PoPe OK with Aliens (sorta)

[wjmurray]

Originally Posted by Swedish goalie

That was good to hear! but isnt there atleast a couple of public schools teaching Intelligent design along with Evolution?


Thanks for the documentury!

There are public school systems that have tried this but failed after being taken to court. The newest attempt is by, I believe, a Mass school district to simply have evolution removed from the curriculum. This is only being put forth by one member of the board, who has no place in an educational system, and the proposal has been tabled indefinitely for obvious reasons.

[cdnredraider]

Originally Posted by Timberwoof

cdnredraider, no one in his right mind claims that the whole entire Bible is wrong. Some parts of it make sense in certain circumstances.

I wasn't trying to make a debate about whether the Bible is wrong. I know that it takes faith to believe and to argue its true because we don't have a correct theory. If you are using God to fill gaps in knowledge, then you get in more trouble with every scientific discovery.

However, wjmurray stated that there are, regarding the Bible

cold hard facts provided through science that disproves....just about everything

Most people here reject that Bible for various reasons (innacurate, stupid, not enough evidence, etc.) , but most don't claim there are "cold hard facts" that disprove the existence of most of the Biblical characters and events.

[Timberwoof]

Originally Posted by wjmurray

For the new testament, the whole problem is that there is no written evidence of jesus ever existing outside of a couple of documents that have been proven to be forgeries for over a hundred years by religious scholars. Basically there is no historical context in which these tales belong because they are not a part of history in the first place.

Whether Jesus was fictional is irrelevant to the historical/political context in which the books of the New testament were written. There were huge political changes happening during those times, and each book of the new testament is a reflection of its specific decades. Make a list of the books and when they were written; compare them to what was going on at the time. In the early ones, "Christianity" was yet another secret cultish branch of Judaism; by the time Revelations was written, Christianity had become a religious movement well on the way to the mainstream.

I think it is almost as much an error to reject the Bible completely as it is to take it as the Word of God.

[Timberwoof]

Originally Posted by wjmurray

There are public school systems that have tried this but failed after being taken to court. The newest attempt is by, I believe, a Mass school district to simply have evolution removed from the curriculum. This is only being put forth by one member of the board, who has no place in an educational system, and the proposal has been tabled indefinitely for obvious reasons.

To keep up on such news, read The Panda's Thumb and Pharyngula .

[wjmurray]

Originally Posted by Timberwoof

Whether Jesus was fictional is irrelevant to the historical/political context in which the books of the New testament were written. There were huge political changes happening during those times, and each book of the new testament is a reflection of its specific decades. Make a list of the books and when they were written; compare them to what was going on at the time. In the early ones, "Christianity" was yet another secret cultish branch of Judaism; by the time Revelations was written, Christianity had become a religious movement well on the way to the mainstream.

I think it is almost as much an error to reject the Bible completely as it is to take it as the Word of God.

The problem is that there are actual historians who were alive and documented during those periods so we don't need to rely upon a poorly written fairy tale to get an accurate history of those times.

The bible simply needs to be rejected for what it is, an antiquated myth filled with divisive and evil beliefs that are used to control the weak minded that has no further use in modern times.

[elite]

Originally Posted by goalerjones

If you're travelling to Africa and I tell you how to keep from catching malaria or sleeping sickness, and you ignore my warnings and guidelines and catch either disease, it's on you...I am neither malicious, nor responsable for your affliction.

If God tells you that the end of reality, whcih is eternal life will see you in hell or heaven, the only 2 places there will be when it's all over, and you ignore or mock His leadings, then the destination is up to you and He's off the hook. Heaven is eternity with God, hell is eternity without God. If you don't want, or choose to believe in God, then there is only one other place left to go for eternity-hell.

Goaler, you're an omnipotent being. You have the capacity to do anything, and considering you only do good, then everything you do is good.

You, being omnipresent, see a guy robbing a house. Isn't it your obligation, because of your inherent will to do good, to stop him? If you don't stop him, aren't you considered part of the crime? (Hell, by law, your god would go to jail for sitting idly by.)

If you have the capacity to stop someone from doing harm, you should do that which hinders or stops the harm. Your god doesn't do that, which is evident by the amount of natural destruction, starvation, murder, and terrorists.

Originally Posted by wjmurray

The problem is that there are actual historians who were alive and documented during those periods so we don't need to rely upon a poorly written fairy tale to get an accurate history of those times.

Not entirely true. Not one historian living at the time of Jesus said anything about him. Rather, the only ones who say anything about him were at least 100 years after his death. And let's not forget that Jesus was one of the most common names at the time.