Meh. The reason that dinosaurs don't exist anymore is because God didn't want them to exist anymore. Its all part of the divine plan. Don't question it.
I don't know if it's that specifically, but they have recently allowed for the existence of life on other planets. Christianity had evolved and continues to evolve far more than some of you would like to think. And for those of you harping on creationist's 10K year old earth theory or whatever it is, I spent years and years and years in Baptist schools and have known some pretty Jesus-crazy nutjobs, and I've heard exactly ONE person say that dinosaur bones were put there by God to "test our faith." As an agnostic who didn't grow up in church and spent many years arguing with Bible-beaters about one thing or another because for some reason Baptist schools kept giving me money, I can say this with a fair amount of certainty: a LOT of you give Christianity a really bad, and totally unfounded, rap.
As an atheist who has to rub elbows with Christians on a daily basis I can say that many of them are judgmental, willfully ignorant pricks who can't stand to be in the presence of someone who calls their bull**** out for what it is. Even many of the so-called "tolerant" ones are really more afraid of getting abused in a debate than they are about being understanding of non-theist view points. That's why you hear so often from Christians when describing non-Christians who are either a member of some other religion or at least are spiritual "well, at least you believe in something." They don't necessarily care if you believe their make believe stories as long as you believe in some kind of make believe story so everyone in the room can feel at ease about believing in things that fly in the face of rational thought, science and reality.
I ought to go and take pictures of this for all of yall... it's quite literally about 15 minutes from my house. You would be AMAZED at how crowded it is on weekends and during the summer months. They have made so much money that they are expanding and have constant construction around it.
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Though I've met plenty of sanctimonious, self-righteous twits myself, your post reeks of the judgment you espouse to hate. The problem is that it is currently fashionable to bash Christians and Christianity itself as a whole; to lump them all in with the Pat Robertsons of the world. The truth of the matter is that assholes exist in each and every faith and non-faith the world over. To characterize them all as intellectually inferior zealots is just....stupid. Perhaps in my initial post I came across as more aggravated than I intended it to be, but to say or otherwise insinuate a Christian cannot be intelligent or forward thinking is just insane.
It's not really insane. Virtually all religions, by their very nature and at their core, are intellectually and factually dishonest, lacking evidence, and require a special form of suspension of logic to follow them. I find it hard to respect the intellect and integrity of a person who willingly subscribes to that. Faith is not a virtue, and no, Christians are not victims of some "fashionable" trend to bash them. It's called being humble vs. self-righteousness. Being a follower of logic and reason tends to humble people (as we're allowed to have the gloriously freeing experience of "not knowing" and being "dead wrong"... all part of discovery), while being a follower of the "one true religion/god" tends to lend itself to being a smarmy, insecure prick. If you want to feel like you're one of those people, that's your deal. If you're not one of them, then great! (looking at you, max! ) D&D, HOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Disagree. Look at the Vatican observatory and their work in physics for evidence. Look up Christianity and the God Particle. I don't know how you can get more science-oriented and logically thinking than that. The Catholic church makes all of the above work with their theology. I'm merely offering examples of forward-thinking Christianity, not discounting the Fred Phelps-crazies of the world.
Good start. Actually, when a group of people refuse to accept fact and choose fiction as their reality they are taking part in an intellectually inferior endeavor. Whether that manner of thinking is compartmentalized or is something they carry over into other parts of their lives depends on the individual person. They might or might not be perfectly rational, intelligent people regarding other subjects but they are, in fact, intellectually inferior when it comes to the history of the earth, the Universe and mankind if they believe "God did it." In your opinion. The dozens of polls stating that the Christian majority rejects evolution tells me that they are not forward thinking nor intelligent in at least a few subjects.
I didn't say it was incompatible. The most brilliant people who ever existed (Newton, Socrates, etc) invoked thoughts of god when they couldn't explain things. Not that they were religious people. But some are. Good for them, that's their right. However, they are far and away the minority. You can be a man of science and still be religious, however, it is not only an exception to the rule, it's flies directly in the face of the basis and laws science. So it puts a giant facepalm on the whole concept, really. Kind of like a vegetarian who believes in saving only cute animals or something. :grin:
You are wrong! These great minds were place in churches as a young age. These were the one that were smart enough to question their own backward religion.
