Claudie said:
You would have to be living in a complete vacuum to even remotely consider that the earth isn't billions of years old. You have allowed your faith to cloud your thinking.
If you are going to promote one belief, shouldn't other beliefs also be allowed as to not come across as close minded. When one is trying to find the best solution to any problem, it's best if they know what all of the alternatives are. By allowing one belief and no others, it isn't a discussion any longer, it's forcing one to accept something as fact when clearly many believe it is not.
Sorry, I do not agree. This has nothing to do with my "belief", but everything to do with evidence at hand, observations by learned men who have used scientific methods to draw conclusions. These conclusions have been reliably repeated time and again, proving their veracity. How that information is interpreted by others is the problem, not the information. In all too many cases (how this thread has taken a turn is a good example) those with a religious conviction refuse to accept that which has been learned, in many cases because it is in direct conflict with their religious convictions. If you don't find that strange, I'm a little surprised, as I do, and rightfully so.
Religion, by sharp contrast, is the faith to believe that which has been told by those who went before us, typically with little to nothing in the way of evidence to support a given position. Do NOT make mention of your Bible as proof, as it was written by man, and has been repeatedly copied. None of us have the slightest idea what the agenda may have been of those involved, although that they desired control over man was quite obvious. Much of it is based on fable, and has nothing to do with the truth. Want an example? Do you **really** think that an individual dwelled in the stomach of a whale? Do your **really** believe that there was an arc---filled with animals? It would have had to be a ponderous arc, don't you think? Even stranger, animals from all corners of the world just happened to get to the arc to board. How could that be?
One more--do you **really** believe the entire world was flooded? If so, from where did the water come, and where did it go? Can you not see that from the point of science, these things makes no sense?
I made mention that we tend to be men of science. That, of course, doesn't include everyone on the board, for I realize that there are those who will faithfully follow the teachings of their given religion, in spite of overwhelming (scientific) evidence to support that things are not as they believe. For that reason, it serves no purpose to introduce religion.
We have been discussing a topic which is science based. If you have hopes of seeing this discussion continue, I tell you once again---drop ANY mention of religion. The three examples I provided, above, should be evidence enough for any intelligent individual to understand that it serves no purpose aside from to divide the board. I am not willing to stand by and watch that happen.
I was born and raised in a community where the chosen religion was quite intolerant of those who did not subscribe to the same diatribe, and was abused from childhood on, finding peace only when I moved to another state, where that *religion* has little influence. As a result, I have no tolerance for religious people, nor the diatribe they wish to extend upon others. Keep it to yourself, where it belongs.
A closing thought, although primarily for those who reside in the US.
The constitution grants freedom of religion. It also grants freedom
from religion. No one has the right to put upon others their chosen beliefs, in particular when they have not been invited.
Harold
