@ken: No, since the God of the Bible called everything …

Comment on The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week by Sean Pitman.

@ken:

No, since the God of the Bible called everything “Good” at the end of creation week – which he would not have done if predation of sentient creatures existed on this planet before the moral fall of mankind. After all, the God of the Bible is pictured as experiencing pain in sympathy with animal as well as human suffering.

Given this background, it is quite clear that the eating of the fruit was only symbolic of allegiance. God made the tree and the fruit on it after all. It had no inherent power of its own, outside of God’s will and creative power, to prolong life…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week
@Ken:

I do not disagree that there are numerous factors involved, to include genetics and overall lifestyle. However, it is interesting to me that there are other healthy groups of people out there who are also ethnically diverse. Yet, Adventists, in particular, live the longest among such ethnically diverse groups of people (note that the Okinawans are not ethnically diverse).

Again, all I can suggest is to try it out for yourself and see if you don’t notice a difference in your own personal experience…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week
@Ken:

Consider that I’m presenting three different arguments at the same time. One argument is that there appears to be this intrinsic genetically-coded rhythm in all living things that is based on a 7-day cycle. That, by itself, is quite surprising and non-predictable form a naturalistic perspective – but not from a Biblical perspective.

After all, it was only the Bible that proposed, long before the circaseptan science came on the scene, to explain the origin of this 7-day rhythm as a creative act of God. The Bible also tells us how to best take advantage of this 7-day pattern by working six days and resting on every seventh day (my second argument) and that this work/rest cycle was given to us for our benefit (“The Sabbath was made for man”). In addition to this, the Bible claims that the original order of the days is important to God as a symbol between him and his people of their allegiance to God and he promises an additional supernatural blessing on those who strive to keep holy the true Sabbath day of his original blessing (my third argument).

In my opinion, these are all testable statements. The weekly cycle, by itself, has been shown to have intrinsic elements or biorhythms within all living things (first argument). If certain things are done in accordance with this pattern, living things function better (to include a lengthening of life for different kinds of creatures). On top of this, adding a “Sabbath” day of rest every 7th day appears to be beneficial to mind and body regardless of the actual 7th day chosen for rest – be that day Sunday or Saturday or Friday or whatever 7th day is chosen (second argument). So far, I don’t think there is very much disagreement with these arguments – even within the scientific community at this point (given the new information on circaseptan biorhythms within humans and all other living things and the general benefits of resting mind and body one day a week).

But, beyond this, it seems to me, from my own personal experience and the experience of certain key individuals that I have known, that if one strives to keep Holy the Biblical 7th day in particular (i.e., the Sabbath of the Jews or Saturday), that God actually gives such an individual an additional supernatural blessing (third argument).

Now, I’m sure that many will scoff at my last proposal. But, don’t be too hasty if you haven’t tried it out for yourself… If you haven’t actually tried to keep the Biblical Sabbath, Saturday, holy as the Bible describes. I think that this element plays a role in explaining why Adventists, among all ethnically diverse peoples of the world (to include other groups of people who try to be religious, healthy, and even vegetarian) live the longest and are generally the most blessed ethnically diverse group of people in the world.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week
@Ken:

While all circadian rhythms (circaseptan rhythms included) can be affected by external environmental clues or “zeitgebers” (from the German, “time-givers”), they are also intrinsic rhythms as well that can function independent of external influences. It is therefore thought that these rhythms are somehow genetically programmmed and are tuned to each other with the primary influence on tuning being the circaseptan rhythm.

Although circadian rhythms are endogenous (“built-in”, self-sustained), they are adjusted (entrained) to the environment by external cues called zeitgebers, the primary one of which is daylight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

Consider, as examples briefly mentioned in my article, that the life spans of the face fly Musca autumnalis or the springtail Folsomia candida are markedly longer when oviposition shifts are allowed to be carried out at intervals that are 7 days apart (Link).

The existence of such precise endogenous circaseptan rhythms (to include the precise 7-day excretion of 17-ketosterone in healthy men) suggests that all circaceptan rhythms are actually endogenous – described by the authors of the NCBI article as a “built-in (genetically determined) about-7-day (circaseptan) period. It does seem, however, that these endogenously derived rhythms are able, at the same time, to respond to external influences (such as circadian influences of day and night or the lunar-induced tides).

This suggestion seems more likely considering that there is nothing apparently special about the quarterly divisions of the lunar 29.53 day cycle of ~7.4 days (especially for species that cannot see or respond to the light of the moon as it changes during it’s monthly cycle). One might argue that a creature may still be able to sense the cyclical tidal actions of the moon on a daily basis, but why would that have anything to do with a noticable circaseptan rhythm? Why then is there a strong and generalized circaseptan cycle in every living thing analyzed if there weren’t also an intrinsic, endogenously generated, circaseptan rhythm pre-programmed from the beginning of essentially all forms of life?

“In Franz Halberg’s view, a central feature of biological time structure is the harmonic relationship that exists among the various component frequencies. A striking aspect of this relationship is that the components themselves appear to be harmonics or sub harmonics, multiples or submultiples, of seven…

Circaseptan and circasemiseptan rhythms are not arbitrary, even though they seem to lack counterpart rhythms in the external environment.”

Jeremy Campbell, Winston Churchill’s Afternoon Nap, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986), p. 30

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


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