04-28-2004, 02:00 PM
I can see your prob with an atheist, because hell I know an atheist who goes around telling religious people that they're wrong. Although if they just stay out of your way, who cares?
As for us agnostics, the reason I'm agnostic and not atheist is because I do believe there is SOMEthing and I have an open mind. However, I cannot blindly believe in something because it comes from a book. I have the kind of mind that questions everything, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE and against my nature to have a faith in Christianity. Everything I believe comes from my personal observations, considering them over and over, and refining them in my own mind. I have philosophies, I have morals... that's my personal religion. No shit Christ was a real man that existed, but NOTHING shows me that he is my Lord and Savior or whatever. Why believe in this one religion and not one of the many many that exist on this planet? Because you were taught to have faith in this one thing, and then made your CHOICE that it's the right way to go.
This is partially why I resent the notion of being spoonfed theories in the biology department (I actually have not taken a college biology course yet, that's next year, I've only taken chem, astro, and geology). I don't take anything without considering it in my head all the time. I don't just listen to a professor and agree with everything he/she says about science. If it makes sense to me, and agrees with the many philosophies I have developed in my life, then I start to accept it and debate with it. Evolution makes a hell of a lot more sense than Creationism to me. That doesn't mean I accept it blindly, however. I may determine that something doesn't work for me, I'm sure my beliefs will change over the years. This is just how I perceive things now.
To conclude about the evolution taught in school. OK, I just got out of high school... we were never, EVER, told that evolution was absolutely true. In fact my biology teacher didn't believe in evolution, and told us such, but he taught the concepts so that we'd have a view of every possibility. California and Los Angeles in particular has the shittiest public school system in the US, possibly the world, and yet we are not told that evolution is an infallible doctrine as you seem to think it is taught as. I am not sure what schools this is being done in, but if it is done that way, I agree it is wrong and as wha said, unscientific.
I'm not sure what evolution would be so inconceivable... we are evolving as we speak, particularly in technology... why is it so unlikely that this works on a biological and geological standpoint over billions of years? Hell, we can tell the universe is very very old just by looking through telescopes, we can see the cycles of stars, we can see how stars are made... how is the Earth only 6000 years old? Because the Bible says so... *shrug*
As for us agnostics, the reason I'm agnostic and not atheist is because I do believe there is SOMEthing and I have an open mind. However, I cannot blindly believe in something because it comes from a book. I have the kind of mind that questions everything, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE and against my nature to have a faith in Christianity. Everything I believe comes from my personal observations, considering them over and over, and refining them in my own mind. I have philosophies, I have morals... that's my personal religion. No shit Christ was a real man that existed, but NOTHING shows me that he is my Lord and Savior or whatever. Why believe in this one religion and not one of the many many that exist on this planet? Because you were taught to have faith in this one thing, and then made your CHOICE that it's the right way to go.
This is partially why I resent the notion of being spoonfed theories in the biology department (I actually have not taken a college biology course yet, that's next year, I've only taken chem, astro, and geology). I don't take anything without considering it in my head all the time. I don't just listen to a professor and agree with everything he/she says about science. If it makes sense to me, and agrees with the many philosophies I have developed in my life, then I start to accept it and debate with it. Evolution makes a hell of a lot more sense than Creationism to me. That doesn't mean I accept it blindly, however. I may determine that something doesn't work for me, I'm sure my beliefs will change over the years. This is just how I perceive things now.
To conclude about the evolution taught in school. OK, I just got out of high school... we were never, EVER, told that evolution was absolutely true. In fact my biology teacher didn't believe in evolution, and told us such, but he taught the concepts so that we'd have a view of every possibility. California and Los Angeles in particular has the shittiest public school system in the US, possibly the world, and yet we are not told that evolution is an infallible doctrine as you seem to think it is taught as. I am not sure what schools this is being done in, but if it is done that way, I agree it is wrong and as wha said, unscientific.
I'm not sure what evolution would be so inconceivable... we are evolving as we speak, particularly in technology... why is it so unlikely that this works on a biological and geological standpoint over billions of years? Hell, we can tell the universe is very very old just by looking through telescopes, we can see the cycles of stars, we can see how stars are made... how is the Earth only 6000 years old? Because the Bible says so... *shrug*