Non of the latter are scientists
that is not true at all.
Science - look at the evidence. All the evidence. And then draw a conclusion based on that evidence.
i would have to doubt that especially when i find so much evidence discarded and ignored. this is what you want to believe is happening but in reality it doesn't.
Religion - draw a conclusion
nor is this true. christianity has the answers and the place to go for the answers and for our daily lives we really don't need the details but we are supposed to live like Christ. the details are needed when we have to talk to those outside the faith 'to give an answer why we believe' and for those times we need to strengthen our faith.
the secular world, whether they acknowledge it or not, have influences upon them which enable them to think they are pursuing the answers when in reality, they miss the mark. (as has been demonstrated in the many quotes provided). there is no motivation to interpret according to the Bible and many of their , or most of, interpretations come from the bias of their previously held beliefs, their pre-drawn suppositions and their lack of faith, plus the restrictions they place upon their work and field of endeavor.
with such operating standards it is not hard to see why they would come up with conclusins that differ from the Biblical record. case in point:
taken from the Path of the Pole by Charles Hapgood pg. 290-1
"In a limestone cavern on the borders of the lagoa do Sumidouro, some three leagues from Santa Lucia, Dr. P.W. Lund excavated the bones of more than thirty individuals (human) of both sexes and various ages. The skeletons lay buried in hard clay overlying the original red soil forming the floor of the cave and were found mixed together in great confusion--not only with one another but with the remians of the Megatherium and other Pleistocene mammals...All the bones, whether human or animal showed evidence of having been contemporary with one another.
In other caves investigated by Lund, bones of ancient manwere found alongside those of the formidable Smilodon, a giant feline which became extinct during the last Pleistocene times. Referring to the evidence from these and other Brazillian fossiliferrous caves, Marquis de Nadaillac wrote:
'...Doubtless these men and animals lived together and perished together, common victims of catastrophes, the time and cause of which are alike unknown'(42:25
Two further cases are of particular interest. The first of these concerns the discovery, by Savage-Landor, of the remains of primitive humanoid mammals, associated with the bones of creatures regarded by him as giganticsaurians, in volcanic ash and lava deposits encountered in Matto Grosso State (34:vol. i, 371-4)
The second case relates tothe occurance of the remains of mastodons, camels and an extinct species of horse in beds of volcanic ash high in the andes near punin in Ecuador. Associated with these mammalian bones was the fossilized skull of a woman of Australoid type (33:311-2). This cranium, which is dolichocephalous (9:145) was scientifically described in 1925 by Dr. Louis R. Sullivan and Milo Hellman (51) and has since become generally known as the 'Punin' skull.
The presence of an Australoid type in Ecuadorian South America during geologically recent times poses questions about prehistoric human popluations in the continent...The critical importance of the Punin and Matto Grosso discoveries in the present context, however, lies in the stark demonstration that in South America human and animal denizens of the late Pleistocene world were exposed to, and perished by, geological upheavals of inconceiveable violence and extent."
let's do an experiment. you know what my interpretation is going tobe and yes i can relate this to the genesis account but let's see how objective and honest you all are at interpretating the evidence described in this quote. do not let the words Pleistocene or megatherium, among others, influence your conclusions but really try to be biased free and post your conclusions here
i am curious as to how objective you really are and how much you letthe evidence speak.