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xd Yeah, so, now that you explained the joke to me, I found it pretty funny ( and no, I was not offended at all. )

The only problem I have with the idea of God working through evolution is that there doesn't seem to be any biblical evidence supporting it, and I think our best bet in regards to those situations is to leave that sort of thinking alone. My rule is simply that...if an idea can't be supported by the Bible, or is contradictory to what is in there, I'm not going to bother with it ( I'm going find a verse to support that statement, but it'll probably take some time )

That may seem a bit too extreme or better yet, close-minded, as most people like to call it, but I guess it's one of those things you're cool with doing once you're at a point where you've decided to go all-out for God.

Obviously, if you don't believe the Bible to be the Word of God, it'd be absurd to live your life based on the what is written in it. If, however, one does believe the Bible to be the Word of God, it would absurd not to live you life based on what is written in it. That's kind of how the cookie crumbles, I guess.

Yeah, I do see what you're getting at with the whole faith thing, Priestly, but the problem is when you don't have that faith, and a particular theory, whether it be evolution or whatever else, is causing you to struggle with what you believe in. Now, my personal stance is that...you'll never truly believe anything about Who God is and what He has done unless God Himself reveals it to you. Unless you receive revelation ( Whether good or bad ), your beliefs about any issue will not change.

For example, let's use slavery ( And for the sake of my argument, this is during the time of slavery in America...or should I say the colonies?) A person knows about slavery, but they've never personally seen it before, and because of that, they don't know about the abuse that slaves generally had to deal with. So this person's view on slavery is pretty apathetic. They know about it, but they don't really think it's wrong or right.

One day, a friend of theirs comes by and is talking about this book they read that totally changed their views on slavery by the name of Uncle Tom's Cabin ( if you don't know what this book is about, google it. ) The friend recommends that this person reads it, so they do. This person is shocked about what is revealed in the book about slavery, and does research to see if what they read was true. The person finds out that yes, what was in the book was true, and so they become indignant. Their viewpoint has changed, and now they believe slavery to be wrong, and something that needs to be ended.

However, if the person had never had this information revealed to them, their viewpoint never would have changed, and they'd have remained apathetic. Whether it was a book, a visit to a slave owners home, a parent talking to them about it, or even just them researching it on their own, something would have had to been revealed to them in order for this person to change their thinking.

That's kind of why I'm not losing sleep over the fact that there are plenty of people out there who believe evolution to be true. I believe God will reveal Himself to whoever He wants to, when He wants to. However, I also think it is important to have an answer when someone asks us why we believe what we believe about evolution, or anything else. Christians should never try to disprove these theories just to be right ( and unfortunately, there probably are those out there who do just that ), because then the whole quest to give an answer becomes a selfish one, instead of one to help others.



EDIT: I apologize for this whole post being so long, because in actuality it's two posts combined into one, with this part being the second half.

...as much as I'd like to, I can't really give you a good answer. There's honestly nothing I can do to change your mind about what you believe about God. I've pretty much covered the reason why in this post, and in many of my previous posts. I can say that I totally used to not care about God. I can say that the reason I am where I am today was not by choice. I didn't just one day decide to go looking for God, or looking for religion or whatever people like to call it. My life wasn't spinning out of control, and then I chose to "get my life right." I had goals. I had big dreams for the future, things that I wanted to do once I got out of high school, and they didn't include God.

It was only when He revealed Himself to me years ago that I realized that I was living for the wrong thing, and that I wasn't looking at the big picture. There was nothing I could have done to prevent what happened to me that day. I wasn't planning on it. Things changed, though, and this is now where I find myself. Has it been easy? No way. It's been super hard having to deal with everything thats been coming my way. I've gone through a lot, and even now I'm facing a challenge. However, I can say it's been worth it, even if I may not see all of the benefits right now because of what I'm going through.

I see life in an entirely different perspective, so I'm doing my best to find out what it is I'm supposed to be doing with mine so that I don't waste what's been given to me. Life is so much more than being right or wrong, or even being happy. It's so much more than what we can even imagine. I can't explain it, either, because I'm still learning more and more everyday, but one thing that's interesting is that, the more I learn about life, the more I realize how good God truly is.




And yeah, I definitely believe science to be reconciled with God.

Yeah, I studied the history of slavery in History (along with a few other periods of American history) at school. We were taught about types of evidence and what facts can be gathered from such evidence. I'll look up the book, though, if it's really that important.

That aside, many children are taught from a young age (as a way to learn the effects and consequences of their actions) to empathise with the people with whom they interact. If they taught this and they are able to understand the definition of slavery, surely they would be able to empathise with those who are in bondage? "How would I feel if I was taken by force to work for someone with nothing or very little in return? I would not like it so they must not like it."

Then again, maybe I'm biased because such a teaching is at the core of my being. For some people, more extreme measures are required to change their preconceived notions -- a slap in the face, so to speak. Apostle Paul, for example, had to be blinded for him to change his behaviour and I'm sure many have had to be broken before they have changed.

I do understand what you mean, but whether evolution is right or wrong is really quite irrelevant to faith in the message that Jesus preached. That is what I was getting at.

Mm...Someone else in this guild showed me this site. It's amusing, albeit almost completely unsupported and rather dogmatic at times.