hence the Ark’s dinosaurs perished).
•    No evolution of one species into another (macro-evolution), only micro-evolution within species.
Possible pre-existence of matter in lifeless, chaotic state
6,000 – 10,000 years ago, all life created over six 24-hour periods.
 Recorded History - present
   
Intelligent Design advocates can be in any of the above camps. Intelligent design rejects macro-evolution as a ‘natural’ process (ie. undirected by an intelligent being). Its advocates generally claim they are only seeking to assert that ‘design’ is scientifically verifiable. Eg. Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, William Dembski.

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