<p>My point is that why do we believe in God. It is comforting and it explains the unexplained. It is also tradition. This does not give it any proof. Need was a bad word to uses. I meant that we no longer as a people need the idea of God because we realize that the idea is archaic. </p>
<p>A lot of people believe nonbelievers will go to hell. Believing in most of the Bible, isn't that just picking and choosing what fits your already preexisting ideologies.</p>
<p>It seems like a lot of people would be upset if the "designer" happened to be some kind of alien...</p>
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How many of you, I wonder, have ever done an in-depth study of the Bible?
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<p>Wow, what a waste of time.</p>
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How many of you, I wonder, have ever done an in-depth study of the Bible?
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Wow, what a waste of time.
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<p>hahaha. in a video I watched in my faith of catholics class (graduation requirement), an "expert" was explaining how it is impossible for people to ever come in contact with angels because such contact would represent a clashing of anti-matter with matter, which would result in an enormous explosion.</p>
<p>So if you ever see an angel, don't get too close or you will explode to death.</p>
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Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God sends nonbelievers to hell.
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I don't think you can get much more wrong than that.</p>
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Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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Born-agains are right about this if you really know what the Bible says about who goes to heaven.</p>
<p>by the way, that Onion article that someone posted--brilliant. the last paragraph is the best:</p>
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"Anti-falling physicists have been theorizing for decades about the 'electromagnetic force,' the 'weak nuclear force,' the 'strong nuclear force,' and so-called 'force of gravity,'" Burdett said. "And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus."
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<p>this thread is getting pretty interesting. i didn't know we would have such a variety of topics.</p>
<p>"Intelligent design the newest and least offensive euphumism for Creationism and Christianist dogma. It is as integral a part of biology as astrology is to astronomy. And it deserves to be taught exactly like we teach astrology; not at all. It is the battle between reason and the fallacy of ignorance, namely that all an established theory fails to explain must fit into my own theory. Ben Stein, a man I held in quite high regard intellectually, has fallen dramatically in my estimation."</p>
<p>Perfect</p>
<p>My friend dragged me in to see Expelled. It was utterly unconvincing and was irrational and infurating, equating Darwinism with Hitler, due to the way he twisted natural selection to begin the Holocaust. Touring a Nazi death camp only made me feel repulsed by the methods "intelligent design"ers were using to further their points. The film profiled scientists who had been fired for publishing or talking about intelligent design and made evolutionists out to be "bad guys." Yet, never did they bring up the "evidence" in favor of ID that they mention.
If there were a higher power who created the world, I can't imagine why they would go into the detail of creating molecules, elements, protons, or to any degree of depth that science has taken us. "Expelled" argues that the scientific community is "persecuting" people supporting intelligent design while failing to mention that for millenniums, scientists were scoffed at and severely punished for contradicting the bible.</p>
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equating Darwinism with Hitler, due to the way he twisted natural selection to begin the Holocaust
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<p>I haven't seen the movie, but ouch. And how stupid. Darwinism says natural selection is the result of random choice, while intelligent design is the one that suggests a manipulation of development. That would make the designer the cause of Hitler, not evolution, but whatever.</p>
<p>Anyway, this is a really interesting thread, because a non-denominational yet oddly evangelical Christian friend of mine and I were debating this yesterday. See, I'm a Christian, but I don't believe the Bible word for word (because it contradicts itself like, what, 700 times?). Even Genesis can't decide which order God created the man and animals. However, I don't really find that evolution or science in general faults my religion. In fact, that Ralph Waldo Emerson quote was great--that when one's religion is so easily threatened, it's obviously not too strong to begin with. I don't even think the propositions described in the Da Vinci Code were offensive to my faith. Why should it matter if Jesus had kids or not? He was completely divine AND completely human, so surely he had the urge to get busy. And why should it matter to Christians if he still ultimately died on the cross (for all you agnostics and atheists, you might be surprised at how much people get their panties in a wad about that book).</p>
<p>But as I was debating my friend, I realized that what I said never contradicted him, other then that the Bible was imperfect (he said it was inspired by God and that was good enough. I mentioned the strict Jewish laws throughout and the multiple contradictions), but that he was still always trying to pick a fight. See, intelligent design doesn't conflict with evolution. I view God not only as a placeholder for science's next breakthough, but as everything science has already discovered. Some call it physics--I call it physics, too, and biology, and chemistry, but when you put all the forces together, I call it God. That doesn't mean anyone else has to call it that. Of course humans see a purpose in the way the cards were dealt; why question what got us here? But I think it's more impressive if we were randomly dealt from a series of complicated chemical reactions, and most impressive of all that we have the intelligence to realize that. </p>
<p>The thing is that the Bible is not a substitute for science. It really doesn't try to be. Every culture has things they don't understand, and even in the Bible, alchemy and astronomy play a big role. But what plays a bigger role is just that we're here, humans alongside animals alongside plants, and whether we were meant to be that way all along or dealt from the universe's complicated clockwork does not change that we're here. Since this is CC, let me use a college analogy--There's a waitlist for college X. The kids who get off the waitlist have complete faith in that system's purpose and ultimate benevolence. There may have been a 1 in 12342394324 chance they would have gotten in, but to them, it feels like the system was 100% sure it would pick them. The phenomena that did happen got off the waitlist, and we are lucky as he.ll to be attending college X. </p>
<p>In Christian's opinions, the college wanted them there all along. In agnostic/atheist's opinions, we're just randomly here. But to me, who believes both points, we were randomly selected but absolutely still wanted, and because the system--who or whatever created it--picked us from the primordial soup, we are here.</p>
<p>Also, note that Genesis has the order of the animals created in near-evolutionary succession.</p>