hominids, humanoids & humans

The word hominid refers to any great ape (likely to be considered a primitive form of human), while the word humanoid means that something resembles a human. Understanding these two concepts, we're curious to understand what a human really is -- aside from merely referring to humans as naked apes.

Some would say that the human animal comes from homo erectus who became homo habilis who then became homo sapiens. As a person of science, I understand and believe this.

The problem comes when science crashes with the Bible. The Abrahamic faiths teach us that we -- humans -- were created by God in his image. As a Christian, I know and believe this too.

I once asked a science teacher (sixth grade) who/what came first -- dinosaurs or Adam and Eve. I wasn't trying to push religion or any other belief. It was merely an innocent, naive and stupid question to ask within the NYC public school system. Needless to say (type), two and half decades later, I'm still waiting for an intelligent answer.

On a personal level, I've never been able to combine these two concepts and come up with an intelligent answer of my own. Of course, I haven't seen anyone else do so. The best attempt someone had trying to combine these two theories was drawing out a fairly simple mathematical equation that proved that God created the cosmos and mankind in seven days as the Bible says, but each day was equal to some fixed amount of time other than a twenty-four-hour time period. I remember watching this on the 700 Club back in 1992. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this theologian and I haven't been able to find this information ever since.

At the end of the day or rather times, I guess we should answer (ourselves at least) these two questions.

1. Are we just stupid naked apes making up the concept and stories of gods in order to explain what we don't understand (life, death, etc)?
2. Then again, did God test different creations till he decided that we were good enough to continue existing (at least for the time being)?

two baptisms, two wet ones to go please

My little boys haven't been baptized yet. I'm in the process of finding out the proper procedure to get them baptized at FAPC. So far, I understand that at least one of the parents must be a member of the church (me) and that I've got to take a confirmation of faith in their name.

The sacrament of baptism (one of the two sacraments instructed in the Bible; the other being the Lord's Supper, performed on the first Sunday of every month) in the Presbyterian church and in most Protestant denominations is different than in the Catholic Church. I grew up with the belief that's best to have a child baptized as early as possible in his/her life to cleanse off the Original Sin (Adam and Eve for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin). Therefore, if a baptized child were to die, the child would automatically be accepted into Heaven for being a pure soul (an angel, free from all sin). As a matter of fact, I was baptized less than month after being born, about the same time I almost died.