Only read if you are NOT religious and/or do not believe in any 'supreme' being (othe

The one with an ouce of evidence.

What is there to "teach" about creationism? Fine, "God said Poof! Class dismissed" The only thing taught... would be how to disprove evolution.

Really... what would you say? Aside from listing off the reasons evolution can't be.

God made this.... then he thought it would be cool with some eyes.... and then he put a little fluffy cloud over here. It didn't go so well on the first night because it kept running into trees while flying in the dark! That's when God decided to give it radar! And that's how we have the bat.

I guess you could ignore the science of how they came to be... and just study how they are today. Maybe a little praise in there because he did such a knockup job?

So, your telling me there is absolutely no chance at all that it was just you and your body fighting real hard to beat the ailment? Why not give yourself any credit? This is one of those situations where someone doesn't know why something happened. So, they attribute it to divine intervention. Also, how many other people in the world were close to death at the time you were? Did you win some sort of lottery to get his help? How many others had his help at that time? If thousands others survived a serious illness at that time, which ones were God's hand and which ones were just hard work and fight? How do we know the difference?

As for the enzyme comment: Again, something cannot be fully explained. So, people just attribute it to God. It's just not good enough for me. I want to know. I'm not just going to take someone's word for it. We don't where science is concerned. Why do people do it with religion?

I'm not even sold on the Big Bang...

I just find evolution plausible enough that I like to argue with people that find it unfathomable.

The one with an ouce of evidence.

What is there to "teach" about creationism? Fine, "God said Poof! Class dismissed" The only thing taught... would be how to disprove evolution.

Really... what would you say? Aside from listing off the reasons evolution can't be.

God made this.... then he thought it would be cool with some eyes.... and then he put a little fluffy cloud over here. It didn't go so well on the first night because it kept running into trees while flying in the dark! That's when God decided to give it radar! And that's how we have the bat.

I guess you could ignore the science of how they came to be... and just study how they are today. Maybe a little praise in there because he did such a knockup job?

It wasn't an ailment, it was a ruptured aorta. Your body doesn't fight a ruptured aorta. Trust me, your life is never, ever so out of your own hands as it is in that particular situation. There is literally nothing you can do to save yourself. I am a controlling person and there is nothing that can be done on your own behalf. You are completely at the mercy of others. In addition, I wasn't even supposed to be in Rome, or with the fluent Italian speaker (whose job it is to be the liaison for medical emergencies...whom I met only 2 hours prior to my emergency), or get the #1 vascular surgeon in Europe, but I've told this story before here, and you are looking to refute what I know to be true. You weren't there. I was. I know what saved my life. I'm not "attributing" anything to divine intervention. I know what was. There's no illusion on my part. I'm completely clear, lucid, and informed about who saved me.
The short answer is, "No. My body had nothing at all to do with the miracle of survival, nor the 10 hours of things that needed to fall into perfect position to save my life."

It is interesting to me though how one might think that someone like me (certainly no athlete) would be able to survive an aortal arterial bleed for about 2 hours, when an athlete like Sean Taylor, younger than I, was unable to survive one.

And you're wrong about Scientists just throwing up their hands and stating that the enzyme cannot be explained. Many Scientists have had exactly this one thing lead them to the conclusion that there must be intelligent design, including the Scientist who preaches at my own church. It may not be your choice, but it is the choice of others.

As I said before, there is a choice to be made. If your choice is not to believe, then you've made your choice. There's no need to belittle the choice of those who believe otherwise. Stating that those who do explain the enzyme through intelligent design are no more fools than those who choose not to explain it at all.

yep. its a science class. asking people to have faith in a designer isn't science. its a valid opinion, but its not somethign that can be subject to a scientific hypohtesis.

The trick to it is you have to look beyond just what you want to see, and look from a point of view that God DOES exist; and you will find evidence to back it up. If you look from the point of view that God does NOT exist, then you will only see what you want yourself to see.

I've thought about this before - if the church (any religion for that matter) was created for power (and everything that follows, $$, etc etc) - based on the belief that there is some big bad God out there, and the people crating it KNEW it was false, then why is it the way it is? I mean - the goal of many religions is the betterment of mankind - help your neighbor, don't be greedy, in general live a "good" life for you and everyone else. If religions were created for the purpose of control for the benefit of a select few (e.g. pope, etc) then shouldn't it be the OTHER way around? Survival of the fittest - rape and pillage to get what you want.

In Jesus' case, why would (He) (or the Apostles I guess) create a religion based on just being a GOOD person if their quest was money and power?

Why do people call "faith" as something that you have to try and make yourself believe in when there is hard evidence to back it up... And I've listed evidence above to put the evolution theory that it took millions/billions of years for living things to "evolve" out of pudding... The Carbon dating on that diamond proves that it is less than 58,000 years old; not nearly enough time for evolution to be correct on the origin of species...

But if science even gives evidence to the fact that we were actually "intelligently designed" - why would that be faith?

Let me ask this question arj. Why do you have to have "faith" in gravity? You can't see it, or touch it. Yet you know its there - because there is evidence (scientific) to prove it. Therefore, its not your faith in gravity - but rather your belief that brings it home to you...

I personally believe that if you look, you will find - and then you can believe w/ more than just faith... The trick to it is you have to look beyond just what you want to see, and look from a point of view that God DOES exist; and you will find evidence to back it up. If you look from the point of view that God does NOT exist, then you will only see what you want yourself to see.

I didn't belittle anything or anyone. I simply asked you questions. I think people in situations like that often short suit themselves on credit when something awesome happens. Do I think it's spectacular and awesome that survived? Absolutely! Could I ever say it was God who saved you (or me if I were ever in a similar situation)? Not unless I saw him or spoke to him. You didn't say you saw him or spoke to him. You just said it was God's hand because of how close you were to death and survived. Just because events fell into place doesn't mean God did it. There's a whole bunch of chance and luck to figure in as well. You said yourself that you had the best doctor in Europe. So, I say he had more to do with it than anyone else. Give him the credit. He's a physical, tangible person who everyone knows exists and had the most direct contact with you. I'm not telling you how you should feel. Just stating my opinion. Also, I am not a "non-believer". I'm just not a full believer either. Like I said before, I'm a fence-sitter.

I believe what I see, hear, smell, and touch until I have reason to believe otherwise.

Good point. The apostles also all died horrible, painful deaths at the hands of those wanting them to recind their belief. Why would they choose to die that way rather than say 'okay, I was lying' unless they really believed it?

It could be:
me < universe
dog < me

God is not the only thing that's greater than you.

or your are being delusional in thinking that g_d exists but actually doesn't because you want something so badly.

Scientists have the ability to date with Pb isotopes