70da5413   
   From: lawrence-OmitThisBit-logic@amd-p.com   
      
   "Reaper G"  wrote in message   
   news:30847ece-793d-4f7c-a0a6-1114529e7935@a37g2000prf.googlegroups.com...   
   >   
   > You're a good guy, Lawrence. Keep the faith, so to speak.    
   >   
      
   Thanks for your kind words.   
      
   I couldn't see the need for the thread to degenerate the way that it did.   
   Alan was maybe a bit agitated and his tolerance for you seemed to take a hit   
   or two.  Without meaning to be disrespectful to Alan (and it appears that he   
   isn't here to defend himself), articulation seemed to take a back seat to   
   emotion.  I liked much of what he said but it had pretty well gone beyond   
   "healthy debate" and became more of a slanging match (which isn't   
   necessarily unusual around here anyway).   
      
   On the evolution side of things, I'm assuming that you have one foot planted   
   firmly in that camp.  The success of artificial selection appears to lend   
   plenty of weight to the idea of natural selection.  It doesn't prove a   
   non-existence of God, and maybe God created a very dynamic environment that   
   facilitated evolution.  I don't believe that, however.  The origin of actual   
   life, though, is very mysterious.   
      
   You can tell me to mind my own business, but are you a practising Christian?   
   By that I mean do you go to church and worship and all of the other things   
   associated with devoutness to a faith?   
      
   One of the things that I have trouble coming to grips with is the fact that   
   there are so many religions.  I used to have an idea, based on nothing in   
   particular, that they were all just different versions of the same thing.   
   Perhaps Jesus appeared in some manifestation in India and other places, and   
   that "Christian-like" religions sprang up as a result.  I no longer hold   
   that view.   
      
   I'm now of the opinion that religion sprang up at a time when we'd crawled   
   out of the mire and started to think about where we came from.  Without the   
   benefit of knowledge and science, superstitious beliefs flourished   
   unchallenged.  The idea that the evidence against God was created by God to   
   ensure faith in Him, as I've heard people say, grates on me more than a   
   little.   
      
   Statistically, people of relatively low intellect are more inclined to   
   believe in a deity.  You're obviously not intellectually challenged and I   
   hope you didn't construe that remark as an insult.  Conversely, my   
   intelligence is probably slipping a bit due to getting old and senile, yet I   
   probably believed in God more when my brain was truly the size of a planet.   
   My more compact brain, though, is armed with the fruits of scientific   
   research.   
      
   One thing that gets me annoyed is the intolerance of some faiths to   
   scrutiny.  Moslems, for instance, seem to want to kill anyone who challenges   
   their belief.  Integrity invites scrutiny.  If looking under the hood is   
   frowned upon, I'd then consider that integrity has gone flying right out the   
   window.   
      
   Note: I have a very very good friend who is a Moslem.  He's very easy going   
   and a wonderful person, and I've dropped him off at the mosque for his   
   Friday lunchtime worship on a few occasions.  He can believe what he wants   
   and I'll support him, as long as he doesn't try to apply it to me.  Despite   
   Dawkins saying something similar himself, I perceive that you're not a fan   
   of his because he doesn't appear to practise what he "preaches".  Is that it   
   in a nutshell?   
      
   --   
   Lawrence   
   "I got such a raging clue that I almost shot clue goo all over Joe." - Frank   
   Hardly - 11 October 2006   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)