Regarding the Existence or Absence of God

[Gordon Gekko]

Originally posted by rs7
No? What if they were "plopped on earth" by aliens? Tell me what is possible and what is not.

i am actually more open to that idea than i am that god created adam & eve. i have to say, however, that it is not my first choice because of the human-like animals before us. in other words, if 2 modern humans were just put here by aliens, why would there be evidence of less evolved creatures before us? if you say life on planet earth as a whole was started by aliens, i give that more credit. i'm not saying i believe this, but the idea that a life "seed" was sent to earth by aliens and then the evolution process started, it's an ok idea...better than "adam & eve were put here by god." IMO!!!

just to clarify, here's the difference between me and a person of faith. although i am open to "life seed" ideas like i said above, i DO NOT say it is true and live my life like i know it is the way things are. that is what religious people do. they take something not proven and live their life by it. i am just open to ALL possibilities and i give more credit to ideas as more evidence supports them.

p.s. this will make me a hypocrite, but if there is only one thing i have faith in, it is that THERE ARE MANY MANY MANY ALIENS IN THE UNIVERSE. i'm not saying they've been to earth while we've been here though. ACTUALLY, i don't think i'm too much of a hypocrite because we are proof life exists in the universe. if we can exist here, why can't it elsewhere? that isn't the same type of faith religious people have.

Originally posted by rs7
Watch "2001 a Space Odyssey" All about evolution being aided by aliens. Better yet, read the book. It makes more sense.

i saw the movie a few years ago...interesting concept.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

"The earliest ape/humans, walking upright, date from about 5 million years ago, or only 0.1% of the Earth's life."

 

[rs7]

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko

i am just open to ALL possibilities and i give more credit to ideas as more evidence supports them.

Your most coherent and sensible statement yet. Way to go!!

p.s. this will make me a hypocrite, but if there is only one thing i have faith in, it is that THERE ARE MANY MANY MANY ALIENS IN THE UNIVERSE. i'm not saying they've been to earth while we've been here though. ACTUALLY, i don't think i'm too much of a hypocrite because we are proof life exists in the universe. if we can exist here, why can't it elsewhere?

Got to agree with you (even though you have a unique way of expressing yourself sometimes..work on that sentence structure. Darkhorse is available for tutoring).

To think we are the only life in the universe is probably the most arrogant kind of thinking there is. The chances of us being alone in a limitless universe is far less than zero. Could be there is even another version of Gordon Gekko running around some distant planet. But on that Bizarro World version, he is wearing a long flowing robe and chanting religious hymns about his beliefs in his God named Darkhorse or Thunderbolt. Anything is possible. And the less likely it seems, the more probable it is. Actually, I think the planet that MrSubliminal is from has a god named Chasinfla.

Peace,
rs7

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Originally posted by rs7
...you have a unique way of expressing yourself sometimes..work on that sentence structure.

what's wrong with my sentence structure? i know i don't capitalize letters, but what else is wrong? i type these messages fast. i don't treat them as if i'm writing a term paper. i'm kind of just typing as i think......FLOWING.

p.s. a few years ago, i took a college placement test and scored in the top 1% for english...and that was for people who planned on attending college -- not just the average person. my math score was better than average, but it wasn't as good as my english score.

 

[rs7]

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko

what's wrong with my sentence structure?

Don't worry about it. It's fine. I was just giving you a hard time. Unfairly I guess. I just was educated as a journalist, and edit by instinct. But if you need an example of a poorly structured sentence:

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko

if we can exist here, why can't it elsewhere?

But I know you are just going with your "flow", so keep up the good work. Tom Wolfe did it, so can you.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

i guess i shouldn't have referred to "we" as "it."

 

[rs7]

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko
i guess i shouldn't have referred to "we" as "it."

Nobody's perfect. Eccept fore me.

 

[axeman]

I knew it!!!

Christians believe we are all horribly INBRED
and that INCEST is somehow "OK". No?

EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Still refuse to do my sister


peace

axeman - non-incest practicing atheist

Wonder if Thunderbolt has any sisters and if he
has taken any que's from the bible.... heh

Originally posted by TriPack


I didn't think it was that difficult of a question. If you believe in the bible then the answer is that Adam and Eve had children, and their children married (each other) and had their own children and so forth. If you change the word "child" to "descendant" in #4 then that would be biblically correct also. If you really believe that Adam and Eve were the first people to be created on the earth then there would be noone who would "happen by" that their children could get married to.

 

[daniel_m]

Originally posted by TriPack
If I understand the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it is a little of both land and religion, mixed in with brotherly rivalry, but the story is interesting. Abraham was given the land of Caanan (Israel) as an eternal inheritance. Abraham had no son so he took his wife's handmaid and had a son Ishmael (the eldest) who as I understand is the progenitor of the Palestinian people. Abraham finally had a son, Isaac (though not the eldest son, he was the first son of Abraham's first wife and thus had rights to the birthright or in other words the land inheritance) who is the progenitor of the Jews (as well as the other 11 tribes of Israel). Isaac's son Jacob (also known as Israel and who had 12 sons, each a tribe of Israel) lived at a time of famine. Jacob and his sons left Israel and went to Egypt where Jacob's son Joseph saved them from famine. A new Pharoh ultimately puts the children of Israel into bondage in Egypt. They are later freed by Moses. Meanwhile who has come in and taken over the land of Israel??? -- the descendants of Ishmael or the Palestinians. When the children of Israel finally come back and takes Israel (the land) back by force the Palestinians feel they have not only been robbed of their land but their birthright. And so it goes.

Nice one Tripack..(do you actually READ any of the posts on these threads?) You've given ANOTHER great example of what would reasonably be called a momentous event in history - the Jews being slaves in Egypt - for which there is NO EVIDENCE. (at least the bible's consistent...*snicker*)

Kinda makes the rest of your post a waste of space, doesn't it...

 

[daniel_m]

Originally posted by darkhorse

p.s. the whole evolution question is irrelevant because there are christians who accept evolution. again, it is a question of interpreting the opening of genesis as literal or as poetic- a legitimate divide given that the first chapter was written in poetic language and not meant to be a scientific treatise. i do not have a definitive stance either way here, but i can say and HAVE said that if being made in the image of God depends on divine recognition rather than a specific bloodline or gene pool, then doors are left open. so once again this is a side argument. like just about ALL OF IT is!

None of this is a 'side argument'.. it is all aimed at the heart of the matter - calling Christian out for the farce that it is.

Dark, don't feel bad about not knowing how to respond. You know and I know, and, if we're honest, we all know that there's nothing you can really say. The case against christianity is open and shut - very simple.

People like you only try and make out like there's more there than meets the eye because you have a personal stake in it. I refer you to this excellent remark you made in one of your Trader75 Amazon reviews:

For example, a cattle trader talks about how even if he is only entering the market with 5 or 10 contracts, he places the trade as if he were doing a 10,000 contract trade. And when he sells, he tries to sell in the same way as if he had 10,000 contracts to unload. Wonderful. These are the kind of insipid observations that neophytes get snowed by, because they just assume there is something there of value that they are missing. There isn't. It's just dumb.

I couldn't have said it better.

Look buddy, I think I know you feel when you read all these attacks on your god and your religion. I've been there. Given the vigor with which I attack christianity, you might be surprised to learn that it's been less than a year since I became a fully fledged atheist. I was an agnostic for a few years first. I still remember the moment I went from being a religious agnostic ( desperately trying to find some way to include god in the universe) to realising that I'd lost faith in the idea of god because the argument against it was so powerful. For days I felt as if a major part of life was taken away from me - a major reason for living!. I questioned whether my life could have any useful meaning without god. Guess what. I got over it. You can too. Anyone can.