No takers on the Biblical accounts? I suppose I'll have to respond to them:
The red/purple cape:
The gospel writers didn't have access to Hex Codes and web colors, so we don't know exactly what kind of purple the cape was. Mark and John say that is was purple, and Matthew says that it was red. So the three gospels agree that there was a red hue to the cape. So perhaps the cape was more of a reddish purple or a maroon or something.
How many angels/men?
The accounts of Mark and Matthew say they saw a man, Luke says 2 men, and john says 2 angels.
Mark and Matthew may have just drawn the attention to the man who was speaking, as the other probably didn't say anything. This has occured before, notably in the account where Jesus expells the demons and lets them go into the swine, as Matthew 8:28 describes 2 demon possessed men while Mark and Luke refer to just 1 demon possessed man. It may have just been one man that actually had a conversation with Jesus, and thus Luke and Mark put more emphasis on that.
As for Angels/Men, all throughout the old testament, there have been accounts of Angels having the appearance of men. The Genesis account where angels materialized into the forms of men, for example. Another one with the account of Lot and the angels leading lots family out of Sodom. So the gospels say that they saw men, but they were really angels who had the appearance of men.
The "second" creation account:
Note verse 17 of Genesis chapter 2 where God is saying that it is not good for man to be walking alone. The end of the verse ends the quotation, and then a mini-recap of why God had said that. He created the animals, and when Adam was observing them, but he didn't have a helper, so then God created the woman as a helper. So this "second creation account" was moreso an explanation as to why God created the woman.
Creative "days." As I mentioned, there was no specific timeframe during these creative days, so they could have very well been millions and millions of years that have passed between say the first day and the 2nd day. Some people take Peter's "1 day in Gods eyes is as 1000 years" literally and apply that to the creative days. But its more like a similie, much like how
"a picture is worth 1000 words"
The 2nd day you mentioned with oceans and waters above the sky. Waters above the sky doesn't sound too far fetched to me. To me it sounds like the primitive earth had a dense cloud cover (much like venus except without the poison gases), apparently there was a high amount of water vapor in the cloud cover as well, which helps to explain day 4.
There came to be lights, the sun to dominate the daytime and and the moon and starts to dominate the night. But as I understand it, the "heavens and the earth" were created (our physical universe) before day 1 started. If the primitive earth had a cloud cover, then one would not be able to see the sun and the moon as it is now. So sometime during the 4th day, perhaps the clouds weren't as dense and one could make out a greater light being the sun, and the lesser light being the moon. Much like if its an overcast day and you can't see the sun, but you know its daytime because its light outside.
End of the "world"
What was Jesus referring to when he spoke of the end of the world, or the system? Well if you read the context of what he said, he speaks of wars and reports or wars, famine, etc. etc. in verse 20 of luke 21, Jesus warns of Jerusalem being surrounded by enamped armies, and when you see that warning, you should flee, as the end is near.
Jerusalem was sieged by the roman armies in around 67 and then again in 70, where the city and temple were destroyed. So Jesus was talking about the end of the Jewish system and the destruction of the temple.
What did jesus say during his death?
Matt.27:46,50 says: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?" that is to say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ...Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost."
Well apparently, he "cried again with a loud voice" before he died. What did he say?
He cried out again, according to John 19:30 "It is finished"
Then he probably bowed his head and said something else:
Luke23:46: "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, "Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:" and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."
then died. that's how I see it.
How did Judas die?
You're right. Matthew says that Judas hanged himself. Acts tells of the results. Somehow, he (in concise terms) blew up. Most likely, Judas tried to hang himself on a tree at the edge of a cliff, but when he jumped off the cliff, the rope or the branch broke and he ended up with guts everywhere. Jersalem was a pretty hilly place, so this conclusion does seem plausible.
Joseph of Bethelem:
It wouldn't be a reach to assume that Joseph himself was born in Bethlehem and his family (parents, etc.) were based there as well. Did you know there were two Bethlehems in the Bible? Well Matthew cleared it up saying it was the Bethlehem which was David's city. This corresponds to Micah 5:2, where it prophesied that the messiah would come out of Bethlehem-Ephrathah.
Time of Jesus Death:
You do know that Jewish dates go from sunset to sunset, right? The passover celebration was celebrated the night of Nisan 14 (of the jewish calendar) and Jesus technically the same day, before the next sunset.
True, we have no original texts anymore, nor do we paper with Luke's autograph on it. Unfortunately, everything was written down on paper, and paper doesn't last forever. The only way we will know for sure is if we invent a time machine and go back in time or whatever. And my explanations are not at all perfect, but they are plausible. But that's what we're supposed to do right? Take the evidence and look at the different conclusions. It looks like you guys came to different conclusions than me. I'm cool with that.
Social Darwinism: I really don't need to "prove" the converse of social darwinism. I just want to poke at it and explore the implications if Social Darwinism were the case. I like to think that a lot of things that humans have done in the past (i.e. enslaving and exploiting other humans, genocide, etc. etc.) are pretty messed up and I don't want to minimalize those messed up things by attributing them to simply "survival of the fittest"
And as for your dinosaur question. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. Accidents happen? Yeah i suppose so.
