Sam Harris

With you saying the bible is full of lies, i can't confront that because in order to do that i would have to back up every single verse. As far as the bible being sexist, God did make different roles for men and women. However, the only areas that biblically a male has more authority than a female is in the area of the family, and the church. This does not apply to any other area of life. Also, even though this society has equated authority with importance, it just isn't so. To demonstarte this, if a cop pulls you over, is he more important than you? of course not, but he does have authority over you. Also, in this whole equasion, the bible puts far more responsibility on the male. When the bible says "husbands love your wives" it uses the greek word "agape" which is an unconditional love like Christ had for us. When God said "wives love your husbands" it used the greek word "phileo" which is a mutual, affectionate type of a love. The responsibility is far more on the male. Also, the bible says "the man is the head of the household as Christ is the head of the church. Again, the responsibility goes far more to the male.

You were right about something…a bee is essentially perfect. So is a flower. They didn't sin, humans did. We were the ones that screwed up. Therefore, we are the ones with the problems

As far as evolution goes, that doesn't prove it. God is an artist, and like any artist, some of his work is similar. Listen to music, a particular artist will have his own style, and some of the songs will sound similar. So it is with God, some of his creation is similar to his other creation. As far as evolution itself tho, there is very little evidence for it, and alot against it. Taking it back to the big bang theory, in that theory all the matter in the universe was in one spot. well, a black hole is something where there's so much mass that the gravity is too extreme for anything to leave it. That's exactly what this would be. when something is that condensed, the atoms and subatomic particles break down. when it's that simple, there can't be an explosion because there's no atoms or chemicals to react. On earth itself, if the earth were even 20 million years old, the radiation level at that time would be too extreme for any life as we know it to exist. with the dating systems that say it's that old, you have carbon13, sedimentry, and fossil dating. carbon 13 is only accurate to about 5000 years, yet they use it to state the earth is billions of years old. With sedimentry and fossil dating, they determine how old the sediments are by the fossils in them, and how old the fossils are by the sediments. That's circular reasoning, and doesn't hold up. If you want more info on evolution, go to a search engine and search for "kent hoven". he's a christian scientist who debates with evolutionist at public schools. He has an offer out to anyone who can give him any proof that evolution is true that he will give them $100,000. no one has been able to do it. remember, even though it doesn't feel like it, God is there. I don't know what you've been through, but i know i've been through alot. in that last few years alot of my friends and most of my family has died. I don't know what i would have done without God. I may get ino some of the stuff i've been through later, but for now, know that God is here even when it feels liek he's not. Well, i hope something i've said has helped, and i hope to hear from you soon. I'll be praying for you. Take care and God bless.

I have no idea who you are debating here, but you are obviously someone who has never seen the inside of a physics book!  Talk about your silly religion, if you know anything about it, but I suggest you stay out of areas you know nothing about, someone may someday call you on it.

Dear Minister;
Obviously you posted your message here thinking that your vast breadth of knowledge would provoke some readers to re-evaluate their beliefs; that will not happen.  Your ‘versions’ of scientific information are totally devoid of any reality.  If this is the thinking of the majority of persons populating the famous “red states” we are rapidly sliding back into the ignorance of the Middle Ages.  All I might do here is suggest some reading
1) “Ecce Homo”  (trans. “This is Man”) by Baron d’Holbach - 1755. The book is a rational examination of the life of Christ according to the gospels and works of the New Testament. d’Holbach concludes that Jesus was a fraud and a charlatan who believed in his own divine nature (like many other well-meaning madmen through the centuries - perhaps even “The Minister” himself).

2) “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin - 1869

3) Any reputable biology or physics textbook from the past two decades.

Good reading, Bob

I live in a red state (obviously), and I can state from personal knowledge that “minister” is a typical resident.  One only has to drive around this area and look at the messages on the church signs to realize that what you said is true, we ARE slipping back. 

Let’s stop bickering about political differences we may have, and start doing something about it!

Pete

[quote author=“Sam Harris”]The kind of intolerance of faith that I am advocating in my book is not the intolerance that gave us the gulag. It is conversational intolerance. When people make outlandish claims, without evidence, we stop listening to them—except on matters of faith. I am arguing that we can no longer afford to give faith a pass in this way.

I tend to agree, and I think it pretty clearly applies here.

I also live in a very red state—and I also share hampsteadpete’s take on the matter.

Byron

I am in the deepest reddest state ever !!

Somewhere, we really need to take a long look at our education system.

I mean, that has to be the crux of this.

And I lost 9 members of my family and friends in 1999.  Didnt need God.

Minister…I’m a little late with this comment, but would I be close in thinking you may be a very nice, devout, well meaning 12 year old who has never had a good science course. If you want to use science in your arguments you better learn some from somebody besides the minister. In fact, if you get through a few college level physics, biology, and chemistry courses and still hold any of those arguments as based on fact I’ll pay you 100,000 dollars.

Rod