[PLUG-TALK] Religion is not bad...

wes plug at the-wes.com
Fri Oct 30 16:16:20 UTC 2009


On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 1:11 AM, Michael Robinson
<plug_1 at robinson-west.com>wrote:

> Anti religious rhetoric is as much telling me what to believe as
> religious rhetoric could be construed as me telling you what to
> believe.
>

Fight fire with fire.

> ... What makes you "the problem" is that you feel that you have the
> > right to tell us, or more specifically, me, what to believe. And
> > further, you feel that it would be desirable for government to
> > prescribe these beliefs as well. This is a very scary idea, to which I
> > am strongly opposed.
>
> This is a blanket statement with no basis in reality.  I have
> not advocated for a state religion at any time in my postings.
> I have hinted at what I think you should believe, that is all.
>

It is not a blanket statement, it is a very specific statement that serves
as a summary of your own words. It's very interesting that you deny the
meaning of your own words.

You fear God and anyone who believes in Him.


I do not fear God, nor do I fear everyone who believes in Him. I fear you. I
fear that people like you will make life miserable and unbearable for me and
the people of the future.

The answer isn't I
> don't know all the time, sometimes it is faith.


If that's what you need, fine. I don't.

I don't claim
> to have all the answers because I have faith.  Without faith
> Man is limited to what he can absolutely prove scientifically
> which is not very much if you really think hard for a while.
>

It's enough for me. If it's not for you, I'm sorry, but that doesn't mean
you can tell me your answer is the right answer.

We think we know everything or are capable of knowing a lot,
> but our knowledge is like a little hole on the beach filled
> with sea water next to the whole ocean which represents how
> much there is to know.


I agree that there is a lot more that we don't know than we do. I'm not
denying the existence of the ocean, I'm just saying that I don't know what's
on the other side, and neither can you without faith.

Refusing to accept that belief
> in God is neither ridiculous nor a sign of weakness, that
> saddens me.
>

I do not understand this sentence at all.

Any Man without faith is a Man who cannot see beyond his human
> limitations.  One must look with the eyes of the soul, not the
> eyes in one's head.
>

You only think you can see beyond your human limitations. You can't really
see beyond. At least I know my own limits. This knowledge is very valuable
to me.

Scientifically speaking, it is highly controversial with the available
> information to claim that there was no divine hand at work for the
> Earth to reach the level of order that it has.


Wrong. Scientifically speaking, it makes perfect sense for the structure of
nature to be as ordered as it is (which may not be as ordered as you think
it is). There is some order, but there is at least as much disorder and
chaos.

Life is not common
> in our solar system, look at any other planet that we know of and
> at most you might find some bacteria which probably came from Earth.
>

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Only a literal interpretation of the bible, which is not necessarily
> valid, would have everything created in a 1000 years or less.


So again, the church is picking and choosing what to teach in order to
appeal to the widest audience possible. When science discovered evolution,
the church decried it as sacrilege and anyone who indulged in considering it
was branded a heretic. Scientists had to fight with the church in order to
gain acceptance. They continued that fight, against people like you, until
finally it has come to be widely accepted (though still not globally, thanks
again to people like you).

The
> Catholic church has never taught that the seven day creation story
> is to be taken literally with regard to the time scale.


Wrong. The Catholic church taught exactly that until about 1-2 hundred years
ago.

Furthermore,
> the Catholic church does NOT teach that evolution and creation are
> incompatible.


Not any more, because it was costing them too many members.

Why can't God use evolution?


Sure, He can. Why can't evolution happen without God?

What gives anyone the
> right let alone the ability to tie His hands and say sorry God you
> have to create in such a way that there's no doubt you did it?
>

No one is trying to tell God to do anything. We are merely discussing what
He may or may not have done. If you won't accept the possibility that I am
right, I have no reason to listen to you.

Parts of the bible can be taken literally while other parts should
> not be.


How convenient.

Actually, I did hear one YEC fundie explain this in a way that sort of
started to make sense. Something about how the individual books of the Bible
were written for a specific audience, meaning they were told what they
needed to hear in order to get a point across. OK fine, but how about a
legend at the end that tells us which were "real" and which were "for the
benefit of the audience?"

There are many legends outside of the bible that have value
> which should not be taken literally.  The creation story in Genesis
> sets things up and teaches that there was a beginning, not so much
> how the beginning really happened.  When reading the bible, you have
> to know what type of literature it is you are looking at.  There is
> history in the bible and there are the actual words of Jesus and
> the Father.  One doesn't expect psalms for example to be a history
> text though.  One must use proper scholarship when reading the bible
> and one should consider using other sources of material.
>

Blah blah blah... pointless.

-wes
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