Believing

Pastor, you and I could go back and forth forever, obviously. However, if your anthropologist friends sees a true, complete evolutionary record, he needs to publish it and become the most famous anthropologist ever. I'm telling you, maybe you misunderstood him or you and I are talking about two different things, but we don't have that. We probably never will, because certain things don't fossilize, for example.
But that's all beside the point for me.
My Big Bang thing is an extreme, yes, but so are virtually all of the arguments against religion. My point is, we have nothing that explains everything aside from some higher power. That doesn't make it right, but it does make it possible.
You choose to accept what we know. But despite how you want to phrase it, I guarantee you there are scientists now spouting things that will be disproved in the future. That's always the way it has been and always the way it will be.
I believe in a God who says he doesn't change. To a lesser extent, I believe in science, but I'm more skeptical of that when it comes down to it because we are limited by our own intelligence and flaws. A perfect God is not.

BTW, why did you choose that screen name?

 

Also, God didn't start Jesus' life over, at least not in the sense you're claiming. Jesus has a spirit older than any human. He then elected to be bound in a human body for a time (I believe it was 40 years, most say it was 33). But the soul was there before and is still in existence today.

 

This was great timing as well.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/index.html

 

Plus, I think God converted to metric.

 

...because I'm ordained.


As to the rest, eh. I am just not willing to make such leaps. I don't need to ascribe a definition to something that I don't know, wasn't there for and don't really need to know. I won't wake up in the morning tomorrow and suddenly not move because I don't know how the universe started.

Part of the reason religion fills in that void is because of how damn nosey we are as a people. Everyone is sticking their business everywhere. Gossip pages are full of people searching to find out what haircut the latest celeb has and what clothing styles are new. It is very rare when someone says, "No, I don't need to know anything about that."

As to my friend, his point was that the information is there. It has been there for some time. He says that people try to argue certain aspects because they always will.

 

Interesting column by EJ Dionne about what he calls the "tyranny" of "neo-atheists.


http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1105397.html

 

There was a terrific article in the Globe and Mail today about reason and faith. One, a born again Christian who became convinced that the Bible was wrong because of his studies in theology and the other, a biologist who grew up atheist and came to Orthodox Judaism because of his research.

Sadly, the Globe won't let you read it unless you're a member as I learned when I tried to share it with you. However, any Canadians who can get the Globe and find this subject of interest should read this.

 

Pastor, I'll bet your friend is saying there is evidence for evolution in the fossil record (which, again, I agree with).
However, there is not a complete record. It's a shame, really, because it would tell us a lot about history.
To me, there is plenty of evidence to believe evolution occured. But even that is a little bit of a leap, don't you think? We're essentially saying, "I see A, B, D, H, I, J, M, P, Q, R, S, V, W, Z and I believe A evolved into Z." That takes at least a little bit of faith (though not religious faith).

 

Sure, it's a loaded question, but hey, it's fair game.

I'm with Kaylee on this one: I'm not sure in my mind or heart, but I learn toward "no." I'd like to believe. It would probably make things a whole lot easier. But I also enjoy the truth, even it's not so pretty and harder to digest. I was raised "unchurched" in southern California, but living in Arkansas for the past 12 years, I've learned that church and religion are central parts of the culture, and it helps to understand your surroundings.

I visit church ocassionally and I'm about a month away from completing a year-long weekly Bible study class held at one of the local Methodist churches. It's been very interesting and educational, but it hasn't led me to any mystical revelations. I've looked at it more as an intellectual/academic endeavor, and the people in our group are pretty liberal, level-headed folks who are nice to be around, not your stereotypical hellfire-and-brimstone hate-mongers.

My take on it is this: People over time have generally found it comforting to believe in a force greater than themselves because it's kind of scary to think, "this is all there is." Hence the development of religion and the compilation of the Bible, which is much more involved and complicated that I expected. It's also a lot of interpretation, which is why I can't understand how any rational, educated person can be a fundamentalist. Although it is full of contradictions, some themes are consistent and I do believe the Bible provides a good ethical base.

Science and techology have helped gained knowledge that was previously unattainable, and I think this will continue. But honestly, the timeless "is there a God" question may never be answered. It's too vast. But with the rise in educational media and wonderful skeptics like Michael Shermer out there to poke, prod and examine, we may get closer to whatever the truth is.

And really, I'm OK with that.