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Deniars of Evolution:

Bunyip

pro scapegoat
Right. Whats not hard to believe is humans are a corrupt species, even compared to others, in need of salvation.

I don't get that - we are not corrupt at all. Sure humans are imperfect, but that is not corruption, or evil. We don't need salvation, we just need to learn more.
 

outhouse

Atheistically
People actually think that humanity's original disobedience was eating a magical piece of fruit by the suggestion of a taking snake. I just can't fathom how anyone can take the story literally with a straight face.

Check out the genesis 2 thread running in scripture section.

We gots us one of them in thar thread :D
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
I don't get that - we are not corrupt at all. Sure humans are imperfect, but that is not corruption, or evil. We don't need salvation, we just need to learn more.

I dont believe it myself, it is very similar to an original sin idea but not necessarily. You said it yourself, imperfect but dont forget that humans are capable of evil. What I believe is we do need saving from the pains of the world but from a Buddhist type perspective. We need saving but we need to do it ourselves, no invisible entities are gonna come save us. If there is a way to overcome suffering we need to do it. Christians simply choose to continue waiting for this "savior" to come finish the job, another 1000 years idk.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Kind'a.

Religion is a form of tribalism. Ideology, politics, sports, can all cause tribalism, but religion is most definitely one of them.
I think you are putting the cart before the horse. Sports does not "cause" tribalism. Sports appeals to tribalism. There's a big difference. We all as humans go through stages of development, of which tribalism is an early, and necessary phase. But we also grow beyond it as we grow into higher and more inclusive forms of socialization. But with any earlier stage of development, they are always a part of us, even though we have negated them as the dominant controlling factor in our lives.

So systems like competition sports appeal to that "tribal warrior" in people. It's an outlet to let that savage man beat his chest and scream for blood in a sanctioned institution where that behavior is acceptable, whereas it is not in a more civilized society, one which strive to live and function beyond it tribalistic roots.

Now to religion. As I said at the outset, people operating at the tribalistic stage, the warrior, will interpret and live out religion at the tribalistic stages, whereas as people at the traditional will not live it out that way, let alone those at the modern, postmodern, or post-postmodern stages. It's still religion all the way up, but each stage of development translates and integrates it according to the level they are at. If religion "causes" tribalism, then everyone participating within it would be agreeing with the terrorists. But they do not, and in fact wholly reject their interpretation of religion as foreign to them.

But sports on the other hand... ;) Actually though, you do have more sophisticated forms of competition sports which are far less the symbolic blood-letting forms such as American football.

I can agree, however, that it's not just religion, but tribalism of any form can cause violence.
Tribalism is any arena is inherently violent towards anything outside its own sanctioned group.

Religion, as such, distilled away from the equation of humans, it's not. Religion in the hands of humans is a dangerous tool though. Religion is a two edged sword. It can be used for good, and it can be used for evil.
That's what my point is. Getting rid of religion will do nothing to stop the root cause of the violence. Tribalism did not create religion. Tribalism interprets religion. Take away the religion, tribalism finds something else to rally their power structures around.
 
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Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
There are a lot of dead people in the Middle East because of religion. There is incredible scientific evidence in the United States because the religious majority resists it. There are school systems teaching "abstinence only" sex ed because of the religious majority, even though the statistics clearly show that this approach causes greater incidents of teen aged pregnancy and STD's. We both know I could go on.

You could, and each time I could point out how each one is not caused by religion, as if its absence altogether would make things better.

All those dead people? Centuries of geo-political conflict. The problems with school systems teaching abstinence only sex-ed? Puritanical values influencing those in power, either by being puritanical themselves, or appealing to puritanical "customers". Keep in mind: puritanical values can exist without religion.

Besides, the US education system in general is, frankly, criminally irresponsible in terms of what and how it teaches, not for religious reasons, but because it's under the false impression that knowledge of facts is the measure of intelligence and capability, in addition to making sure children grow up to be US patriots by teaching false history that glorifies the US over all else.

For the sake of civility and peace, the line has to be drawn somewhere, and neither side should cross it -- theists and atheists alike.

Tell me what that line is, and I'll tell you how I could use it as a weapon of war.
 

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
Tribalism is any arena is inherently violent towards anything outside its own sanctioned group.

It can be, and far too often does. But it won't necessarily.

It's tribalism that causes social circles, sub-cultures, and cliques to form; they can coexist nonviolently, and do.

Humans are inherently a tribal species; that part of our psychology is never going away. But it can be tempered and worked with, so that the tribal boundaries are not set in stone, but dynamic. It should not be based on political boundaries, geographical locations, or shared ancestral history, except in the cases of surviving hunter-gatherer groups. In addition, a specific concept should be quite clear: no tribe is inherently better than another, and the sins of the father die with the father.

My ancestral Enemy is Caesar and his legions, who nigh destroyed my peoples. But they're all dead, now. Modern Italians and people who live in Rome the city are not my Enemies. And neither are the Roman people who lived under Caesar. I will not be teaching my children this concept of ancestral enemies, to avoid any chance of them developing hatred for anyone alive today. 'Tis a fine and fragile line that must be carefully tread; already too many Pagans are anti-Christian from misunderstood history. Caesar may be my Enemy, but he's an Enemy I respect.
 
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idav

Being
Premium Member
That entails that God created us corrupt directly.

Corruption would have come as a matter of course due to evolution. Once we became intelligent enough to understand the ramifications, suffering also became more prevalent also because of memory and intelligence, just with our ability to recall and analyze what has happened and what ought have happened.
 

outhouse

Atheistically
People will evolved to cope with overpopulation, and those that cannot tolerate peace, will be soon gone.

is my opinion.

Violence one way, or another cannot continue, logically.
 

Man of Faith

Well-Known Member
A have a couple brothers who are theists. In the past, they have baited and engaged me in Evolution v. Creation debates. They have finally given up. With one of my brothers, I provided evidence so compelling that the next time we had contact, he seemed upset.

I advised him: "You are a Christian. Your faith is supposed to be based on the forgiveness of sins by the sacrifice of Christ. If you are basing your entire spiritual faith on Genesis, then you are placing your faith in the wrong place; don't you think?"

Why do you work so hard at attacking this science?

Because the science is wrong. It starts out right, change happens, from there it attaches philosophical and imaginative wings and takes flight into a fairy tale of something that can’t even be supported by all scientists.
 

Bunyip

pro scapegoat
Because the science is wrong. It starts out right, change happens, from there it attaches philosophical and imaginative wings and takes flight into a fairy tale of something that can’t even be supported by all scientists.

Example please?
 

Bunyip

pro scapegoat
The tree of life model shows dogs coming from non-dogs.

Sure, dogs share a common ancestry with all mammals - what is your issue with that?

Convicted fraudster Kent Hovind, a man who spent his career co plaining about his tax dollars being spent on evolution - and was caught not paying taxes invented that silliness about how nobody has seen a dog give birth to a non-dog. Of course that is not something that evolution would predict anyway.
 
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Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
The tree of life model shows dogs coming from non-dogs.
What really blows the mind is how males are born to females!

Seriously though, can you show the scientific model that shows dogs coming from chickens? I bet you can't do it. If you can, I'll convert to your beliefs.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
This is what I have a problem with, evolution being whatever anyone wants it to be in order to win an argument.
Is it not whatever someone wants it to be. It's pretty specific. Not any nonsense can just be taught. If it's whatever they want it to be, then science would be embracing Creationism.
 

Bunyip

pro scapegoat
This is what I have a problem with, evolution being whatever anyone wants it to be in order to win an argument.

No dog ever gave birth to a non-dog. No non-dog ever gave birth to a dog.

Because evolution does not happen to individuals, it happens to species. Each generation being just a tiny bit different to the last - so at no point does one critter need to give birth to a critter of a different species.
 
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