Religious Evidence

[jomifl]

Some members of AB's religious fraternity are very free with statements claiming that atheists insult or deride them and twist the words of the bible to support their(atheist) views.However when challenged to give examples they fall suspiciously quiet. If they cannot supply supportive evidence for things which they claim were written in the last few days, how can they expect anyone to believe their written version of events which allegedly happened 2000 years or more ago?

[sandyRoe]

jomifl, I would need no ceremony to make me believe in evolution. A belief in it and God are not mutually exclusive. Imagine, if you will, God casting a pair of dice. The rolling dice are the evolutionary process and it was his almighty hand set them in motion.
Are you referring to my answer to Naomi's post? We all know she's particularly obdurate so just seeing a religious ceremony wouldn't make her believe. BUt being there, in the presence of so much faith and holiness, I'd have hoped she might have picked up something through osmosis.

[naomi24]

Sandy, I have often been in the presence of much faith, but never in the presence of holiness.

[sandyRoe]

There are none so blind...

[naomi24]

20/20 vision Sandy - except when I need my glasses to read.

[sandyRoe]

Sometimes I find I've argued myself into a corner. Let me have a little time to come up with an apt reply?

[naomi24]

Be my guest. :o)

[jomifl]

Sandy, if the utterances of god's spokesperson on earth(the roman catholic one) are the official line of the RC church then the theory of evolution would not fit into RC doctrine. At the rate that god's influence on the developent of life is being pushed back into the past, it won't be long before he is comfortably ensconced in the middle of the big bang.

[Mymom]

Who says the Pope is God's spokesman on earth? When I read the scriptures it says nothing about there being a Pope or even a human leader.
There is only one leader, Jesus Christ and he warns about being called, "Rabbi, or Father" as there is only one and that is God himself.

[boxtops]

What amuses me about some of these alteractions is that the vast majority of them assume (or appear to) that we have to be Christian (in some form) or atheist. There are plenty of other alternatives, and all are right for those who believe what they believe!

[boxtops]

^ altercations

[jomifl]

Boxy ..I quite liked 'alteractions'.

[boxtops]

LOL - I think I meant "interactions" anyway!

[sandyRoe]

jomifl, have you ever considered that the Big Bang may have been nothing more than the dice the Almighty one rolled hitting the celestial Crap Table?

[beso]

These religious nutters can't seem to get beyond "the scriptures". They are incapable of contemplating that these are nothing more than the musings of ignorant men who arrogantly assumed their every thought was devinely inspired.

Despite "the scriptures" being demonstrably inaccurate about the nature of reality and profoundly inconsistent within their own word they still are completely under the spell.

it is definitely some kind of mental illness they are suffering from.

[jomifl]

No Sandy I hadn't considered that:
' the Big Bang may have been nothing more than the dice the Almighty one rolled hitting the celestial Crap Table'
Although the words 'celestial' and 'crap' do often come to mind in relation to religion.

[seadogg]

I reckon he got snake eye and crapped out.

[LazyGun]

@ Sandy - Yes, its called the "God of the Gaps" concept, whereby any gaps in current scientific knowledge are claimed by the religious to be proof positive of gods existence - and the big bang is no different in this regard.Nor is it a new concept - its been offered before as proof of god, but of course it is no such thing.

Its true to say that we dont yet know what happened in those first milliseconds of the inflation/expansion, so its possible ( but highly improbable) that some supernatural being was around to "roll the dice" - but the gaps where a god might conceivably reside are getting smaller and smaller with each advance in our scientific knowledge, and claiming those gaps as the place where god resides just means that this allegedly omniscient being is remorsely reduced to a shadow, a pale, ineffectual pastiche of the god as represented in the bible. Is that what you want?

[sandyRoe]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Einstein's remark: 'God doesn't play dice with the world.'
I think I come up with an original thought and then there's someone pops up to tell me its been named, catalogued, and numbered, already. The 'God of the gaps' is a new one to me.
I know I'm hardly a match for the atheistic Goliaths here in AB. But I'll play the role of David and do my best.

[sandyRoe]

*continue to play

[venator]

Does anyone here believe they're going to change anyone else's mind with all this typing, cutting, pasting, cant and drivel?

It just makes me feel very sorry that intelligent people can get so deeply involved in this kind of argument, wasting their time and effort.

There must be better things to do.