So you guys don't believe in evolution? :confused: please explain.

Apes are a separate branch of the evolutionary tree. Humans and apes have a common ancestor from many years ago but humans did not descend from apes.

Why not? and What makes humans different from apes? and how did the differences happen? :confused:

Kerry, are you prepared to take responsibility for eroding his belief . . . tread carefully. ;)

Read a book on human evolution for the details. Or, just click around the Smithsonian link I posted.

I will also welcome you to take your best shot at "eroding" my beliefs.

To what end and for what purpose would anyone want to dissuade you from your beliefs which you apparently find comforting and presumably guide you to be a more honest, compasionate and overall better person?

Likewise, why would anyone wish to impose their beliefs on others if those persons were also guided by different beliefs that accomplish the same thing?

No need to have 'beliefs' about these kinds of issues since there is plenty of knowledge laying around

I'd rather hear your personal beliefs on this subject in you're own words if you don't mind.

I don't have beliefs on these topics, I have knowledge, by which I mean information gathered by investigation and testing by people familiar with the tools of the trade.

Do you believe in this knowledge? and would you give up this "Man" derived knowledge if you're "Soul" depended on it? :confused:

I don't 'believe in' knowledge. Knowledge is knowledge. There's no believing or not believing. It just is. It's not something that can be 'given up'. It's the result of inquiry as best as we can engage in it. A person can reject inquiry and base their life of other things like authority, or magic, or dreams, or millions of little bits of nonsense our species has generated over the centuries. Knowledge assumes that these oddities can be overcome with discipline, focus, application of the correct tools, testing of hypotheses, use of logic, discussion of results with like minded people etc. Once you go down the road of inquiry and knowledge, belief is a thing of the past.

A person's soul is lost the minute they are willing to substitute 'belief' for knowledge.

Are you willing to make that choice?

I decided a life without soul wasn't worth it a long time ago. That's when I gave up belief and decided to seek knowledge.

Ok... then, so what you are saying is that in your mind, there is no Lord Jesus Christ?

I have little idea how to respond to that? Was there a person behind the Christian religion? Probably. Does he still exist and do magical things for people? Not as far as I know.

There was the historical figure.

A simple yes or no will suffice. I asked you a direct question and would appreciate a direct answer from yourself.

How would a simple yes/no suffice? Its a loaded question

I gave as direct an answer as I can possibly give. You phrased the question as if it could be given a simple yes or no answer, like 'Is my wife in the next room,' but in fact the question is almost incomprehensible. Are you saying "Is there an invisible guy hanging around in the ether, carrying the title of a feudal ruler and being about 2012 years old?" "Not as far as I know' is the best answer I can give to that kind of question.

As I suspected, no commitment on your behalf. I have no further questions for you. I will move on.

Well now, isn't that special?

Not everything is a yes/no situation. The more I learned about religious dogma, philosophy, and theological teachings the more this became boldly visible to me, and at this point it's been quite a bit.

Heisenberg might have a different opinion about that.

How would you respond to that question yourself WITH PROOF?

So then you approve of "Hedging your bets"? Belief in case there is said deity? What does that say about your deity?

1. Too stupid to know if you are sincere or "buying insurance"
2. Too vain to care as long as there are believers

You seem to be under the impression that evolution teaches humans evolved from apes. It doesn't. As Kerry stated, evolutionary theory postulates that humans, and other related primates including apes and old world monkeys all descended from a common ancestor that was neither man nor ape.
For some reason, christians who don't believe in evolution (there are many who do BTW) seem determined to believe something about evolutionary theory that simply isn't, and never has been true. Why do you suppose that is? You would think, wouldn't you, that in order to be so adamantly opposed to something, the best thing to do is understand what you're against. Apparently that's not required for the faithful. :(

Rejecting evolution is not required for being Christian. You knew that, right?

What has evolution got to do with anything? It stands by itself. Regardless of which way it turns out. Lets say evolution is bogus. How does that make religion right? Could both be wrong? Sure. Could both be right? Sure. What is so difficult about saying "I DON'T KNOW"? Must we have an answer? Does it matter even if you know?

That's part of the communist vision for Amerika.

Anyone else see the irony between the above reply and the title of the thread?

Not sure about that but even if it is so, I would say that is one thing Marx and I agree on. Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes

From Minister to Atheist NPR:All Things Considered

MacBain, 44, was raised a conservative Southern Baptist. Her dad was a pastor and she felt the call of God when she was 6. She had questions, of course, about conflicts in the Bible, for example, or the role of women. She says she sometimes felt she was serving a taskmaster of a God, whose standards she never quite met.

For years, MacBain set her concerns aside. But when she became a United Methodist pastor nine years ago, she started asking sharper questions. She thought they'd make her faith stronger.

"In reality," she says, "as I worked through them, I found that religion had so many holes in it, that I just progressed through stages where I couldn't believe it."

I think he meant that I correctly stated the positions.

That's an intriguing story. I'd like to know more about exactly what thoughts were going thru her mind which caused the transition.