aaronwill

@johnyadollahi:

Well first let me thank you for your gracious thoughts, but I respectfully submit that you argue from a false premiss.  Micro evolution observes adaptation and changes within a species…This is proof enough of the glory of God; how within a species there can be changes to help it adapt or survive, but there in 0 scientific evidence of macro evolution which tries to teach change from one species to another  (monkeys to men) 

I don’t understand how you can say evolution doesn’t try to explain origin…This is exactly what Darwin tried to do and said he went mad in doing so.  How can you do an effective study of anything without beginning with origin.  I find it utterly absurd and illogical to say everything came from nothing, life can not come from non life…darkness can not produce light.  As one great scholar said, “random chance is a logical absurdity and a scientific impossibility.”  

Furthermore, your mention of the prison population and divorce rate have nothing to do with your argument.  All that proves is what the Bible says of the human heart is true, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9)”

Yes you are right about the stats…the divorce rate in the Church is equal to that of the world, which means many people are claiming to be Christians that are not…or those that are, are disobedient.  But the Bible speaks of this as well…that in the last days many people who claim to follow the truth…will turn from it or rearrange it.

Also, you use words like “good”, “beautiful”, and “process”, but I don’t believe your world view has any basis for using these words.  If there is no God, what is the definition good…anybodies guess?  To the child molester it is one thing, to the violent it is another…who can say what is good, or beautiful…when there is no foundation for it.  Process speaks of systematic organized, intelligent, purposeful, but evolution can not use these words and remain consistent with the theory.

I would love for you read Psalms 19 and 119 and reconsider…

emmahey:

…”please don’t feel sorry for us. We’re perfectly happy with what we believe.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. 

Aaron, John is right. Although we don’t think that we are the result some greater-being creating us, atheists also don’t believe we are an “accident”. Matter in fact, many atheists understand that we are part of the most intricate, beautiful processes ever: evolution.  Religion creates a hierarchy of acceptance, by which people use to diminish the importance of others. People often use religion to justify their crime and violence. Take for example the court case Snyder V. Phelps. A wife was burying her husband, kids saying good-bye to their father, a solider in the Iraq war. As they approached they the cemetery they faced a hundreds of protestors who claimed that Mr. Snyder died because “God was punishing the military, for its acceptance of gays.” They even went as far as to say that he, among other soldiers deserved to die. These are the kinds of things that religion produces. I assure you, that being an atheists is not a result of public schooling, but rather a desire to not believe in a set of values that is used to otherize groups or individuals, that ignores evolution, and so much more. 

My set of morals were not handed to me in a book, but rather developed through social interaction and understanding. That is far more fulfilling and autonomous than letting something else dictate to me my beliefs. 

Please do not feel sorry for me. My understanding of the world is delicate, beautiful, and accepting. 

johnyadollahi:

aaronwill:

I’m really sorry for those of you who went to public school, its psychologically draining. How can you repetitively be told that you are “star stuff” that you are an accident, nothing more than a cosmic mishap of cloud collisions somehow forming a perfect living condition for life. If the moon was…

This is…incorrect. Evolution merely aims to explain how species develop and adapt, not seek the answer to how everything started. Homicide and violent crimes are overwhelmingly perpetrated by theists, not atheists. Prisons are predominantly occupied by theists, not atheists. Christians have, as of 2007, a higher divorce rate than atheists [http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm]. We are not accidents. We are the result of a beautiful, breathtaking series of events that ends with our own autonomy, giving you the ability to think what you think; to have internal dialogue (perhaps through a mutation somewhere along the line, one study suggested recently). 

Consider doing good for the sake of doing good versus doing good because God says we should and it is the best way to heaven. Which is more moral and which is more self-serving? I think I speak for most secular-humanists, agnostics, and atheists when I say please don’t feel sorry for us. We’re perfectly happy with what we believe.