Me & Abraham

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
- Abraham Lincoln

Darwin's Theory

So much has been made of Darwin's Theory so I found this summary:


Summary of Darwin's Theory of Evolution
• A species is a population of organisms that interbreeds and has fertile offspring.
• Living organisms have descended with modifications from species that lived before them.
• Natural selection explains how this evolution has happened:
— More organisms are produced than can survive because of limited resources.
— Organisms struggle for the necessities of life; there is competition for resources.
— Individuals within a population vary in their traits; some of these traits are heritable -- passed on to offspring.
— Some variants are better adapted to survive and reproduce under local conditions than others.
— Better-adapted individuals (the "fit enough") are more likely to survive and reproduce, thereby passing on copies of their genes to the next generation.
— Species whose individuals are best adapted survive; others become extinct.
Source

One of you quoted from answers to Jonathan Wells "The peppered moth photos are...not scientific evidence for natural selection."

However the complete quote is: The peppered moth photos are the same sort of illustration, not scientific evidence for natural selection. This is the problem I have with many of your arguments and others on the blogs for creationism, misquotes and quotes out of context as well as partial quotes. If you go back and read the response the author is explaining that illustrations are used to demonstrate a point not to prove a theory.

Last night I watched a segment of 60 minutes that recounts the progress made in regeneration of body parts. Livers, hearts, kidneys and even ears! Wow! One of the stories was about a man who had received "pixie dust" a substance from pig bladders called Extra Cellular Matrix, and actually grew a new esophagus and another who grew new muscles. Story Here

These studies are amazing and may someday save your life or the life of someone you love.

I think all this is due to Darwin's Theory and the continued study of how life exists.

I don't "believe" in Darwinism I accept the facts found through scientific study every day,that proves that all living matter is genetically similar.

Learning is a continual process. It isn't about accepting the answer because someone says it is so. It is a process of discovery and correction. Science isn't always right...they don't get it right every time but science never stops searching for the answers. Someone stated that creationism is a "done deal" 6 days and it is done. Science will never be done; there much to learn.

Creationism Is Deceitful By Design

Borrowed this from a friend.

I couldn't have said it better!

From someone whom I admire greatly for his courage and forthrightness.

Subject: So, Jesus Came to Earth to Stop God from Barbarically Killing Any More People and in mercifully doing away with the Stop-Me-Before-I-Kill-Again Lord's Law of Moses, this is therefore supposed to make "Jesus the King/God Responsible For All the Killing in the First Place" deserving of our eternal worship and unending gratitude--not to mention making us dependent on him for our salvation and happiness?

Praise the abuser, while blaming yourself for the abuse he heaps upon you?

I mean, how sick is that?

In another thread, poster "CosmoMcK" explains the wonderful gory glory of this proctology cosmology:

"Jesus was exposing their [the stoners] hypocrisy and teaching them about forgiveness. The concept of stoning was a Jewish one, not a Christian one. Christ did away with the Law of Moses, and Christians believe they live by the law of mercy. Come to think of it, I don't hear of Jews stoning people anymore either. I do hear of Muslims stoning people."

(Subject: "Re: And christians can't seem to explain HOW you could interpret it to mean what they claim it does," Date: 4 December 2009, 02:07, Author: CosmoMcK, Mail Address: blindspot64@yahoo.com, at:

http://www.exmormon.org/boards/w-agora/view.php?bn=exmobb_recovery&key=1259910423&modified=1259910423)


This is what Jesus should be honored for--exposing the sinfulness of those who, in earlier times, had simply been doing what God himself had ordered them to do: bashing people's brains in with rocks?

Jesus finally puts a stop to this heaven-sanctioned sick-in-the-head slaughter of humankind and for this he deserves our adoration and love forever and ever?

Gimme a break. Jesus/Jehovah/My-Way-or-the-Highway Yahweh was in on it, for gawd's sake!

Besides, what in the hell was God doing ordering such murderous, revolting, pathological punishment in the first place?

Why would anyone want to honor such a savagely sadistic, out-of-control, damnable deity who was guilty of ordering the stoning to death of every man, woman, child or animal in sight whom this gruesome God monster had deemed deserving of cranium-crushing by rock-chucking?

Geezus. It's enough to make you upchuck.

Let me get this straight: Jesus came to earth to do away with a form of killer criminality that was originally approved and commanded by God?

Well, let's sure as hell hope so.

I mean, someone has to stop this gawd-awful God from his maniacal, murderous ways before he wipes out the entire planet in a frothing fit of mindless madness. ("Um, Dad, sorry to interrupt your stone-to-death fest, but can I have a word with you?")

For the revolting record, death by stoning was a God-ordained punishment for the following "crimes" against Heaven:

--for those who touched Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:12-13);

--for an ox that gores a person, with not only the offending ox stoned to death but its owner also put to death if found negligent for not preventing his ox from doing the goring (Exodus 21:28-29);

--for an ox that gores a slave, with the owner of the ox forced to pay the owner of the slave 30 shekels of silver (Exodus 21:32)

--for those with "familiar spirits"--i.e, folks like witches and fortune tellers (Leviticus 20:27)

--for a woman whose husband decides he hates her and who he can claim was not a virgin when they married--that is, if the woman's father fails to produce the "tokens of her virginity" (in this case, bloody sheets). Failing to do that, she is to be stoned to death at her father's doorstep (Leviticus 22:13-21)

--for a man who blaphemes or curses while arguing with another man, being stoned to death by the community as a whole (Leviticus 24:10-23)

--for those who generally blaspheme or curse, being stoned to death, again, by the entire community (Leviticus 24:16)

--for a stubborn or rebellious son, being stoned to death by his father and the other men in the neighborhood (Deuteronomy 12:18-21)

--for a raped virgin who fails to scream out loud enough, being stoned to death by the men in town (Deuteronomy 22:23-24)

--for Achan, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his sheep and all his other animals, who were taken by Joshua and stoned to death by all the people of Israel, after which their bodies were burned (Joshua 7:24-26)

--for the Ammonites, whom the Lord killed by casting stones down on them from heaven (Joshua 10:11)

--for blaspheming "god and the king" (1 Kings 21:10-13)

--for small children, whose death by rocks to the head will make one happy as one "taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones" (Psalms 137:9)

--for one of two sisters who was found guilty of "committing whoredoms" by, with her sibling, pressing their breasts and bruising "the teats of their virginity," and therefore whose nose and ears were cut off, who was then made to "pluck off" her own breasts, and after having been forced to do so was raped and mutilated before being stoned to death (Ezekiel 23:1-49)

--for offending sons and daughters who the Israelites were commanded to "stone . . . with stones, and [to] dispatch . . . with their swords; [and] . . . [to] slay . . . and [to] burn up their houses with fire" (Ezekiel 23:47)

--for all the people of Samaria, whom God will destroy with, of course, stones (Micah 1:6)

--for animals that "so much as . . . touch the mountain" (2 Thessalonians 12:20)

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html
_____


Praise God! Jesus came down from Heaven above to stop God from any more stoning to death down below.

Well, whoopty-doo-doo.

Give the guy a hand--even though he was part and parcel of the whole bloody business from the beginning.

Date: Dec 04 03:14
Author: steve benson
ExMormon.org

My Absence

It has been a difficult few weeks but I want to let you know something that I discovered. I was in a great deal of pain and truly wished to die. I found little relief without very strong drugs and I was completely unable to care for myself. Fortunately, there was no need for concern since my children were there to take care of all the details.

I could have died and I was fully aware of that possibility. Since this is the first time I have been in such a position, I wondered just how I would react. Many have told me that when faced with death they question their beliefs, in either direction. I didn’t. I was and am proud to say I did not pray to any unseen god nor did I beg for divine intervention. I suffered the pain without any compromise.

As you may know, I have 2 very religious daughters, one quasi-religious daughter and a tolerant son. I am also proud that they did not try to convert me in my distress. I’m sure they prayed and asked for divine intervention but they did it in private, away from my bedside.

I thank them for that and I’m glad for me; glad that I did not reach for a crutch in my misery, glad that I faced real diversity and maintained my absolute doubt in a supernatural being.

Just thought you’d like to know.