Children conclude that the creepy guy in the van just wants to give you candy. Children's logic is not something we should be holding up as a guide. But there is an element of truth here: we think there's a God because mankind, operating like a child, decided that SOMEONE must have made this place. After all... it's a quick, neat answer and you don't have to think anymore after that.
And ever since then, any charismatic fellow who is articulate enough can convince people that this SOMEONE spoke to him and now y'all better listen up. Worked for Abraham, worked for Moses, worked for Jesus, worked for Mohammed, worked for Jim Jones, worked for that nut who started the Mormon church... all you need is a tall, intense, good-looking man who can talk him a good one, and you've got you another religion! All endorsed by the Someone Who Must Have Made It All, After All, Here It Is.
Minor quibble. He doesn’t need to be someone ‘who can talk him a good one’.
Just someone who can seamlessly switch back and forth between two teleprompters...
Fine. Then please address the observation found in post 10 by Teotwawki
It is a dilemma. If the first life was a single cell creature that reproduced by splitting, and all life evolved thereafter from that one spark, then somewhere along that unbroken chain life evolved from asexual to sexual reproduction.
If this occurred as a single random mutation, then it was one heck of a miracle to have two fully functioning systems, with all the parts and processes, and that these would be complementary to each other.
If sexual reproduction evolved in incremental steps, then the "survival of the fittest" part of the theory would imply a competitive advantage at each step of the evolutionary process but I fail to see the competitive advantage of a half evolved sexual reproductive system. Even getting past this, it is still a miracle that two systems could incrementally evolve to functional maturity, (through random mutation mind you), and at the end be perfectly complementary.
You’ve proven that we’re all born worshippers. Only one person on your list is worthy of it.
>> “Children conclude that the creepy guy in the van just wants to give you candy.” <<
.
You apparently were that simple-minded as a child, but no child I’ve ever known was. Before a child’s mind is polluted by hate filled school teachers, they see clearly that “nature” is far too complex to be the result of a hundred trillion fortuitous accidents, all of which would have been sent back to accident one upon the first failure.
The accident imaginators will never have an explanation for sexual reproduction.
Gee! I bet your beliefs **never** bleed into your classroom ( being a professional, that is.)
Not exactly. Moses was not a charismatic speaker but backed up his words with a multitude of miracles, as did Jesus. There have been spectacular, undeniable miracles in the Catholic Church, that rise above the more frequent faked miracles, at least once every few decades.
Don't be so hard on yourself.
".....if someone asks for evidence of God, we might say "truth," or "beauty," or "virtue." For a soul of sufficient purity and depth, this will be an adequate argument, especially once the implications are fully appreciated and worked out in an ontologically consistent manner. However, materialists, Darwinists, Lizards, and other metaphysical yahoos imagine that they can reject the whole of religion based upon a single argument taken out of context, just as a savage could reject the big bang based upon the obvious empirical evidence that refutes it.
"Do you see the dilemma? We get the occasional materialistic barbarian who demands "proof of God," but this is certainly no less difficult to provide than proof of the Big Bang to an eight year-old, which, even if you accept it, doesn't mean you actually understand it.
"Bear in mind that we are usually dealing with an unintelligent person who is demanding evidence that would satisfy his intellect. Now, this is something I could never do, as I have long since forgotten how to be so stupid.
I love the book WHO BROKE THE BABY. The author was struggling with how to convince people abortion was murder, when her toddler came in, saw the photo of a dismembered fetus, and immediately asked “Who broke the baby?”
The chld saw the simple truth so many adults cannot.
The whole of the entire universe is a “closed system”, it only changes should outside forces act on it....
AND
Where there is smoke, there must be a fire somewhere.....
AND...
Why the illogical jump of some “early version of man” assigning to some godlike entity the power of fire, lightning and thunder....why had he “evolved” to think like that....? It’s a more sophisticated process to jump from non rational, momemt to moment existence to mourning the dead, setting up monuments to fallen hero’s and risen saviours,sacrificing animals,children and even one’s self to gods or even to God “most high”, to having a sense of eternity beyond our own selves, and dealing with “inborn guilt” over past mistakes even if “charlatans” may from time to time create the “laws” of transgressions for which folks should feel “guilt” over...? After all, aren’t we the “supra mensches” we have been waiting for?
AND .....
Have you read of the doctor who can create feelings and sensations of the divine just by placing a highly focalized magnet over an area of the right temple...everyone tested seems to have this same spot...what a weird thing to have “evolved” in man....hmmmm?
AND......
“For God has placed eternity into the forehead of man” Ecclesiastes
and....
numinal temporal spatial interface?
and....
we’ve all been tagged, weighed in the balance, found to have a God shaped vacuum and are found wanting...yet Christ, God in Flesh has the cure for us!
(or I’ve just written a series of non sequitors that mean nothing, or are “non rational” depending on the kinds of flexible “standards’ one adheres to, or perhaps point to a seriously deranged mind....but a God in Flesh who rose from dead...? How could such an idea have arisen in the mighty closed system Universe?)
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God ...
From your home page:
1) I am an atheist...
I’m curious why you participate in a pro-God forum like FR. Surely there are many anti-God websites available these days.