Well, maybe some discourse without sarcasm. Wit. That's it. Yes wit should be employed more and sarcasm less when dealing with people of faith and conviction. They are really good people with considerable points of view. I spent many years in college in a B.S.,M.S. and doctoral program and 5 years in surgical residency. I am what some call educated in the extreme. But I still want to know more.Get this. I wrote my masters dissertation on "Pleistocene Fossils of McFaddin Beach, Texas". How smart can I be to have done that for 3 years and then look in the help wanted. Have you ever seen an add for a Pleistocene Paleontologist? I haven't. Not too smart. But I did enjoy the exercise immensely. Made some good friends. So by necessity I went to medical school to get a job. Actually I always wanted to do that. I came in contact with some of smartest dumbasses in the world. Taken out of their own personal stewpot, they were like fish out of water. I guess I am that way too. So when I found all of this information on FR I latched on. Some of the folks on this thread are really well informed. Collectively we are a force to contend with. But I feel this site should concentrate on the constitutional/political side of American culture. Not to say we cannot discuss our faiths. We should, but just without hurting peoples feelings. I see that from time to time. Heck, some guy nearly had me in tears the first time I got in the octagon. 3 second chokehold. Tapped me out. I just didn't deal with the aggression as well as I do now. I wish you science types (I say that lovingly, not perjoratively) would leave pride out and just discuss the facts as facts and supposition as supposition. There is so much we do not know, even the scientific types. But guard yourselves not to believe that science has all of the answers. It does not. For example, I might ask Durasell or Radio if they love their wives (I hope neither of you are queer or wear earrings). You would say "Yes, I love my wife". I might ask you, "What does that mean or does that have any meaning?" Is there anything in the world called justice? If you answer yes, I might ask "From whence does it spring?" Are these senses of love and justice neuronally mediated at the level of the synapse and a chemical potential results in a feeling and that is it? If so, then loving your wife has no more meaning that saying I have an itch. We understand that sensation is neuronally mediated and perceived in the cerebral cortex as a sensation. Are we a bag of chemicals? Or are we more. I would wager most of you are adherents to Freudian or Jungian psychology. By the way, look up the word psychology and you will see it means "the study of the soul". Millions of lives have become validated by this religious concept of the soul. The problem is they are adherents to the notion of science. Cock's postulates don't work here. Yet this army of psychiatrist,psycometrists,psychotherapists, and psychological councilors exist and if they are wrong about the applicability of this "science" their whole lives are invalidated professionally. Anyway, at best, evolution is a theoretical model and not dogma. But those willfully blinded to truth need to believe in anything but a transendent God, who is separate and distinct from the universe, and who is not tied to the universe by cause and effect but who orders the universe. If you would, for a moment consider this possibility. I cannot "show" Him to you. I cannot measure Him for you. But order and randomness in this closed system called the universe is not abrogated by violating the laws of thermodynamics. This basic fact, which has never scientifically disprooved, needs to be addressed if the evolutionist theory is to evolve. Origin. But I find none of the evolution will dispassionately address origin. In refusing to do this they ask us to begin with them on the 1 yardline with 1st down and goal. the evolutionist absolves the requirement for matter and energy. They simply stipulate that it always was. That is a matter of faith. It is the faith of the impersonal. God is not energy or a force, but transendent at separate from the universe, and therefore can reach into this universe with love, redemption, justice, forgiveness. None of these subjects are addressed by evolutionists. They simply say they are axonally mediated neurochemical responses and therefore signify nothing. So guys, tell your kids and your wife when that feeling of love toward them come over you, that those synapses are firing, and you just wanted them to know. Tell them your love is as meaningful as an itch or the tast of a baked potato with butter,chives,bacon bits, and cheese. That is what you are saying. Life is much more, and in your hearts, in that quiet place where you won't let anyone in, you know this. Tear down a few walls and consider the possibility that there is truth out there and not just facts. I am a man of little faith, but my faith is in a great God. Someone once said "I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me." Why don't you invite Him for dinner. He will bring the wine and bread.
Merry Christmas
Songwriter
Merry Christams to you as well.