for other Atheists out there

[mugsy]

It's so nice to know I'm not alone!

Thanks Karen!! I appreciate the info.

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by Twisterdog
My sister has a Darwin fish on her car. She does because she believes in evolution, and does not believe in creationism. The Darwin fish is a tongue-in-cheek slam on Christian creationists. It's really meant to be humorous, in a mean sort of way, I suppose. It's meant to show how ludicrous evolutionists feel creationism is.

That is kind of what I thought....I knew it was meant to be against Christianity. Interesting...

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by Sara luvs her Tinky
Yeah Uabossoon... I agree with you but I consider that adaptation... which is evolution.. but there is no way humans or the Earth evolved from the big bang... which is what I am referring to... check out that website www.creationevidence.org it is really neat and I learned a lot from it.

Did anyone else check out this site besides me??

[kohala]

There are many Christian teachings that have not been released by Churches, for reasons of control maybe, or maybe because we humans as a species are too limited in our ability to grasp the abstract. Much of the Bible was written to the audience of the day, addressing Creation in terms that people could understand. Somewhere between traditional Creationism, the observations of Darwin, and a whole lot of other stuff lies the truth. I can't help but feel that God isn't half way about to let us know too much, considering what we do with what we DO learn!!!
So leave each other alone, and learn to practice what your Good Book, whichever it is, teaches. Imagine if we could all do that; but what too often happens is people desiring power will use our fears against us in the name of God, and we all too blindly let ourselves get led down paths I doubt God approves of.

The Truth Is Out There

[kohala]

Originally posted by NoahsMommy

Did anyone else check out this site besides me??

I'll read it more in depth when I can - it looks interesting. I noticed Dr. Baugh discusses the bible's codes. That has always interested me, every since I read Carlos Suares "The Cipher of Genesis".

[COCatMama]

I LOVE darwin fish!! I want one sooooo bad for my car that I went to a darwin fish website and printed out a pic of one and taped it to the inside of the back window

[All Creatures Great And Small]

This has been a VERY interesting thread to read, and I am so pleased to see that it stayed civil and tolerant. I don't belong to any particular religion, but I was raised in a vaguely Christian home (non-practicing). I just try to "be good" as much as possible, which is about 90% of the time (LOL). I do know that my daughter lost her best friend of many years because of ONE WORD that I used in front of her which her extremely Catholic parents found offensive. (All I will say is that it is 12 letters long and starts with M, and it is NOT a curse word.) She is now forbidden to be around my daughter, who had nothing to do with this anyway, because I am a "heathen" or something. They seem to have forgotten the 6 years that their daughter spent in my home every other weekend, where she was treated like a member of the family, and any other kindnesses we had done in the past. This is the thing that drives me crazy about organized religion, that it seems to drive people apart as much as it brings them together. So many wars have started because of conflict of beliefs (Ireland, the Middle East, etc.). I have not read the Bible thoroughly, nor the Quran, but I don't think there are instructions in either book that you should blow up people who don't agree with your faith. I guess some people just take the teachings to extremes. (If you're curious what the word was, you can PM me )

[All Creatures Great And Small]

Originally posted by NoahsMommy
Anyway, they had the wise men, Mary and Joseph all turned in wierd positions. Like, Mary was leaning over two sheep. Joseph was facing away from everyone. I think the closest thing to baby Jesus was a camel. It was truely funny.

You know, I think this is a large part of why the friend's parents don't like me - I have a VERY irreverent sense of humor, and stuff like this would make me laugh. I guess that would be interpreted as disrespect for their religion, but it's not; it's just disrespect for some little plastic figures. On a side note, we have a little Christmas decoration that is the word NOEL, with each letter being the car of a "train". A long time ago when we were first married, I rearranged the cars to spell
"LEON" with it instead, just to see how long it would take my husband to notice (he's notoriously unobservant). Well, it took him 2 weeks the first time......now it's an annual Christmas tradition to put up "LEON", and see if any guests notice -

[Soledad]

Evolution is a scientific theory, and even if it is questionable or not universally agreed upon, it has a right to be taught in public schools. Christians do not have the right to ban the teaching of evolution for creationism as that would be totally against the principles of this country. We are a secular nation, which does not mean that we cannot all celebrate our religions and beliefs, but it does mean that no one religion has a right to decide what our children will or will not learn. If creationism wants to be taught in public school, that is fine so long as it is taught along side all sorts of other creation beliefs from other cultures.

[Ann]

Originally posted by Sara luvs her Tinky
Actually evolution has never been proven ... that is why it is called the evolution theory... and Education is a choice.. but like Christianity is a religion .... I believe evolutionist are in a religion too. They have a lot of faith to believe in evolution.. because no one has ever seen evolution.

Education is a choice? That's not true. Kids have to go to school from 1-9 grade here in Sweden and I know it's the same in the USA and most other "civilized" countries.

Evolution has never been proven? I belive it has. Look at the equines for example, or any other animal species. There's clear proof of evolution so I really don't know why a lot of religious people say it's just a "theory".

Originally posted by popcornbird
Evolution is a theory not a fact and proven. I believe that their is a zillion times more proof of God than there is of evolution. Who proved it? Some "guy" called Mr. Darwin. So if you can believe in a normal guy called Darwin, why not believe in the Prophets sent by God, with God's message? God sent the same message to all His prophets. Its not like we never heard from God. God has sent us His message and the guidelines of life through all His prophets, from Adam, to Noah, to David, to Abraham, to Moses, to Jesus, and finally to Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon them all. They were much more respected and pious people than Darwin and his theory.

Like I said above, I belive evolution has been proven.

I think it was pretty uncalled for making fun of Darwin like that, I would never go around calling Muhammed some war-crazy "guy" that wasn't pious! We are showing respect towards your beliefs, why do you have to ridicule ours? Besides, there is obviously plenty of proof that Darwin existed but what solid proof is there that Adam, Noah and so on existed?

Originally posted by popcornbird
There is proof of God all around us, proof that we see every second in our lives. Denying the proofs is something different, but the evidence is there, clear evidence. I, however, have never seen any "signs" of evolution with my own eyes. If we all evolved, why isn't anything evolving now? It doesn't make sense.

I think Uabassoon answered that evolution comment very well, so I won't repeat it.

One thing that I've always been awed at when it comes to Islam, is how their holy book never has been modified in the original language. When it comes to the Christian Bible, it's been modified so many times that you can never know what's original and what's not. That's always fascinated me with the Quaran though...

[COCatMama]

oops posted it twice

[COCatMama]

Popcornbird: Darwin was a scientist, he dealt with SCIENCE not some hocus pocus mumbo jumbo! And you show me proof of your God, and I'll show you some dinosaur fossils, in fact I HAVE A FOSSIL of a fern. You didn't see me going into your "Eid" thread and saying exactly what I *really* think of your religion, did you? HOW DARE you attack a person that ACTUALLY lived and are you going to deny the existence of GRAVITY??!?! I think you have ALOT of growing up to do and you have to learn NOT TO attack other people merely because you feel threatened by their beliefs. And for the record I never DENIED ANY PROOF of any God because THERE IS NO PROOF! Religion is about FAITH and not FACT. I utterly lack ANY faith in Religion *alot of that is because of people that act like you* and it would be total HYPOCRISY for me to belong to a religion since I do not "believe"
GRRRRRRR fundamentalists put the "fun" back in mental.

And never, in a million years, would I have ANYTHING to do with the Islamic faith - for personal reasons. That means I will not read any religious links you provide.

[Tanya&Fritz]

Originally posted by Lalania

And never, in a million years, would I have ANYTHING to do with the Islamic faith - for personal reasons.

I totally agree.

This is probably going to cause a lot of fuss but here is my view on religion. I'm not talking about christians in general but the "holly rollers".

Some people take drugs, some drink, some use religion as a crutch.

I live a good life with good morals. But I don't need a crutch like religion to get me through. If something good happens to me it's just being in the right place at the right time, not because I prayed.

[Tanya&Fritz]

Originally posted by Sara luvs her Tinky
my two cents..

I too agree with how Noah's mommy put it...... when you find something wonderful that changes your life you have to tell somebody.

I honestly don't understand why athiest are offended when a christian tries to witness to them... I mean I do if they are rude or too persistant.... I mean ... I believe in Heaven and Hell and my beliefs are if you are not a christian... (having asked Christ into your heart)... and TRY to live a moral life you have eternal consiquences... now .... I know God is real... when I got saved and really got on fire for God he started revealing himself to me.. and no one in the world could ever convince me that he was not real because of what I have witnessed... Now it is so wonderful how he has changed my life and how could I not tell anyone?..... Some people think when you get saved you have to life like a nun... and that is not how it is... God helps you change your life you don't have to drop everything cold turkey.. he helps you.... but you have to ask for his help.

This is EXACTLY what I am talking about.

[wolf_Q]

Sorry, I'd really rather not answer any questions about the LDS faith...as well....I have this feeling I'd screw up my answer.......lol I was always the one in the back of Seminary class pretending I did not hear my name being called. I don't want anyone to be judging the religion by what some stupid person (me) answers.

As for Evolution/Religion, I agree with what was said earlier. Twisterdog said it perfect. That's what I've always believed too! I think that the earth/life was created by evolution....and God created it...but God's days are not the same as our days....you can't take everything literally.

I don't think you need a religion to have morals. I'm really not a very "churchy" person...but I have morals....I was raised to have them. I'm GLAD that I do. I'm glad I'm not drinking/smoking/drugs etc. I wouldn't do that, not for anyone else, but for myself. I'm saving myself for marriage too...and I'm not ashamed to admit that.

Oh....that kind of came out wrong....I'm not trying to imply that people who drink/smoke are bad people.....there's a *complete* difference between someone who occasionally has an alcoholic drink to someone who is constantly drunk...