Posted on 01/25/2005 6:15:41 PM PST by gobucks
Well... proselytizing is legal, it's Constitutionally protected
Is it? We have the freedom of speech and the freedom of worship. So stating your religious beliefs is certainly protected and worshiping as you wish as long as you do not infringe on others rights is legal. But is getting in someone's face and badgering them with your religious beliefs and trying to force them to be taught in public schools legal?
if done by responsible people, ultimately benefits society.
Freedom of speech benefits society. Only the proselytizers believe that proselytizing their belief benefits society. Others do not.
Just like gun ownership, right?
Gun ownership is a right. Trying to convince people they should own a gun if they don't is okay provided they have asked you to convince them or they can 'turn you off', like a TV commercial, if they don't want to hear it.
I *am* a Christian. I am *still* in need of a Savior, Someone to save me from my many sins, including the sin of bearing false witness. If I've truly sinned against you in that way, let me know and I'll apologize.
No. "Facts" are the information we draw from observation and the results of experiments. They are very simple things, like "we added 10g of HCl into a solution of 5g NaOH & 95g H20, and 7.4 seconds later we observed bubbles in the solution" or something like that.
Facts are extremely small pieces of information, like a dot on a page. It's only when you have lots of facts, and can see a pattern between them, that you can start to guess at what the theory is. The theory is the picture that you think would involve most of those dots. Knowing a bunch of facts is good, but understanding a theory that fits the facts is even better.
Flase dichotomy. A person can believe that man was created by God using evolution as His method.
You cannot twist the Bible into man's evolution from animal without denying it's validity in every other area.
Why not? If God created man through the process of evolution, how does that invalidate the rest of the Bible?
Come on. You said that the passages in Gensesis 2 where animals were created AFTER Adam were figurative and that the animals were actually created BEFORE Adam.
My friend, it's clear you hate God.
You have no idea what I believe nor what my emotional relationship is to God, a supreme being, the prime mover, the universe, etc. You have no idea whether I am Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, a Deist, etc. Your statement says more about you than me.
Hmm. Your definition of proselytizing isn't the same as mine. In my mind we're talking about the freedom to share the bible with someone and to pray with him/her if s/he accepts the gospel. Apparently in your mind it's a rather violent, forceful process.
That's unfortunate. :-/
I have no antagonism toward the creator. However, I do thank you for your thoughts on evolution.
Not per se. However, everyone who rejects evidence that exists right before their eyes and instead relies on an allegorical, centuries-old text as their basis for an understanding of science is a philosophical cousin with men like Bin Laden.
Romans 5 is clearly talking about human death. Evolution does not rule out the possibility that there was no human death before the fall. On the other hand, nothing in the Bible rules out animal death before the fall. It explicitly mentions plant death.
Besides, you've got to reject more science than just evolution if you want to believe there was no animal death before human sin.
It requires one to think, instead of just repeating that which man has taught him to believe.
Right
Based on what?
In my mind we're talking about the freedom to share the bible with someone and to pray with him/her if s/he accepts the gospel.
What you describing here is freedom of worship, not proselytizing. So no argument there.
It becomes proselytizing when the 'sharing' is forced on someone who is not interested.
Evolution has nothing to do with improvement. You're thinking of Social Darwinism and Eugenics.
specifically the *increase* of meaningful genetic information through generations.
Evolution can occur through a loss of genetic information, through an increase or through a simple alteration in currently existing material.
I disbelieve in both "micro" evolution and "macro" evolution, if evolution is defined as the meaningful "increase" of genetic information through generations....
Your statement is meaningless, as that is not the definition of evolution.
Not per se. However, everyone who rejects evidence that exists right before their eyes and instead relies on an allegorical, centuries-old text as their basis for an understanding of science is a philosophical cousin with men like Bin Laden.
Well said.
Sorry for jumping in...
Yes, you would predict that over time, an equal number of regressions and progressions would occur... but since certain regressions would lead to death, the surviving population over time would not remain stagnant, as (if I'm reading you correctly) you seem to suggest... but would progress.
If you are Christian, sure. But to Jews, whose story Genesis is, that is not the case, so the questions remain.
Further, given the fact Creation occurred prior to Mary's pregnancy and the development of Jesus's body, how could Adam have been made in Jesus's image if that image had yet to exist? (i.e., Adam wouldn't have been made in God's image, but on the image God would take if Adam and Eve decide to disobey God, causing the fall, and necessitating the incarnation of Jesus. Was man created in God's potential image???)
Finally, Jesus had all the attributes of man because, as the Nicene Creed says, God "became" or "was made" man. Thus, his physical form was necessitated by him becoming man, and not on his essence as God. Therefore, logically, his human form could not be the image upon which man's form was made because it was not a function of his Godhood, but his personhood.
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