Hi, If you want the whole debate in a nutshell, from my perspective it's a freaking disgrace with everyone covering themselves in shame. From the ID'er's side they've lost their faith. I'm sorry, but if you believe you believe. If you need to find some scientific justification for your belief than you aren't making that leap of faith. And if you then need to twist and distort the science to match the tenats of your belief then by gosh you really should just give up and become an agnostic. From the hard atheist's side - people like Dawkins, they've done the exact opposite. Dawkins goes so far beyond disbelief to the positive belief that there is no God, that he is in fact going beyond what science could ever hope to tell him. Ironically, he's found the faith that the ID'ers have lost. Science has become his god. But in reality science has no place in that debate, and it's embarrassing as someone who has actually done a lot of science to have this man standing up there pretending he's a scientist. He left science years ago. Cheers, Greg.
Up to here, it's all good. But this part, I need to answer you in a PM since it angers too many people when I post my take on the existence of gods in this forum.
I heard one person say evolution was basically God's toolbox, which is an interesting way to look at it.
There are many views on offer. Among the religious, there are; young-earth creationist, old-earth creationist, those who believe in limited evolution, and those who do not, etc. These are categories of believes who essentially don't agree with each-other, despite all having access to the same information. Many believers struggle. They say to themselves, 'I know the Bible is true, but scientists can't be wrong, well, not that wrong anyway.' If you accept the scientific view of how the universe came into being, Genesis 1 must then be perceived as a pack of lies. This would 'open the flood gates' as any Bible passage might be equally fictional and the Bible could not then be relied upon as accurate, trustworthy or as having a divine origin. Doubt floods in. An alternative is to reject the scientific view altogether. 'It must be a conspiracy,' I've heard said. 'Scientists are ganging together to undermine believers. Evolution is nothing but a concocted fantasy, produced by bitter twisted atheists who are jealous of the faithful.' The words 'clutching at straws' crosses the mind (as well as many others that would cause offence). To take a middle road, is to struggle with invented, compromise theories, that have no scientific basis or religious tradition. If there is a God, and He did use evolution as a tool, the Bible makes no mention of it. Instead, it leads people to believe that all living creatures suddenly appeared, as we see them today. What does this tell you about the Bible? Cross-examine the theories and consider their knock-on effects, and the whole thing rapidly turns into a muddled mess. Eventually, you may reach the stage where you just can't go on struggling any longer. There is a very simple answer on offer, but for many it is an unpalatable one: The Bible was written by people who didn't know what was going on, so they speculated, badly. If you are wise enough to judge the good parts from the bad, you are wise enough to live without it's guidance.
I am a quitter? Sorry I only took Latin two semesters in college and I forget a lot of it. Since it is the father of all Romance langues it is easy to understand several of them.
I had it tattooed on my inner forearm on my thirtieth birthday as a present to myself (there weren't many other gifts forthcoming from other quarters ) as a visible prompt and reminder to fight my prominent self doubt. I'm a writer, as are you, I'm sure you can relate. E.T.A: It also felt quite contextually relevant.
"Me and my brother were talking to each other 'Bout what makes a man a man Was it brain or brawn, or the month you were born We just couldn't understand Our old man didn't like our appearance He said that only women wear long hair So me and my brother borrowed money from Mother We knew what we had to do We went downstairs, past the barber and gymnasium And got our arms tattooed Welcome to my life, tattoo I'm a man now, thanks to you I expect I'll regret you But the skin graft man won't get you You'l be there when I die Tattoo" Tattoo by the Who
Um, thanks. I think. I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes And for just that one moment I could be you Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes Then you'd know what a drag it is to see you Positively 4th Street Bob Dylan
"Hey, Jesus you can come out from behind the couch now!" "Jesus?" "Damn, anybody have any good ideas of how to get rid of a 2000 year old Son of God?"
It was originally a joke, but it is a real religion. My friend was screwing around on their website and paid $5 for a certificate with his brother's credit card lmfao.