Must Reads

Agreeing that biological science is a scientific reality does not and should not discount your religious beliefs. There are many, many scientists that believe in theistic evolution (belief that God created the diversity of life on Earth through the process of biological evolution and the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection).Though many of us on the EvC board are atheists and agnostics, many of us have no major problem with scientists who believe in God and the idea of theistic evolution (we just don't see any valid and substantial evidence indicating such). My beefs with religion and the Christian faith are personal and are a totally seperate and unrelated topic than that of biological evolution. For me this lack of faith in religion has more to do with the historical and moral inconsistencies with religion. However, my wife, brother and many other relatives and friends are born again Christians some of which do not dispute the evidence for biological evolution and others that do. This does not change the fact that I love them and would give the shirt off my back for them.The big issue in today's society, both in the US and even abroad, is that a small minority of religiously motivated politicians and so-called "scientists" want to hijack our educational system to flood it with pseudoscientific (or what I like to term it, "antiscience") ID and creationist crap and send our education system down the gutter. This is what I and many others on this board will not stand by and let happen. The best way to counter this attrocity is through education and that is why I post on this board. Plus I learn alot from other people on here as well.I wish the best for you in your self-education and my recommendation for you is to challenge everything people tell you, whether religious, scientific or otherwise, with well-documented and researched evidence.Edited by DevilsAdvocate, : No reason given.

---

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Dr. Carl Sagan

Trust me, it is complete and utter stupidity. Ray Comfort is an ex-surfer from New Zealand with barely a high school level education. He has zero scientific knowledge and has no college education. He literally has no clue what he is talking about.

---

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Dr. Carl Sagan

Actually I am pretty confident this well never happen on a universal scale. However, where I lack confidence is when local school boards elect idiots for representatives who allow or even solicit antiscientific ideas such as creationism to creep into the school curriculum and in the process dumb down our prodegy. I applaud your honesty and your ability to discern reality from fiction. BTW, creationism and "intelligent design" are not true science but don't take my word for it. Keep researching it on your own. Totally agree These conflicts should be taught in religion classes not science classes. There is just not enough time to cover all the different conflicts between science and religion i.e. Hinduism vs science, Budhism vs science, Christianity vs science, etc ad infinitim in science classes. Neither is it the responsibility of science to do so. Science only covers natural and knowable phenomena. Religion attempts to explain the potentially unknowable (also called supernatural). Leave science in the science classroom and religion in the religion classroom. It is really that simple. This is already being done in introductory science classes. What you claim as being taught as absolute truths is what most science teachers are just claiming to be taught as the most probable explanations of natural phenomena i.e. scientific theories. Only religion teaches in absolutes.Edited by DevilsAdvocate, : No reason given.Edited by DevilsAdvocate, : No reason given.

---

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Dr. Carl Sagan

LOL, I totally agree. Budhists and Hindus are less absolute in there beliefs than that of many fundamentalist Christians. The issue, I believe, is not so much to do with the religion itself as the interpretation of these religious texts. Hence, why many Christian theists have no issues with the scientific concepts of biological and cosmological evolution whereas many Christian fundamentalists do.

---

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Dr. Carl Sagan