Yes, these topics can very easily ruffle feathers! I think it's going ok though.
Ha! Here I come with my "all too literal like Bones" moment stealer!
Did you know birds actually ruffle their feathers when they feel good? It's a way they express feeling happy
ANYWAY, I have no real input to this conversation other than what I previously stated. I believe that everything can be explained through natural processes, even the moment of the start of life itself. With billions of years behind us, evolution makes far more sense to me than the Young Earth theory. We obviously have fossils from creatures that lived here long before we did and died out before our time. There have been 5 major mass extinctions in earth's history, and we are in the middle of the 6th one, and there will surely be different life forms to take our place when we are gone. While I don't really believe in a god, I believe that human evolution took place much quicker than other animals, so something had to help us evolve so quickly around 3,000 years ago. I believe that we evolved naturally along with other hominids, of which there were 7 other species that we coexisted with. These other species disappeared for no apparent reason. Including neanderthal, which many people mistakenly believe that we evolved from. Everyone is searching for a missing link in our evolution, but I feel that there is none. We got to a certain point in our evolution in which an intelligent being, a god, or whatever you would like to label it, interfered with our genes to create
Homo sapien. I also find things within the Bible difficult to fathom, such as Noah's ark. It is impossible to hold two animals of every species within the dimensions given. Not to mention that this would show in the genetics of animals today, everything would be virtual clones of each other like seen in cheetahs. There are other explanations to the ark idea that I find more appealing, such as a genetic bank of every animal. Of course, this is not the only thing I have issue with that is found in the Bible. I get confused as to where all the other people came from, Adam and Eve's children get married, but where did those people come from? Now I am getting off track! Anyway, as I stated before in my other post, "It's like one minute we're all sitting around in caves munching on bananas and the next we're building pyramids." I have no problem with people believing in God, gods, nothing, or whatever they so choose. I only have problems when I get told I deserve to get raped because of wearing tight clothing, or my soul is going to burn because I do not believe what others do. I was told both of these by church members at CSU in Fort Collins when I went there. My grandmother also had a still born baby, and her mom told her that the baby would burn in Hell for not being baptized. If this is the God many of us are to believe in, I don't want him to be my God. My God (if there is one) is all loving, I don't believe that good people go to Hell while rapists, murderers, and other evil doers are accepted into Heaven simply by asking for forgiveness. That is not a God I want to believe in.
Hmm, I guess I did have more to say than I thought o.o
I by no means am trying to degrade anyone for their beliefs, I am very accepting of everyone, I just don't like others trying to press their beliefs onto me- and unfortunately I have been met with a lot of that. I had an ex that flipped out on me if I even mentioned the possibility of aliens, and he'd say that evolution was the stupidest f-ing thing he had ever heard of and anyone who believed otherwise was an idiot. Needless to say... he is no longer around. There is never any reason to put someone down because their beliefs do not match with your own.