commike37
Well, first off, you're attempting to put creation on the same ground as evolution, but that doesn't put evolution on a higher level at all.
I beg to differ but creation is not on any ground at all.It is only sustainable through belief and has no verifiable criteria that all believers agree upon.Science,evolution included,is completely structured around the verifiable.There are heated debates about the leading edge understandings but the whole endeavour,is,by and large based on concensus.
Furthermore experimental results are the same regardless of the beliefs or lack of beliefs of those who are investigating.Evolution is not on a higher ground but it is capable of both verification and more important,falsification.
This topic is about believing evolution, not creation. Nonetheless, I've learned that you just can't seem to realize this, so I'll appease you with a response.
Yes the topic is about believing evolution however I do perceive that this is being discussed by yourself as a comparison with the notion of belief as practised by religions,though you are free to correct me if I am wrong.This is the reason for my response concerning the bible being also by men.This did seem to also be the center of your arguement as though men in their investigations of nature.
Well if the Bible is open to many different interpretations, then so is processes in nature. Your logic here is self-destructive and contradictory.
Unlike the bible we can experiment in science.And the only thing that allows a hypothesis to attain the status of being of value is that its predictions are verified by experiment and that experiment can be done by anyone anywhere and achieve the same results.Science tests and retests and subjects its tests to scrutiny and works because it understands that doubt is vital to accomplishing a coherent overview of nature.
sidelined writes:
Who wrote the Bible?...Man
Who says that the Bible was written by men inspired by god...Man
Well, the second statement offers the explanation to the first, but as for the explanation to the second statment, each man chooses for himself whether to have the faith to believe that God inspired the scriptures.
No.Those so inclined
choose to believethat the bible has anything of value for them.That god is something of actual existence is not obvious from the writings and that the bible is the greatest book ever written is debateable.Indeed,not everyone thinks that god has any different existence from an imaginary friend out of childhood.I see no point for carrying on a comforting illusion from childhood in exactly the same way that I would not hold to the existence of god.It is not a matter of denial so much as a realization that such things are simply non existent.
Whereas in evolution, each man chooses for himself whether to have faith to believe that man accurately explains our world through evolution
Not faith but reasoning. I am sufficiently capable of following the reasoning behind evolution and if I should have doubts I need not ask for verification since I can also investigate to my hearts content should I feel it necessary.
That is the beauty of science.Do not believe.
Investigate,scrutinize,ask penetrating pertainent questions,But do not assume for one instant that you can charge pell mell into any field without a good background and expect to overturn hundreds of years of study by thousands of people in hundreds of different disciplines that are now within the structure of evolutionary theory.From physics and chemistry through microbiology and paleontology to medicine and neurology and numerous other disciplines.
The key to interpreting the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. So man must have faith that the Holy Spirit will show him the truth in Scripture
In other words you must convince yourself that such exists in order to see it exists which is not a rational conclusion since this precludes questioning that such is correct. You
may claim that such is truthful but it can be shown that there are other faiths where no holy spirit is discussed and these people are just as convinced of the validity of their faith.Such an arguement is not convincing and is fraught with deception as far as I can see.
sidelined writes:
Who worships a god in righteous fear of punishment for not doing so and calls it love?
Actually, this is a misguided statement. The NT focuses specifically on living by grace, not by the law.
This is debatable even within the context of the NT here
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
It appears Jesus is contradicting your assertion.
Actually, man puts faith in God. That He was behind the Bible, not man. That He will not lead him astray.
Men are capable of deceit and are capable of deluding themselves. They can be subject to emotional trauma and not think straight due this.Men wrote the bible and and the bible is not special. It is one more myth among the others and as such holds no more rationality than another. That men {and women} find answers to their situations that they consider acceptable is by no means a verifcation of its status.It is difficult to deal with things like loss of parents,your parner, friends and "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to".That we turn to these things makes them human endeavors not divine ones.
That some of us do not need them in the least is also posible and ,in my case,just how it is.
This message has been edited by sidelined, 01-17-2005 23:02 AM
A centipede was happy quite, until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?'
This raised his doubts to such a pitch
He fell distracted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.
™ Version 4.2