Evolution or Creation

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Archer: BTW, have you run that experiment yet? Where you put your hand into steaming hot water and try choosing to believe that it is cold?

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Then you really believe hot water is hot. It's your authentic response to experience. You cannot will this belief to be otherwise.Good. This is progress.That's the difference between belief and 'belief.'_Edited by Archer Opterix, : conclusion.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

Doddy, you are absolutly correct except for the number of groups.
Last time I checked there were 34,000 different groups in the world,
1200 in the US alone. You are also right that everybody cannot be correct.That is why I have spent most of my life searching for the truth.
Just as many here that I have come in contact with are searching for a different kind of truth than I am.

Just as I cannot will my belief in God to be otherwise because of my experience with Him.Then on the other hand I am beginning to see that many atheist are just as committed to their unbelief.BTW I hold a High pressure steam Engineer's License, I know what hot is.

I find Sam Harris's words appropriate here:

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Why rig a silly game in which only the poorly educated and mentally unbalanced are perfectly tuned to glimpse the truth of your existence, while smart, well-adjusted, and well-educated people (like yourself) must wrestle with doubt, barricade themselves behind euphemism, and cling to spurious "mysteries" to keep from tumbling into unbelief? You beckon me to a world in which George Bush and James Dobson have an effortless bead on the deepest conceivable truth; meanwhile, 93 percent of the members of the National Academy of Sciences may well be doomed for eternity by their skepticism. It's hard for me to imagine that this scenario seems even remotely plausible to you--but this is Christianity at a glance. I am not the first to notice that it is a strange sort of loving God who would make salvation depend upon a person's ability to believe in him on bad evidence.

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Andrew Sullivan and Sam Harris blog on the Bible, Islam, Jesus, Religion, Faith, and Death - BeliefnetAn exchange I think we'll be quoting extensively around here.

We do not have "unbelief". We have very strong belief that you people are severally deluded.You, on the other hand, have an unbelief that you are deluded. One of the prerequisits for delusion

Are you absolutely positive that there is no God?You are gambling your eternal spirit on this belief. But it is not you are going to live forever somewhere.

Then you believe in God???????????

No, but I'm reasonably confident. That seems like a poor reason to believe. Do you think that God is interested in populating Heaven with people who saw belief as a matter of "hedging their bets"; people who thought they could game the system by professing belief just to avoid the hot place? That's quite a scam you people are running.

Don't you wish. I don't see where it says they will be burned up at the end.

We had a thread on that subject here, in case you're interested.

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But how do you know that only current groups have the truth? What about past and future groups?

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Help inform the masses - contribute to the EvoWiki today! Contributors needed in the following fields: Physical Anthropology, Invertebrate Biology (esp. Lepidopterology), Biochemistry, Population Genetics, Scientific Illustration, Scientific History, Philosophy of Science, Logic and others. Researchers also wanted to source creationist literature references. Register here!

Bingo. You really are making progress!In your OP and every post up until now you have spoken of 'choosing' your belief. You have assumed that others 'choose' theirs.Now you admit that what I have been telling you all along is true. Now you admit that no choice is involved, that you 'cannot will your belief' to be one thing or another. Now you admit that genuine belief is exactly what I said it is: an involuntary and spontaneous response to experience.Thank you for this admission. Your retreat from your earlier position is duly noted and interpreted as a retraction.If you now understand that you cannot 'choose' belief, you now understand that no one else can do so either. You now see the folly of talking about other people 'choosing' this or that belief that they hold, and of asking them why you should 'choose' one belief or another based on personal advantage.Do you understand this now? Please confirm._____Edited by Archer Opterix, : html.Edited by Archer Opterix, : typo repair.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

I don't remember him(?) using an apostrophe. I found this definition of "cant" in one of the online dictionaries. Others had similar explanations."To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic."

Incorrect:This is you attributing an experience you have had to your god. This attributional style us humans have is inherently flawed as is the source of the inaccuracy of your above conclusion.

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That is why I have spent most of my life searching for the truth.

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Honestly, ICANT, I have not seen you do anything of the kind here.Rather, I have seen you repeatedly and strenuously protect your beliefs from any examination whatsoever, even resorting to embracing and glorifying willful ignorance if that's what it takes to keep them intact and pristine.