Ever heard of Horus?

[chris lindberg]

Even the origin of the stories in the Old Testament may be much older than the 12th and the 2nd century BC as most believe.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Burninator

It does seem to be declining in popularity except in the US. Heck, there a couple states right now that are considering teaching creationism along side evolution.

I mean check out what Huckabee, the leading front runner for the Republic party said.

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

That quote cuts off the end of it...

change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.

The fact that this loon has a chance at the big chair is pretty scary. They've got enough problems. The last thing they need is some cracker whose main concerns are abortion, gay marriage and pandering to the country's dumbest citizens.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

That quote cuts off the end of it...

change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.

The fact that this loon has a chance at the big chair is pretty scary. They've got enough problems. The last thing they need is some cracker whose main concerns are abortion, gay marriage and pandering to the country's dumbest citizens.

Although a part of me would like to see it happen - just out of morbid curiousity.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Although a part of me would like to see it happen - just out of morbid curiousity.

And then we have a nation of 300-million rage zombies (28 weeks later style) except they do it in the name of Christ!

Still curious?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Burninator

It does seem to be declining in popularity except in the US. Heck, there a couple states right now that are considering teaching creationism along side evolution.

Again, these are minor occurences that get too much publicity. It's also not really a coicidence that the of the U.S. that believe this nonsense also are the areas with the worst education systems.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

And then we have a nation of 300-million rage zombies (28 weeks later style) except they do it in the name of Christ!

Still curious?

Even more so...

But I doubt it would be that good.. would make for interesting television though. CNN and FOX news stations would love a president like Huckabee.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I was agreeing with your sentiment about faith spilling into science, I went one step further stating that we should be against Intelligent design, which I consider to be the biggest farce touted by faith today. The second part was mostly a statement about why I think religion has so much traction and always will. It wasnt meant to agree or disagree..

Ah, yes we are in agreement about faith spilling into science. And I am very much against the push of creationism/ID into science as well.

With the death thing I think I just misunderstood what you said sorry. Yes people of all faiths and no faith are afraid of death. But where religion can be attractive to some is that it offers answers to the after life. Where as the alternative offers nothing of the sort. I am sure that's probably what you were getting at, correct?

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Again, these are minor occurences that get too much publicity. It's also not really a coicidence that the of the U.S. that believe this nonsense also are the areas with the worst education systems.

Possibly but these things aren't happening in other western countries.

[driveway]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Yes people of all faiths and no faith are afraid of death.

I just read a book (yes, fiction) which had a character come to the conclusion that the only reason one should ever fear death is because of love, viz. our death will cause pain to those who love us, therefore we fear and avoid it - other than that there is no real reason to fear it.

It made a hell of a lot of sense.

[mykalberta]

People who believe in the Bible (not organized religion) will still believe it, and people who despise those people will still despise them after watching that.

Some of us believe that Human beings are a special creation unlike any other on the planet, while some think we are just the evolutionary path of a once single cell organism who instead of turning into pondscum, chose a different path.

And no website in St Louis is going to change what either of us think.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Actually the fight isn't as intense as people would like to believe. Christianity and religious fanaticism is slowly losing it's grip on Western civilization and the vocal minority is so desperate to stop this that they are screaming their final war cry louder than ever.

Religion will never die, but with the constant scientific advances and the unlimited access to information that people have it is becoming less relevant. The literalists are a dying breeed.

Most modern Christians use the Bible selectively as a guide on morality and not as a literal interpretation of the mythology. It would've saved humanity a lot of trouble if we had reached this point sooner.

Its losing its grip because its easier for people to live their life with no consequences than to believe their actions have consequences. This is not just with religion, its with our justice system and almost everything thing else in society.

As soon as church's allowed people to abolish their sins in a prayer booth to some bs minister was the beginning and end of the importance of organized religion because it started to bend to weakness of mankind instead of standing firm.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Ah, yes we are in agreement about faith spilling into science. And I am very much against the push of creationism/ID into science as well.

With the death thing I think I just misunderstood what you said sorry. Yes people of all faiths and no faith are afraid of death. But where religion can be attractive to some is that it offers answers to the after life. Where as the alternative offers nothing of the sort. I am sure that's probably what you were getting at, correct?

Chaa, thats was pretty much what I was getting at..

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Calgaryborn

If God has always been then He wasn't created. You can't grasp this yet you believe something came from nothing and then by chance got complex??

God has always been but the universe has not? You can believe that something came from nothing, but that there is no such thing as nothing?

I think the creation idea is something that fits into perception of the universe. Day starts and ends, night starts and ends, creatures are born and die, but when you look at it from a grander point of view everything is infinite. The day becomes the night and the night becomes the day. Life is created and is ended to create more life.

Everything is cyclical and infinite. Therefore the universe is infinite. Infinity has not beginning or end. With an infinite universe there would be and infinite amount of information to know, therefore knowledge is infinite, and my life is the pursuit of knowledge, therefore my consciousness is the pursuit of infinite knowledge and there's nothing to say that this experience is one step in the infinite cycle of the pursuit of knowledge and I'm already living forever.

Personally I think that your fate is what you believe. You're a Christian and have given yourself to Christ, then that's you're fate. You're an Atheist and you don't believe in any of this nonsense, then you're just gone. Etc..etc..

[troutman]

Originally Posted by driveway

I just read a book (yes, fiction) which had a character come to the conclusion that the only reason one should ever fear death is because of love, viz. our death will cause pain to those who love us, therefore we fear and avoid it - other than that there is no real reason to fear it.

It made a hell of a lot of sense.

Ceasing to exist is a good reason to fear death.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Its losing its grip because its easier for people to live their life with no consequences than to believe their actions have consequences. This is not just with religion, its with our justice system and almost everything thing else in society.

As soon as church's allowed people to abolish their sins in a prayer booth to some bs minister was the beginning and end of the importance of organized religion because it started to bend to weakness of mankind instead of standing firm.

It sounds like you believe that people are inherently evil and can only be controlled through fear, which is exactly what I believe the original intent of organized religion was/is.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by rubecube

It sounds like you believe that people are inherently evil and can only be controlled through fear, which is exactly what I believe the original intent of organized religion was/is.

I believe people are naturally lazy and will always take the easiest road unless either told to or humiliated not to do so. More often than not the easiest road is the "evil" road.

Why work when you can take, and most crimes stem from that basic premise.

I believe organized religion was developed as a way to capitalize (both financially and politically) on a movement with the plebs.

I believe in the Bible, I dont believe in the church.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I believe people are naturally lazy and will always take the easiest road unless either told to or humiliated not to do so. More often than not the easiest road is the "evil" road.

Why work when you can take, and most crimes stem from that basic premise.

I believe organized religion was developed as a way to capitalize (both financially and politically) on a movement with the plebs.

I believe in the Bible, I dont believe in the church.

That's fair. I would argue that there are exceptions to that but I know, in my job alone, I get very frustrated with people taking the easy/lazy way.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by AnthonyCook

For those not familiar with the experiment, I highly suggest checking out the Miller-Urey experiment which managed to show how organic compounds emerged from inorganic environments in the early stages of the earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller-Urey_experiment

Along the same lines the same things can actually happen in ice. In this months discover magazine. Has to do with Eutectic reactions...basically even though everything is cold cold cold there is always some liquid water and pockets of high concentrations of reactants such that the molecules collide at a much faster rate than expected. After only years essential amino acids and RNA bases can be formed even at liquid nitrogen temperatures.