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While science and sp. evolution may have its roots in Darwin, the knowledge has "evolved" since then. If Darwin had access to info like we do today, I am sure he may have adjusted some of his theories or gone as far to test them further.
Philosophy esp. related to comparative views, still tries to wiggle away from the ToE as a philosophical POV. While the ToE is based on and has more empirical evidence than an invisible god, one is still expected to take some philosopher's POV as gospel, while the scientific method continuously tests and retests the evidence and adjusts hypothesis to suit.
I do hope that you would, in the future, actually study philosophy. Overwhelming majority of philosophers did not expect a cult like following and some philosophies, like Existentialism, teach that one should question everything, including Existentialism.
Personally, the hard sciences have always bored the living daylights out of me, which is why I was a psychology major...there actually are Existentialist psychologists, but I have yet to hear of an Existentialists botanists...
universalism is silly, you silly goose , of course all religions cant be true because they contradict each other.not that i am slanndering your faith for fear of offending his holy appendage.pastafarianism teaches nothing but love and tollerance you people should actually study in detail the origins and the messages of this great faith instead of displaying your ignorance through your meaningless rabble. as a great pirate once said "A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult'' truely magnificant words.PIRATE DEPOPULATION IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
If that's what they choose to believe in, I have no problems with it. I have no problems with others believing in the Divine Whale either...if that's what they choose to do.
Who am I to belittle what someone else believes? As long as they're tolerant of the fact that not everyone believes as they do, and don't try to tell other people that they are WRONG to believe as they do, it's fine.
If they say, "you COULD be wrong," then that's acceptable too. As long as they don't try to state it as a 100% certain fact that another person is wrong.
IMO, every religion is equally valid. And all are equally wrong, as well. However, I doubt that religion or faith will ever go away, as faith, belief - and irrational thinking - are part of human nature. Few people actually overcome this basic tendency (or want to) and examine beliefs logically and rationally.
Over and over again, I hear so many critics of religion bring up this childish straw man argument. It kind of goes like this: belief in God is no better then belief in a "flying Spaghetti Monster", in that it is fantastic, make-believe etc etc etc (insert other Emo kid comments here)
Well, this is clearly an absolute straw man argument. God is not proven or disproven to a bulk of believers by God-over-there (which is what so many people attack) but by the conviction and personal experience people have with God-over-here, i.e., in the individual believer. Hence, it is not about evidence for God (Empiricism, one philosophical school of though among many) but about what an individual experiences from God (Existentialism) that really matter to most believers.
So, the Spaghetti monster is a straw man for this one statement that sends majority of it's proponents packing: Show me ten people who truly feel the same conviction and personal attachment with the flying Spaghetti monster as a believer feels towards divinity, and I will accept the Flying Spaghetti monster as a true religion.
When we stop asking for evidence (Empiricism) and start asking to see someone who has followed this "gospel" and this "Mythic figure" to personal realization (Existentialism) then, suddenly, this childish argument falls apart. A faith is not proven by any empirical evidence but rather on a personal, individual level, on a case by case basis. Hence, if someone were to come forward and show how, over the course of years, belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster enriched there life, then I would accept the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a valid religion.
Straw man knocked down...
Ohh, and another one of this ridiculous arguments that the opponents of religion use is the "what about Zeus"? one, which is such a shaky Straw Man that it doesn't even deserve it's own thread. They say "people don't worship Zeus any more, and is Zeus just as good as your God?"
The answers:
1) Actually, there are people who still worship Zeus:
2) I believe, indeed, that all religions are equally valid. So, belief in Zeus is indeed just as valid as belief in any God.
ADDED TO PREVENT IDIOTS FROM GOING OFF TOPIC: By "GOD" I do not mean a "fundamentalist Moderator cut: insult but just God. Every time I use the term "God", some Emo kid with an eighth grade education who can neither spell nor has ever studied Comparative Religion will say "God means only the Christian God and no one else would ever say G-o-d". I am speaking in terms of belief in divinity, PERIOD. If you have a problem with me using the term "God" to mean any belief in divinity, then please, also write to these non-Christians who use the same term:
So please, do not blame me for your own ignorance.
<shrug>
Then Zeus, leprechauns, or the Quetzalcoatl will do fine as comparatives, though without the tongue-in-cheek satire of the FSM (which clearly went whooooooosh, completely over your head). There are undoubtedly far more than ten people (your low standard, mind you - though I expect an imminent moving of the goalposts) that deeply and with conviction believe in each of those three things I listed.
But, yes - we all know that with your deity it's just different (never mind how, it just is!)...
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