seanpont

He won't admit he's wrong; he's too proud. When you catch him in error, he just gets nasty.

Intelligent elvolution is Intelligent Design which is Creationism. All three have 2 basic logical flaws at their core. The first is based on, "the god of the gaps", argument. Wherever there is a gap in scientific knowledge, especially in geology and biology, all three invoke the "god hypothesis"; if science fills the gap, all three search for a new gap. Hence the "god hypothesis" is non-falsifiable. The second flaw is the either-or fallacy; the assumption that there are only 2 possible solutions for a given problem. All three argue that there are only 2 solutions to the origins of humans, evolution (through natural selection) or divine creation. All three claim there are problems with natural selection, therefore divine creation is the only plausible explanation. All three show lack of imagination in postulating possibilities and show their sheer ignorance of the subject matter.

Hmmm...someone hasn't studied IE. Aside from being critical to naturalistic theory, they have also put forth hypothesis as well as discoveries that support design. Oh, and ironically enough, Newtonian physics is based on the belief there is a Designer. So it's not science? For someone who is always saying, "that's a strawman arguement", you seem quite fond of building them yourself.

there is no agreement between Christianity and Islam. They are opposed. One is of God, and the other is a doctrine of Satan. I didn't say that christianity and islam agree to anything. What I said was that atheists and christians agree that islam is wrong with regards to the qur'an being the word of god, allah being god, and so forth. You may have some additional reasons for not believing it, (your faith in jesus), but when christians and atheists look at the qur'an critically and logically we come to the same conclusions for the same reasons.

Why? Because the Bible, when taken in total context, was designed to reveal enough for you to make an informed choice regarding His plan of Salvation. It serves no other purpose. Each piece of the Bible is designed and included to reveal to you something which always leads to Christ. However obscure a piece may be, it's designed to bring you closer to a choice which God presents to you, and leaves the final decision completely in your hands. The "why" to every specific question may or may not be given to us, for God does have His secrets which He chooses not to reveal to us, yet (Deu 29:29), but He does give us enough to make the choice for Him. Each inclusion, ultimately, leaves us with a choice: Accept the Gift, or not. Personally, I don't think the Bible was ever meant to be something which would answer every question presented by mankind, but rather, it was enough for us to make a choice concerning the future plans which God has in store for us. You'll never answer every question of science, mathematics, philosophy, or any other subject we have questions about by reading it, but one: The question of whether we should accept the sacrifice of Jesus or not. In that regard, it answers the question in full. So, all told, if you want to learn algebra, buy the proper text book. If you want to learn how to make a meatloaf, buy a cook book. If you want to know how to attain the free gift of Salvation through Jesus and learn how it was made possible, get a hold of a Bible and you'll have all you need. May this be the day that you choose Him. t. As I said in my post I wasn't arguing against christianity; I was just showing an atheist perspective. I was also trying to show that christians and atheists agree when it comes to islam and other religions. By the way I just moved from FayetteNam about a year ago!

I don't have to walk in someone's shoes to determine the "validity" of the sin they choose, or the depths to which a demonic stronghold has taken root. It is either a rebellious choice---in some it is---or it is a demonic stronghold in that life. Either way, God can break it. What about the 450 species of animals that exhibit homosexual behavior? Is it a choice or demons?

I always love the "many scientists" argument; the reality is they are a minority. Creationism, ID, and IE are not sciences. They are not scientific theories. They are simply arguments against evolution. They offer no new proof, facts, or evidence. The only thing they offer are questions, not answers.

For a start making bubbles glow via sound waves isn't new. High frequency sound waves agitate the molecules in the liquid, (the liquid used isn't specified but it won't be plain old water), which give of photons in the process. Stop the sound the molecules calm down and the photons stop coming and the tiny, (very tiny), amount of light you were getting goes out. This is well understood. Now...Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So how does sound come into creating solid matter? Sound waves are a destructive force, sound shatters glass, it vibrates things to the point of them breaking, they destabilize the molecular structure of matter, when the molecules of certain materials get destabilized they give off light thats why sound waves produce light in certain materials. How could a destructive force be used to create anything but a mess? Not to mention the fact that if sound waves created the universe...How did sound waves travel through a vacuum in empty space? Now...Genesis 1:2 "Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Notice the water existed before god spake to it, so how was the water created, if not by sound then what is the point of making bubbles glow? Also day light does not come from the bottom of the sea it comes form the fusion reactor in the sky called the sun. Now...Genesis 1:3 "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light." So god created a ball of nuclear fusion that is 864,938 miles wide, by talking to the sea, after he created the planet that orbited it? This experiment proves nothing other than the lengths people will go to try to justify their unjustifiable beliefs.

You know exactly what it is like to be an atheist. The following is not an argument against Christianity, but an illustration of an atheist's thinking or point of view. I could not link to it without breaking the TOS, so I paraphrased it bellow. "You believe that the Bible is the literal and inspired word of God; meaning that men wrote it, but God inspired those men to write His message. You also believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that His sacrifice bridges the gap between man and God, (The gap being sin). You believe these propositions because you think they are true, not merely because they make you feel good. You may wonder how it is possible for an atheist to find these sorts of assertions ridiculous. Consider: every devout Muslim has the same reasons for being a Muslim that you now have for being a Christian. And yet, you know exactly what it is like not to find these reasons compelling. On virtually every page, the Qur'an declares that it is the perfect word of the Creator of the universe. Muslims believe this as fully as you believe the Bible's account of itself. There is a vast literature describing the life of Muhammad that, from the Muslim point of view, proves his unique status as the Prophet of God. While Muhammad did not claim to be divine, he claimed to offer the most perfect revelation of God's will. He also assured his followers that Jesus was not divine (Qur'an 5:71-75; 19:30-38) and that anyone who believed otherwise would spend eternity in hell. Muslims are convinced that Muhammad's pronouncements on these subjects, as on all others, are infallible. Why don't you find these claims convincing? Why don't you lose any sleep over whether or not you should convert to Islam? Please take a moment to reflect on this. You know exactly what it is like to be an atheist with respect to Islam. Isn't it obvious that Muslims are not being honest in their evaluation of the evidence? Isn't it obvious that anyone who thinks that the Qur'an is the perfect word of the Creator of the universe has not read the book very critically? Isn't it obvious that Muslims have developed a mode of discourse that seeks to preserve dogma, generation after generation, rather than question it? Yes, these things are obvious. Understand that the way you view Islam is precisely the way every Muslim views Christianity. And it is the way I view all religions. Christians regularly assert that the Bible predicts future historical events. For instance, Deuteronomy 28:64 says, "The Lord will scatter you among the nations from one end of the earth to the other." Jesus says, in Luke 19:43-44, "The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." We are meant to believe that these utterances predict the subsequent history of the Jews with such uncanny specificity so as to admit of only a supernatural explanation. It is on the basis of such reasoning that 44 percent of the American population now believes that Jesus will return to earth to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next fifty years. But just imagine how breathtakingly specific a work of prophecy could be if it were actually the product of omniscience. If the Bible were such a book, it would make specific, falsifiable predictions about human events. You would expect it to contain a passage like, "In the latter half of the twentieth century, humankind will develop a globally linked system of computers-the principles of which I set forth in Leviticus-and this system shall be called the Internet." The Bible contains nothing remotely like this. In fact, it does not contain a single sentence that could not have been written by a man or woman living in the first century. Take a moment to imagine how good a book could be if it were written by the Creator of the universe. Such a book could contain a chapter on mathematics that, after two thousand years of continuous use, would still be the richest source of mathematical insight the earth has ever seen. Instead, the Bible contains some very obvious mathematical errors. In two places, for instance, the Good Book gives the ratio of a circumference of a circle to its diameter as simply 3 (1 Kings 7: 23-26 and 2 Chronicles 4: 2-5). We now refer to this constant relation with the Greek letter p. While the decimal expansion of p runs to infinity-3.1415926535 . . .-we can calculate it to any degree of accuracy we like. Centuries before the oldest books of the Bible were written, both the Egyptians and Babylonians approximated p to a few decimal places. And yet the Bible-whether inerrant or divinely inspired-offers us an approximation that is terrible even by the standards of the ancient world. Needless to say, many religious people have found ingenious ways of rationalizing this. And yet, these rationalizations cannot conceal the obvious deficiency of the Bible as a source of mathematical insight. It is absolutely true to say that, if Archimedes had written a chapter of the Bible, the text would bear much greater evidence of the author's "omniscience." Why doesn't the Bible say anything about electricity, about DNA, or about the actual age and size of the universe? What about a cure for cancer? Millions of people are dying horribly from cancer at this very moment, many of them children. When we fully understand the biology of cancer, this understanding will surely be reducible to a few pages of text. Why aren't these pages, or anything remotely like them, found in the Bible? The Bible is a very big book. There was room for God to instruct us on how to keep slaves and sacrifice a wide variety of animals. Please appreciate how this looks to one who stands outside the Christian faith. It is genuinely amazing how ordinary a book can be and still be thought the product of omniscience. Of course, your reasons for believing in God may be more personal than those I have discussed above. I have no doubt that your acceptance of Christ coincided with some very positive changes in your life. Perhaps you regularly feel rapture or bliss while in prayer. I do not wish to denigrate any of these experiences. I would point out, however, that billions of other human beings, in every time and place, have had similar experiences-but they had them while thinking about Krishna, or Allah, or the Buddha, while making art or music, or while contemplating the sheer beauty of nature. There is no question that it is possible for us to have profoundly transformative experiences. And there is no question that it is possible for us to misinterpret these experiences and to further delude ourselves about the nature of the universe." -Sam Harris

"Mockery is an important social tool for squelching stupidity. I

"One and all, religions have their original prophets, their sacred books, their traditions of ages gone. One and all require us to accept without question what other people long dead have said or written; to obey without question the commands of those behind us.... No matter what the belief, if it had modestly said, "This is our best thought, go on, think farther!" then we could have smoothly outgrown our early errors and long since have developed a religion such as would have kept pace with an advancing world. But we were made to believe and not allowed to think. We were told to obey, rather than to experiment and investigate." -Charlotte Perkins Gilman

So being a christian is just about walkin' and talkin' with Jesus? That falls under number 2. The manifestation of such a belief in worship, ritual, conduct, etc. Reread the definition and try again. No--I am telling you what Christianity is. Listen. (*seanpont is listening, but all he hears is air, or is that Jesus breathing?!?!*)

So being a christian is just about walkin' and talkin' with Jesus? That falls under number 2. The manifestation of such a belief in worship, ritual, conduct, etc. Reread the definition and try again. Actually, no. The manifestation of belief is the outward practices, rituals, observations, etc. Fine, then number 1 applies. Nope. Belief does not imply "relationship." Especially, "close intimate relationship." You can try to explain it away, but christianity IS a religion, and all religions are cults. Your arguments are specious and easily dissimulated.

So being a christian is just about walkin' and talkin' with Jesus? That falls under number 2. The manifestation of such a belief in worship, ritual, conduct, etc. Reread the definition and try again. Actually, no. The manifestation of belief is the outward practices, rituals, observations, etc. Fine, then number 1 applies.

So being a christian is just about walkin' and talkin' with Jesus? That falls under number 2. The manifestation of such a belief in worship, ritual, conduct, etc. Reread the definition and try again.

Good thing Christianity isn't a "religion"! Webster's Religion n. 1. A belief in a divine or superhuman power or principle, usu. thought of as the creator of all things. 2. The manifestation of such a belief in worship, ritual, conduct, etc. 3. Any system of religious faith or practice. So, how is christianity not a religion?

I had never actually seen that list before. My mother in law is JW but we don't talk about her beliefs much. I did know some of it though. Where did you find that information? Again with the questions. Josh, they are a cult. Not "like" a cult. My mother in law is "so close - yet so far" from the truth. It makes me very sad. They ask some very strange questions about the Millennial reign as well. One couple came to my door, I always like to talk to them, and wanted to know what I thought about Christ having us work to restore the earth during the Millennial reign of Christ on the earth. . . ALL religions, by definition, are cults.

That I refuse to believe. No one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ would stoop so low in such great numbers. You must be referring to people who merely think they are Christians! Legitimate people of God do not do such things. so...forget your little stats! Ooohh, I see if the stats agree with you they are good, but if they disagree let's forget them.

I would suggest that YOU recheck the statistics; drug abuse, suicide, murder, child abuse, prostitution, drug addiction, alcoholism, serial killings, rape, depression, teen pregnancy happen at a much higher rate in christians than atheists.