SugarRush

Although I personally don't know much about people like this..I'm confused on exactly how this works. Don't most Christians believe that God created the world in 7 days and the earth is only 4000 years old? If so how can Christianity possibly be compatible with evolution? Do you mean to say you're one of those people who only believe in microevolution but not macroevolution?

Guybrush

You could try not to interpret the bible so literally, yet still believe in God. I don't think that sounds so hard. As I wrote, it's pretty much the norm with christians in this country.

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SugarRush

Then what is that supposed to interpreted as?

Guybrush

Just general wisdom and guidance. You know, like the fable about the lion and the mouse.



If you read it, you'll see it's possible to get some wisdom from it without having to seriously believe that the event took place and that lions and mice talk to eachother.

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Trey

Why would god want to create us anyway? I don't get it. Why would he just throw us in this world and expect us to just accept he's real when we have nothing really to go on but the things around us which seem to point out that he ain't real anyways? And they say all you need is faith. I got all the faith in the world. But there is a fine line between faith and gambling. Who wants to waste their life worshipping somethin' that's not there. And half the people who believe only believe cause they are scared. That's not putting faith in god. That's losing faith in yourself. And the hipocrytical bastards I went to a Pentecoastal chuch and people would be acting like they're feeling god. They would speak in tongues and cry and supposedly have "a life changing event" right there. Then they'll go home and forget it ever happened. God forbid they tell any of that story in front of their friends. You would think if it was that life changing and if it proved there was definitely a god I mean jesus christ babbling different languages is a big deal...you would think it would be a little more important that how your friends felt about it. But its all a lie. Lies to impress other churchgoers. Anyways if god is "all knowing" and all that he would know. But it's the exact same for atheism. I don't know about yall but where I am atheism has almost become a trend. Now everyone's like oh it's so cool I don't believe in god. If I talk to someone round here who doesn't believe you best believe I'll hear about it within five sentences. But they don't know why they don't believe. They just know they don't want to blindly believe. But blindly not believing is the same damn thing to me. It's just got me confused as hell

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The Unfan

There is no difference between the two. "Macroevolution" is just what happens when lots of "microevolution" happens.

Is it a pizza before you put it into the oven?

Guybrush

A lot of christians sort of accept that some evolution occurs - that gene (or allele) frequencies change from generation to generation and so on or that bacterias can pick up new genes in a test tube. It's very easily scientifically proven and basically done every day .. yet they refuse to accept that species morphology can change radically over evolutionary time.

I don't know how they manage to do it, but some still do .. I guess it takes a special kind of stubbornness.

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SATCHMO

Ok I'm gonna throw things into a different direction.

Much of the battle between science and religion has dealt with mainly god in the outer physical realm (creation, evolution, etc.). What about the cognitive aspect of it?

Some questions:
Is god essentially the higher self that lies beyond our ego?
Does something on a metaphysical level occur when we pray?
Is having a "relationship" with "God", perceived or real healthy?
Is there such a thing as spiritual health? (like mental health but on a spiritual level)
How does one explain a religous experience,(of which I've had a few), on a psychological or metaphysical level?

Guybrush

No disrespect and I hope I don't offend you, but I believe a lot of religious experiences are basically caused by suggestion, placebo effects and the like.

Imagine if you had a lot of people on a plane and suddenly, someone there had contagious meningitis which potentially puts everyone on the plane in mortal danger. It's not sure how many are contaminated and everyone has to be put in quarantine and thoroughly checked before they are let out of the plane.

In that situation, it's easy to imagine that many people who are not sick would not feel so well and perhaps have imaginary meningitis symptoms. It could be caused by mass hysteria, sugggestion (you look kinda pale) or even a kind of placebo-effect - you feel sick because you think you are sick.

People are affected by other people, we're good at sniffing up on eachothers vibes and I think when people collectively feel God's presence in a church, I think it's basically working by the same psychological mechanisms. For some reason, speaking in tongues is a lot more common when you have gatherings.


Religious experiences being caused by something in the mind of people themselves rather than something external also helps explain why long term sufferers of drug addiction are often more likely to have religious experiences than the average joe from the same society. You could explain that Jesus or God takes care of those who need it the most, but then you also have to ask yourself "doesn't God care if those who have it alright believe in him? Isn't he willing to make the same effort and appear for them like he does for the less fortunate?" You can probably come up with more questions and many will likely be hard to answer from a theological perspective, but yet quite simple from a purely psychological perspective.

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cardboard adolescent

you can't expect God to come to you... 'seek and ye shall find'