Would it not be refreshing if people just stood alone and expressed themselves rather than standing on the shoulders of others whose opinions mesh with their own?
IMHO, it would, dear LC (peace to you!), but I notice that when someone like myself does, we are labled as "crazy" (by both those who claim to believe and those who don't). I have posted on several occasions where I feel evolution has a problem. Never... not once... in close to ten years... has anyone refuted or corrected me. To the contrary, there is either silence... or eye-rolling commentary that "suggests" I am in error, but never states it ("Your wrong, Shelby, because... well, because you're just wrong and too stupid to know it!"). I have asked, kindly, politely, sincerely... and each time been told that, "No, you really don't want to know." Which, it seems to ME... is the SAME thing "christians" say/do when they can't explain their positions.
True faith is not blind, dear one; it really is based on evidence. That is what faith IS: the EVIDENT demonstration of REALITY, though NOT BEHELD.
Over the years, my expressions have been similar to those of Dr. Wise, but with my reasons WHY (although our respective manner of receipt of such knowledge appers to have been different, although I am not so sure):
"I had come to know [Jesus] Christ. I had in those years come to know Him. I had become familiar with His love and His concern for me. He had become a real friend to me. He was the reason I was even alive both physically and spiritually. I could not reject Him."
Dr. Wise claimed a knowledge of Christ based on what he read about that One. Surely, if reading compels a person to such love and inability to reject, then literally knowing that same person might, as well. It did in my case. Now, folks will say, "Well, Christ has never spoken to ME, so I cannot believe/put my faith in him until he does." And I totally respect that. Yet, when I say he CAN... they run for the hills, totally dismissing every possibility. Wouldn't a TRUE scientist at least bother... perhaps even say, "Okay, show me?"
On the other hand, I would say, I have never seen... or even heard that another has seen... one species evolve into an entirely different species. I know of the evolution to SUB-species, which I totally "embrace"... as I believe it is part of the entire creation process: that all life came from one source, each "kind" with variations on that source. Which is why we have the commonalities in DNA, etc., that we do. But just like one would say, "Show me Christ," I would say, "Show me evolution such that one species evolves into another." I realize that ALL species may need to adapt, icluding homo sapiens, but that is not what it appears evolution is saying it is limited to. And that's where I have to disagree.
I am not so arrogant as to believe with absolute certainty that God does not exist but I am absolutely certain that I have yet to see compelling evidence of it. Show me the evidence and I will entertain it.
Are you SURE? Because I would be MORE than willing to show you what it is I base my faith on. One such thing would be the origin of the physical universe itself, which I saw and would happily share with you. And it comports with science.
I ask in return only that you reciprocate, otherwise just go away.
And I, you... only I would also ask (1) that you answer my questions from your OWN knowledge and belief, versus, as you state "standing on the shoulders of others whose opinions mesh with your own (and you could certainly feel free to use references, but only AS references); and (2) that you not let your "argument(s)" deteriorate to include calling me... or my opinions, beliefs, references, even evidence... "ridiculous" "stupid" or othe unkind and unsavory names. Because those are... what's the term... merely ad hominens? Which, call me crazy but I believe, have no place in a truly rational discussion.
Again, I bid you peace!
A slave of Christ,
SA
