Bible vs Darwin

[David George]

Quite true got religious fanatics all over my nation.
But the fact remains that the hindus are ready to accept evolution cos they have a monkey God.Its quite stupid, but it happens.And when you say evolution the only thing that they know is "monkey to man".They don't realise that its ape to man.

[alextemplet]

I'm quite aware of the culture divide, having seen plenty of it during my own time in the Middle East. I am reminded of one conversation I had with an Afghan who considered himself to be very well educated (by their standards, he probably was), yet he simply could not understand why myself (a Catholic) and the other two Marines on my gun team (a Baptist and an atheist) could be close friends. In his mind, different sects must fight each other, just as the Shiites and Sunnis do. May not have been completely his fault; doubtless he was raised that way, but there comes a point where adults must be held responsible for their own philosophies, regardless of their parents' conditioning.

In any case, what irritated me most about this particular Afghan was his narrow-mindedness in refusing to believe that his philosophies do not hold true in every example. Easy for me to say, perhaps, coming as I do from a nation where open-minded thinking is arguably a little too common. However, I believe a patron of the sciences (and I will compliment David to call him such) should understand a more open-minded way of thinking because that is how science works. This is what irritated me, his refusal to admit that religious belief could have anything other than bad results, and also why I agreed to cease the argument once that agreement was reached. I suppose it depends on how you define hatred, but I live in an area where the KKK is a powerful entity, and many of his arguments against religious belief before that point did, I must confess, sound to me uncomfortably reminiscent of Klan rhetoric I've heard against various racial and ethnic groups.

Another point that annoyed me had very little to do with David personally, but with what I see as an unfair bias on this forum towards atheism. Perhaps it is just my own admitted soft-spot for spirituality that is giving me this impression, but it seems to me that whenever a Christian fundamentalist comes in here spouting creationist rhetoric, he is promptly shushed away; however, when an atheist fundamentalist shows up spouting his nonsense (the best recent example would be our friend who tried to claim that knowledge is sinful), he is tolerated than a much higher degree than his Christian counterpart.

In my mind, there is no difference at all between a Christian evangelical his atheist counterpart (please keep in mind I am not referring to all atheists here; only the extremist ones). Both base their beliefs primarily, if not entirely, on blind faith. Both hold illogical positions as if they were absolute truth, and both refuse to accept arguments to the contrary even when they are grounded in solid fact. Both try to shove their beliefs on others, and claim to be acting for the good of mankind in the name of logic and reason, even though their actions seem to indicate that they've abandoned all those causes.

Again, it may just be my own bias talking, but it seems to me that the illogic of one is tolerated much more highly than the illogic of the other, and I do not think this is fair given that both positions make a complete mockery of science. Perhaps you will disagree with me, and maybe have some thoughts of your own to add, and I think this is an issue that we ought to have a dialogue about, if we wish to uphold the logic of science in this forum.

[David George]

I believe a patron of the sciences (and I will compliment David to call him such) should understand a more open-minded way of thinking because that is how science works.

I like the compliment.
I am not quite sure of the forum being biased to anyone.It could be cos most people view science to be atheistic and anti religious.
But these days i am quite bored of this atheist pride.One year back if anyone asks me if i was christian there would be a strong reply from me, "I am an atheist".But these days i say i am a human.
Besides i think i would end up getting a christian women as my life partner.Since i very well know to get a girl who has interest in evolution in India is a big zero.And hopefully i can find someone who like evolution[but its damn ok if my girl has connection to science also],and who is not so religious.I'd better marry a christian girl cos i need to convince my dad for marrying a foreigner[my dad wants me to marry inside my caste,i hate caste system to my core] so if i tell i am going to marry an atheist he will never talk to me.[i love my dad too much to avoid him in my life].So i wanna play safe.
All this religion,ethnicity,caste,language,etc etc is a big **** for me.Guess i threw it outta my life a long time back.
but the major question remains who is going to fall for me Guess a blind girl would
Man I've gone way out of topic............

[alextemplet]

Yeah, just a bit off topic, but on the plus side, that does explain a little better why you feel as you do, so it's not a total waste of typing.

[David George]

Yeah, just a bit off topic, but on the plus side, that does explain a little better why you feel as you do, so it's not a total waste of typing.

just a bit I have gone to Madagascar saying i want to go to Polynesia..............

[mcar]

What a Romeo and Juliet eh?

[alextemplet]

Not the literary reference that would've come to my mind, but we'll go with that, I suppose.

[David George]

What a Romeo and Juliet eh?

I did not get it.How did these people come here???

[alextemplet]

Don't feel bad; I didn't get it either.

[David George]

then lets wait for mcar to explain....

[alextemplet]

Yes, very good idea!

[mcar]

DavidGeorge said: I'd better marry a christian girl cos i need to convince my dad for marrying a foreigner[my dad wants me to marry inside my caste,i hate caste system to my core]

It might be wrong choosing the Romeo and Juliet look-a-like situation for your case since you have not found the girl of your dreams yet. But of course your dad wanted you to marry someone within your caste system. If you happen to choose for yourself not necessarily following your culture and your dad won’t agree to it, the effect would end similar to R & J’s case; something like that probably. Same with some common soap stories that are watched in the prime times.