Wow.

[mapsedge]

...this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer.

Dr. Francis Collins

Full text here.

(Thanks Jeho)

Comments

[jehosefatz.livejournal.com]

Dunno.

It's hard to say exactly what Paul said because all we have are one side of a conversation (his letters to congregations in different places), not the correspondence that generated the response in the first place. He was also heavily edited after the fact by the same people that edited other things you mention. (For example, there are internal inconsistencies about the role/status of women.)

Don't get me wrong, Paul and the "Pauline Heresy" (preaching to gentiles and G-d as an airy, fairy, other-worldly presence, amongst other things) had horrible and far-reaching consequences. Reading the texts that we do have suggests that he apparently was very territorial and got pissy when people tried to replace him in whatever authority position he thought he had.

As an aside, it look like we broke Bill's comment page. :( Sorry Bill.

- Jeho