Genesis 13: 14-18

Genesis 13: 14-18

In these verses God promises the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendents specifically the Jews. This why support of the nation of Israel right to the land needs to be supported. These verses also indicate that Abraham’s descendents would be huge in number and to day that is certainly the truth despite multiple efforts exterminate the Jews they survive because of God’s protection.

Genesis 13: 12-13

Genesis 13: 12-13
These verses show that while Abraham dwelt in Canaan where God wanted him. Lot turned is gaze on the city of Sodom which verse 13 says the men there of were exceedingly wicked.

Genesis 13: 5-11

Genesis 13: 5-11 tells pf the parting of Abraham and Lot.

Genesis 13:1-4

Genesis 13:1-4
Abraham left Egypt with his entire house hold and possessions he returned to Beth-el back to the altar he had built earlier. This is a case of him returning to God’s will.

Genesis 12: 14-20

Genesis 12: 14-20 shows some of the affects of Abraham’s disobedience to God and his deception on the part of his wife. One of the things that supports the historical nature of the Biblical account is the fact the Bible show the flaws of its greatest heroes.

At first things because of his Deception Abraham acquires many possessions including maidservants one of which was probably Hagar who late becomes the mother of Ishmael. However God sends plagues on Pharaoh’s house. This Pharaoh was quite possibly Khufu the builder of the great pyramid of giza or his son. In any event this causes Pharaoh to realize that Sarah was Abraham wife and sends them away.
God actually used this to get Abraham back on track and back to the land of Canaan where God wanted him.

Genesis 12: 11-13

Genesis 12: 11-13 shows Abraham engaging in a deception was also disrespecting his wife and putting her at risk. However it needs to be noted that this was not a technically a lie in that as we will later find out Sarah was his half sister being the daughter of his father but not his mother. This would not have caused an inbreeding problem as it does today since there would have been fewer mutations back at this time than even a few hundred years later. That said Abraham was still wrong to engage in such a deception even if was partly true

Analytical Thought Claimed to Reduce Religious Beliefs

Analytical Thought Claimed to Reduce Religious Beliefs

A new study published in Science Magazine concludes analytical thought reduces religious beliefs. The study showed participants intuitively attractive questions for which the intuitive answer is wrong. The participants were then asked about their religious beliefs. The result showed that those that indicated stronger religious beliefs were more likely to give the more intuitive answers. They were then given stimuli that encouraged either analytical or intuitive thought. They were then retested on religious beliefs and those encouraged intuitive thought expressed increased strength in religious beliefs while those encouraged either analytical thought expressed less. The conclusion was that concludes analytical thought reduces religious beliefs. However there are a number of problems with these studies.

The first problem is that the questions on religious beliefs were vague general questions. Some religious beliefs are more intuitive while others are more analytical. For example new age is almost entirely intuitive being based largely on practices like meditation. On the other hand Christianity is more analytical in that it is based on historical events such as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. There is no consideration in these studies of such differences and the specifics of what participants believed and why.

The second problem is that there is no correlation of individuals given between the different methods. This is important because such a correlation should show who is more likely to be affected. For example it could show that more analytical people are less affected by the stimuli than more intuitive people or the exact opposite. The point is that no such correlation is given so there is no way to know how individual responses correlate across each method.

While these studies are interesting they are way too broad and lack consideration of factors that could have affected the results.