you make a couple of interesting points, there are a couple of things I would comment on.
first off comparing schools to churches is ridiculous, schools are publicly funded entities, churches are privately funded religious groups, to apply the same rules to one as the other would be incorrect.
now I do owe an apology, I am not saying that I strictly disbelieve evolution in the strictest sense of the word, but rather that our theory of evolution is the best we can manage to come up with without a belief in an intelligent designer, and it is, at best, incomplete.
the big bang, DOES NOT follow any of our current understanding of physics. if you gather all of the mass in the universe in one place, and the universe is infinitely large, then it would be quite literally impossible according to physics to surpass the draw of that gravity, it would be a black hole greater than any we currently experience, and not even energy can escape the ones that we view in our night sky.
what bothers me most is that I obviously was not articulate enough in my last post, I'm not saying creation science, or intelligent design, or evolution is best/write/prefect. in fact I would call it safe to say that NONE of us have it completely right, and that is my point. we all draw conclusions from what we know and understand, and believe to be true. Is it more difficult to find scientific evidence supporting intelligent design or creationism? of course, it is very unpopular in the scientific community to believe in God, because at that point we are no longer the end all authority in our universe, and we are just playing in someone else's sandbox.
now, do people and animals and all the living creatures of the earth change over time? OF COURSE they do! There is even biblical evidence to support this. Evolution is not a farse, darwinism as an origin science does require a belief in it, because it is not complete. that is what faith is. Giraffes and frogs make little sense evolutionarily speaking, but people don't stop believing that evolution is real because of that. they believe there is a rational explanation that they just do not yet understand, and that is faith.
I'm not a bigot or a hatemonger, I am a protestant Christian, of non denominational origin, because when I look out at the beauty of the world, I find it difficult to believe that it was an accident. I honestly believe that mankind is more than the sum of our successes and mistakes, and that a living God designed us, knowing that we would make those mistakes, because he was alone, and needed companions.
Now I know that I sound like a nut to the folks that post here, but the truth of the matter is that if you continually try and find holes in an argument you will, evolution, creation, theistic evolution, but none of us know the complete truth, thats the big point I wanted to make there. I believe in Jesus, because the prophecies concerning him were numerous and true, but even more than that, because if everyone upheld his ideas then the world would be a much nicer place to live.
as far as the religious symbols stuff, yeah that's just horrible, it is an example of the larger religious entity ignoring the belief that it claims to cling to. in more recent times there are more reasons to avoid such symbols because of what they have come to represent, but to claim that pagans were worshiping satan directly would be a incorrect. that being said, Christianity is mutually exclusive with most of the other religions in the world(which also mutually exclude themselves) but that is no excuse not to show love to one another. I don't believe gay marriage is right or acceptable, but as I mentioned before I ALSO don't believe that the government should make laws concerning it, or any other marriage for that matter. I personally would like much smaller governments around the world that interfered with the daily life of individuals much less. but more than anything else I believe it is important to show love to those I don't agree with, no matter how infuriating I find their beliefs, because I'm not perfect, God is, I'm not, and so I can still learn from everyone I encounter, Christian, Buddhist, Pagan, or otherwise.
I would much rather have a civil discussion with someone who disagrees with me, than a discussion with some of the "so called" christians, notice the little c, who cause true Christian faith to be so unbelievable to those in the world who would most benefit from Jesus' teachings.
I like you, I like your comic, you seem honest and I have a lot of respect for that. but even more I have respect for you approving my previous comment even though you don't agree. its a discourse like this that breads understanding between two different viewpoints instead of anger.
Interesting reply
you make a couple of interesting points, there are a couple of things I would comment on.
first off comparing schools to churches is ridiculous, schools are publicly funded entities, churches are privately funded religious groups, to apply the same rules to one as the other would be incorrect.
now I do owe an apology, I am not saying that I strictly disbelieve evolution in the strictest sense of the word, but rather that our theory of evolution is the best we can manage to come up with without a belief in an intelligent designer, and it is, at best, incomplete.
the big bang, DOES NOT follow any of our current understanding of physics. if you gather all of the mass in the universe in one place, and the universe is infinitely large, then it would be quite literally impossible according to physics to surpass the draw of that gravity, it would be a black hole greater than any we currently experience, and not even energy can escape the ones that we view in our night sky.
what bothers me most is that I obviously was not articulate enough in my last post, I'm not saying creation science, or intelligent design, or evolution is best/write/prefect. in fact I would call it safe to say that NONE of us have it completely right, and that is my point. we all draw conclusions from what we know and understand, and believe to be true. Is it more difficult to find scientific evidence supporting intelligent design or creationism? of course, it is very unpopular in the scientific community to believe in God, because at that point we are no longer the end all authority in our universe, and we are just playing in someone else's sandbox.
now, do people and animals and all the living creatures of the earth change over time? OF COURSE they do! There is even biblical evidence to support this. Evolution is not a farse, darwinism as an origin science does require a belief in it, because it is not complete. that is what faith is. Giraffes and frogs make little sense evolutionarily speaking, but people don't stop believing that evolution is real because of that. they believe there is a rational explanation that they just do not yet understand, and that is faith.
I'm not a bigot or a hatemonger, I am a protestant Christian, of non denominational origin, because when I look out at the beauty of the world, I find it difficult to believe that it was an accident. I honestly believe that mankind is more than the sum of our successes and mistakes, and that a living God designed us, knowing that we would make those mistakes, because he was alone, and needed companions.
Now I know that I sound like a nut to the folks that post here, but the truth of the matter is that if you continually try and find holes in an argument you will, evolution, creation, theistic evolution, but none of us know the complete truth, thats the big point I wanted to make there. I believe in Jesus, because the prophecies concerning him were numerous and true, but even more than that, because if everyone upheld his ideas then the world would be a much nicer place to live.
as far as the religious symbols stuff, yeah that's just horrible, it is an example of the larger religious entity ignoring the belief that it claims to cling to. in more recent times there are more reasons to avoid such symbols because of what they have come to represent, but to claim that pagans were worshiping satan directly would be a incorrect. that being said, Christianity is mutually exclusive with most of the other religions in the world(which also mutually exclude themselves) but that is no excuse not to show love to one another. I don't believe gay marriage is right or acceptable, but as I mentioned before I ALSO don't believe that the government should make laws concerning it, or any other marriage for that matter. I personally would like much smaller governments around the world that interfered with the daily life of individuals much less. but more than anything else I believe it is important to show love to those I don't agree with, no matter how infuriating I find their beliefs, because I'm not perfect, God is, I'm not, and so I can still learn from everyone I encounter, Christian, Buddhist, Pagan, or otherwise.
I would much rather have a civil discussion with someone who disagrees with me, than a discussion with some of the "so called" christians, notice the little c, who cause true Christian faith to be so unbelievable to those in the world who would most benefit from Jesus' teachings.
I like you, I like your comic, you seem honest and I have a lot of respect for that. but even more I have respect for you approving my previous comment even though you don't agree. its a discourse like this that breads understanding between two different viewpoints instead of anger.