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Author Topic:   Creation, Evolution, and faith
rockondon
Member (Idle past 4925 days)
Posts: 40
Joined: 03-29-2010


(1)
Message 29 of 456 (552834)
03-31-2010 11:19 AM
Reply to: Message 25 by kbertsche
03-30-2010 11:09 PM


BTW, Atheists (e.g. Dawkins) often use the word "faith" to mean "blind faith" and then deny that scientists have "faith." This is a straw-man argument. Most Christians do not have this type of "faith" either, because their faith is not "blind," it is based on biblical evidence. And scientists DO speak of belief and faith, as your Darwin quotes show.
I agree with your assertion that they typically are refuting the blind faith definition of the word but I believe they are right to do so. When one accuses scientists of using faith, do you really think they are being accused of making reasoned deductions on empirical evidence...but they have faith that what their eyes see is really there? That definition of faith is virtually meaningless. Accusing scientists of using faith is accusing them of arriving at conclusions using blind faith; its disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
Most Christians do not have this type of "faith" either, because their faith is not "blind," it is based on biblical evidence.
Believing in magic people casting spells, walking on water, living in a whale for 3 days, a boat with millions of animals, etc, is not based on evidence.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 25 by kbertsche, posted 03-30-2010 11:09 PM kbertsche has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 31 by kbertsche, posted 03-31-2010 2:20 PM rockondon has not replied

rockondon
Member (Idle past 4925 days)
Posts: 40
Joined: 03-29-2010


Message 103 of 456 (554203)
04-06-2010 9:14 PM
Reply to: Message 100 by Flyer75
04-06-2010 7:05 PM


I have to ask again....how do we know? How do we know light traveled at the same speed it does today 40 million years ago? Or that the way we date rocks today has any connection to the way they decayed 110 million years ago? IMO, it's a logical conclusion that scientists have "faith" that the present is the key to the past.
Similar questions might be, how do we know that the rocks we see weren't marshmallows millions of years ago? How do we know that gravity didn't used to push things away instead of pull towards?
The simplest answer I suppose would be....why would things be different before than they are now? We have no reason to think the laws of the universe changed and if you have to bend reality in this way to maintain your beliefs then those beliefs are in dire need of revision.
Lets assume for the sake of argument that there is a Creator and He gave us the tools of curiosity, logic, and reason. Would this Creator be angered by people for using these tools to explore and try to understand aspects of His creation? - of course not. Would this Creator hold in higher regard those who set aside his gifts of logic and reason in order to deny the evidence of His creation? - of course not.
In order to delude yourself into thinking that the earth is young, you have to deny a lot more than radiometric dating. Non-radiometric dating methods such as dendrochronology, historical records, ice cores, varves, plate techtonics, Milankovitch cycles, luminescence dating, and fossils all agree and support one another. What you are suggesting is that God is stupid and a deceiver, and that He had to cast spell after spell to lie to us - He had to alter every radiometric isotope, every varve, ice layers, historical records, etc, in order to deceive the human race. So when you deny scientific evidence, you are accusing God of being incompetent and a deceiver.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 100 by Flyer75, posted 04-06-2010 7:05 PM Flyer75 has not replied

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