seagypsy,
My response to the question is. I am an atheist these days but when I was a theist, I rejected evolution because I had an ego problem for one thing.
Do you still have an ego problem?
If not, how did it get solved?
Of course I do still have an ego problem. Ego is a problem for all humans. Ego is what causes us to think and do illogical things. It is the source of our emotions and uses those emotions to protect itself. But I have learned to control my ego better than I did in the past. I first had to acknowledge ego and not allow it to make my decisions for me. Now I am able to accept that we are all different, in physical composition as well as philosophical ideology. And its
OK. I don't have to believe that I am better than anyone else to perceive that I have value to society. I do not need the shallow affections of a God who creates inequality to feel loved. I no longer fear the wrath of a god who created us with a particular nature then punishes us for acting on that same nature. I am better able to love and accept my neighbors as they are now. Because I don't have a baseless belief that I am a better human because they don't believe in the same mythical creator as I do. I don't mind if my neighbors are theists. I think for some people a belief in something is healthy and helps to keep them emotionally stable. For some nothing can make them emotionally stable and faith may make them worse.
I would tell atheists, "maybe YOU evolved from pond scum but I didn't". To accept that human beings evolved from lesser creatures is to take us off of the superior creation pedestal.
Either that, or they genuinely have no reason to believe that is the case.
There is no evidence for it, only cartoons, hearsay, and wishful thinking.
The evidence is there, you simply do not value it. Your reasons for rejecting it are your own. What evidence is there of God? Nothing but cartoons and hearsay and wishful thinking.
What would happen to us, at any point in our life, if we regarded the goo to man dogma as bullshit?
What would happen to one person may be completely different than what would happen to another. Some people lose their faith in God and kill themselves. Others lose their faith and feel liberated. It all depends on the emotional stability and mental health of the individual. In the end, it doesn't really matter where we came from as much as where we are going. You believe in eternal life, I do not. So for you believing in evolution threatens your ability to go to heaven. I do not believe in life after death and so where we came from is merely fascinating. The affect it has on me is that I am able to genuinely love my neighbor, be a real friend to anyone, and judge people on their merit (how they treat me and others) rather than their skin color, or how they think we got here. The way many theists treat atheists is about the same as mistreating a child because they don't believe in the tooth fairy or Santa. And yes it goes both ways. Being atheist does not in any way automatically mean that the ego is in check. I have seen some abhorrent behavior from atheists and theists alike. But they are both human so they act the same.
The lengthy process of evolution also goes against the 6 day creation as stated in the bible.
That depend on whose 6 day period you're referring to.
If you reread what you were responding to, I was referring to the
BIBLE. My response to the OP is in regards to my experience with Christianity, though it can extend to Islam. However they both involve the same god of Abraham and share the same basic creation story.
For example, Lord Brahma's day (the secondary creator of the universe according to vedic literatures), has been calculated to be the equivalent to 311 trillion of our years. And his nights are of the same length. At the end of every one of his nights, there is a partial annihilation of the universe, and comes back in the day.
So there are different perspectives of time.
All fine and dandy but read above and you will see why this addition was irrelevant. Ok fine, Ill point it out AGAIN. I already stated I was referring to the Bible.
As I began to question my faith I then started thinking as the OP suggests. But in order to accept that as a possibility I had to accept that God is an idiot and doesn't think things through all the way and he is the shittiest designer ever.
I totally understand. It's like when you go for a job interview, if you can visualise the interviewer on the toilet with his pants round his ankles, with a face that says
this piece of pooh is a long time coming, but with a last push, I'm sure I can get at least half of it on it's way, then that may well give you the illusion of confidence. Well done for being so spontaneous.
Ok all that proved is that you are gross. My reason for believing god sucks at design is because of all the crappy ways people can be born, like with limbs missing, or horrific genetic mutations that give them a slow agonizing death. Maybe if you stopped fantasizing about people taking a dump you could think a bit more clearly.
And his employment of trial and error even though he supposedly knows everything shows that he is just a jerk. Obviously, that left me with a very bad taste in my mouth for god and i refused to accept that God would be such an ass. Instead i accepted that he is not an ass, he just does not exist.
This, of course is the biggy: deny, deny, deny, His existence. Why? Because one day you will come to believe it. Then you are free! Free I tell-ya.
You're free to let darwinism make a monkey out of you.
lol you are right, I crack up every time is see people at ball games rooting for their favorite team, screaming and hollering and grunting just like chimpanzees do when they watch two of their own fight. Or when I see a girl picking lint off of her boyfriend much the way a female chimpanzee picks bugs out of her mate's fur. It's very humbling to know we are animals and therefor can be trained to behave better than we do. Rather than at the mercy of some egotistical creator who cares for no one but himself. You are right. I do feel free knowing I am a primate. I know where I truly stand in the world.
So I am guessing that many believers would see accepting theistical evolution as a slippery slope to atheism. And they simply don't want to go there.
The only people who need goo to man stories to be true, are people who don't believe in God.
jan.
And I could say the only people who need god to be real are those who are incapable of seeing any value in themselves without him. Or those who cannot discern right from wrong without a god to tell them so. But it wouldnt be true. Some people need god for the sense of stabilty. And that's ok. Others don't need god and thats ok too. You can try to insult me by calling me a monkey if you want, but I have a lot of respect for animals and I consider it an honor to count myself among them. Maybe you are created in the image of a genocidal, egotistical, selfish, wrathful being. But I wasn't.
If we throw science out, then who will investigate murders and determine who did it. What if your child was murdered and there were all sorts of evidences left behind but the authorities said, no no it was God's will, her head just lobbed itself off because God wanted it that way. Don't pay any attention to the evidences you claim to see, those are just tricks of the devil. A world without science, a wonderful place indeed.
James R,
Isn't the book full of palaeontologists who found the theory of evolution, namely goo to man, wrong.
Hence success. Duh!
Hey here's an idea, why not tell us the name of the book? Give us the ISDN of the book so that we can read it too. Or was it a book written on gold plates that only a blessed one can see?
