turienzo's lovechild
New member
- Oct 25, 2003
- 23,964
a question that pops up within my group of (christian) friends is the question of evolution and where we stand on it.....and most of us are basically unsure
it's clear (to me anyway) that humans are becoming more intelligent, stronger, bigger, faster over generations, and that other creatures are certainly becoming more intelligent....orca's for example are learning new ways to hunt generation by generation (by passing down the old methods and learning new ones, to then be passed down), elephants have figured out that humans kill them for their tusks so female nelly's are increasingly choosing to procreate with tuskless males to protect their young (so elephants in general are becoming increasingly tuskless).......you also have certain types of chimp who have been observed partaking in TRIBAL WARFARE and creating weapons with which to hunt,....a lot of apes also certainly display human like qualities mentally and we're clearly VERY similar to certain species
my personal view is that i don't see why it's totally of the question that a god would put this system in place...that creatures learn to survive and adapt to changing environments by changing generation by generation...i mean, there's surely a reason why certain animals have outlasted many creatures that were on the planet at the same time (crocs, komodo dragons, sharks, turtles etc.)
No there isn't and if you have half an ounce of honesty you would acknowledge that.3. Jesus existed
Even if you are an atheist, JESUS did exist. There is more scientific evidence for his existence than Nero! So who was he in you guy's opinion?
No there isn't and if you have half an ounce of honesty you would acknowledge that.
You do know that according to your own holy book lying is a mortal sin. There is no evidence for his existance AT ALL. There is nothing written at the time of his purported life or for many years after that even refers to this supposed leader of a revolutionary movemment in the Palestine whilst under Roman rule.
Joesphus and Tacitus do not count, they lived years after the supposed messiah is alleged to have died. There is nothing at all that refers to him in the writings of the time, nothing other than the bible of course. Which as all honest historians admit was written several hundred years after the supposed events it allegedly 'documents'.
Possibly so, I am willing to possibly concede on those to some degree. However none of them were contemporaneous to the events they claim to record.
And even so one would have thought the events in Matthew 27:52 may possibly have caused SOME comment with others people who were writing at the time. But noone thought the dead walking the streets was worth making a note of. Except matthew.
And that does not change the point that there is not a single contemporaneous account of the life of this person. Nothing. He allegedly rocked the roman empire in the palestine but noone thought it important enough to record this. And there is certainly no 'scientific' evidence at all as was claimedby Stewart.
It's widely agreed that the Synoptic Gospels were drawn from one or two common sources. In other words, they were based on earlier written accounts that go back even closer, possibly eye witness accounts. And that is close to being as good as it gets. Few people have their life stories written down as they are living them.
The walking dead business is obviously a bit silly, I agree.
Widely agreed ? who by
Widely agreed ? who by
Expert New Testament scholars. And not just Christian ones, before you say it.
So, any of you changed your minds and found the lord of the past few days? If you haven't, let me know where you live and I'll tell you a good church in walking distance of you.
Peace.
Stewart.
I would have thought not. I think that doubt to which David referred is more likely to be doubt that there is a God at all, rather than doubt that you've picked the right one. I would imagine that a Christian is far more likely to move into atheism, agnosticism, or a different denomination than to make a sudden leap into Hinduism, for example.
Is it anywhere near a good fishing lake?
I don't know, but with the lord on my side I can feed all the 28,000 this Saturday at the AMEX with a dozen or so fish and a bit of bread, so forget about the £10 for a beer and chips!
So, any of you changed your minds and found the lord of the past few days? If you haven't, let me know where you live and I'll tell you a good church in walking distance of you.
Peace.
Stewart.
nvermind the well fed paying to the Amex this weekend, the many starving across the world kinda disprove your "lord" exists.
The thing that tickles me about this argument is the point it all goes back to. Christians say "well if the big bang happened, where did the explosion come from?" and yet believe first there was nothing, and then God just made everything. Out of nothing. It's essentially the same origin, and understanding it is not about faith or science but understanding the nature of infinity which is something that the human mind simply cannot compute. I have a great deal of respect for people who live their lives by way of faith, as all faiths (regardless of one's belief or not) can eventually be boiled down to moral codes and stories in how to live a good life. My personal view is that the evidence for evolution far outweighs anything written in book, and can be proven beyond doubt rather than boiling down to "it's just God's will" when there is a question which can't be answered. That said, I wouldn't say I'm an atheist, more an agnostic - I like the idea of a deity because it gives you hope - and science, for all it's beauty and brilliance, is also a heartless bitch that says in the grand scheme of things, you don't matter. Religion is born out of wanting to feel a part of something, out of hope and optimism, and when applied correctly it can be a beautiful thing. It's a shame there has to be such polarisation and radicalisation of various religions which detract from the good that faith organisations and charities can do in the world for great problems, as well as on an individual basis for someone visiting their place of prayer. A God who started the ball rolling for evolution would be the ideal for me - something more magical and spiritual underpinning the cold hard facts of scientific discovery. Not sure whether I actually believe it though - but would like to.
I think many peopple, including me would disagree strongly with that sentence.