[WillowTheWhisp]

What kind of ever loving, all forgiving, all-powerful wonderful father figure, would condemn his sons and daughters to an eternity in hell which is supposed to be the worst place you could possibly imagine. I would not wish that upon my children no matter what they did. Let them be punished for things they do wrong most certainly, but an ETERNITY IN HELL. I don't think so. Where is this 'turn the other cheek' attitude we all hear so much about? The quality of mercy etc.?

But he doesn't condemn us to an eternity in Hell. That's what the Atonement is all about. Jesus took upon himself the sins of the world so that those of us who believe in him and accept his sacrifice do not have to suffer eternity in Hell. That is where justice and mercy meet, at the cross on Calvary.

However each generation seems to be that bit brighter than the previous one and also developing faster too. My newest granddaughter got her first two teeth at 8 months. This was unheard of 50 years ago, although it seems to be commonplace today. At one year she is walking unaided. OK! So it’s more of a stagger from support to support but kids in my day were considered forward if they were walking at 18 months. Look how tall kids are today compared to the average height 50 years ago.

I got my first 2 teeth when I was 6 minths old and I was walking at 12 months, although I subsequently suffered an illness and than set me back a bit as I had to relearn and so wasn't fully up and running until I was about 18 months old. THis was over 50 years ago. As for people growing taller and developing earlier etc I believe that is more down to nutrition than evolution. If a child is malnourished that child will not grow and develop as well as a child which gets fed properly. Some races which have always previously been thought of as small seem to be taller these days because they are eating a greater variety of food. I also noticed that the Masai don't seem to be as tall as they used to seem to be. Is this regression or a change of diet and lifestyle?

Noah was commanded to build a boat 300 cubits long. As I understand it a cubit was the equivalent of 18 inches. So the Ark would be 450 feet in length. Clean animals were boarded in groups of 7 and unclean animals in groups of 2. Now how much room would 7 elephants take? Not forgetting all the other larger animals. Then there is the feed for those animals for a minimum of 40 days. Sorry but the figures just don’t add up.

The "clean" animals were the ones which they used for food. I'm not aware of any instances in the Bible where they eat elephants.

There are accounts of a great deluge in the middle east on those Sumerian clay tablets that I mentioned earlier. They predate the writings in the Bible so they can't be accused of copying from Genesis or of having been written by Jews or Christians. They are older than any Egyptian heiroglyphics. So something definitely happened in that region.