On religion

[speling bee]

I watched this programme on the BBC yesterday about the human immune system. Anybody who thinks all that is in existence is random is just bonkers IMO. HTH

Nobody thinks it's random. We think it is evolved.

[speling bee]

How about this:

We are weak, insignificant beings which are like specs of dust in the grand scheme of things. If God wanted to ask one of his angels to flick Earth into the Sun then it would be easy for Him to do. Look at our petty existence in this tiny planet which is part of a tiny solar system which is part of a tiny galaxy when placed in front of a great universe.

God does not need us and does not care what we do or say - this thread is living proof of that. Either we wake up and smell the bacon or we await our fate after we die....

So we start supporting mass infanticide and genocide or we're eternally damned?

It would be equally easy for me to ask an angel to flick the Earth into the Sun.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Nobody thinks it's random. We think it is evolved.

Evolution fits into the "everything is random and without purpose" category. The idea of Evolution is to try and disprove God, yet it only raises more questions and in no way is a challenge to God.

[d000hg]

Nobody thinks it's random. We think it is evolved.

It's either directed or it's a result of random events. Evolution is the latter.

And SP, you're just copy-pasting your same old points about sorceresses and child-murder from the last time[s] we had this discussion You seem to have a bee (sorry for the pun) in your bonnet about this, if it's such a big deal why don't you stop making little soundbites and childish quips, and study the subject?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

So we start supporting mass infanticide and genocide or we're eternally damned?

It would be equally easy for me to ask an angel to flick the Earth into the Sun.

Either everything has a reason and higher purpose or everything is pointless and we might as well all be dead/non-existent.

I don't believe a just and loving God would sanction "mass infanticide" - it does not fit in with my belief, so really irrelevant.

[d000hg]

The idea of Evolution is to try and disprove God

No it isn't.

[speling bee]

Evolution fits into the "everything is random and without purpose" category. The idea of Evolution is to try and disprove God, yet it only raises more questions and in no way is a challenge to God.

Evolution is not random. If you think it is then you need to do some reading before you can engage in this debate.

The idea of evolution is not to try to disprove God. The two are not incompatible and it doesn't challenge God. It does challenge certain fundamentalist views.

Apart from that, you're bang on the money.

[doomage]

I watched this programme on the BBC yesterday about the human immune system. Anybody who thinks all that is in existence is random is just bonkers IMO. HTH

I watched this too, it was amazing to see a visual depiction of stuff that I'd studied at uni. But evolution is not 'random', as evidenced by the program - look at the millennia long battle between viruses and complex cells. If you think some kind of mystical being 'imagined' that kind of complexity up just so you could have a chance at eternity in heaven then you're just a bit dim. No offence. It's like people who think computers are magic, but they are still made by the mind of man. Just as God is, ironically.

[NotAllThere]

Yes but would some uneducated Middle Eastern fishermen have the sort of state of the art knowledge that was represented by the Greeks?

Probably not. But the powers that be would have, and would have made absolutely certain.

Almost 63% of the content of the New Testament (Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament) has no variants among the many thousands of extant manuscripts and manuscript fragments. Considering only Paul's letters - the oldest parts of the NT - the agreement is around 75%. When the Dead Sea scrolls were analysed, the agreement with the Masoretic Text was very high.

The content (and meaning thereof) may be up for discussion, but what makes up the content is fairly well settled, having been the subject of intense debate by very sceptical scholars in the past 200 years, via Form, Redaction, Source and Literary Criticism. In fact, many historians are astonished at the level of scepticism within the theological world over the reliability of biblical texts as ancient documents. There's far less evidence for a whole raft of historical items that are taken as pretty certain. It seems the some people, when approaching something to do with religion, have a very irrational reaction.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I watched this too, it was amazing to see a visual depiction of stuff that I'd studied at uni. But evolution is not 'random', as evidenced by the program - look at the millennia long battle between viruses and complex cells. If you think some kind of mystical being 'imagined' that kind of complexity up just so you could have a chance at eternity in heaven then you're just a bit dim. No offence. It's like people who think computers are magic, but they are still made by the mind of man. Just as God is, ironically.

I don't necessarily disagree with a lot of what you are saying, on the face of it. Indeed man has created an image of God in his own imagination, that does not mean there is no God, just that the image the man has created is wrong.