Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire So, which of the 6 theories of Evolution do you unbelievers believe in?

People are sure jumping ship and swimming away from religion at an attention getting rate nowadays. Christianity especially. But I don’t think it’s because atheism is so appealing. I think it’s more likely because religion has lost its appeal. People once thought religion offered solutions. Nowadays, it appears that many people see it as a problem. I can’t blame em’ for it. There’s sure a lotta hate spewed at em’ in the name of God. It clearly is unattractive to those who are on the receiving end of it. Grace is supposed to be a hallmark of the Christian faith...but it seems to very often be sorely lacking by many who profess to be Christians. The faith of Christianity is certainly more appealing when the message of grace is most apparent.

What’s this got to do with evolution...?
Not a flippin’ thing...!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The moral code of Babylon differed to Sumer which differed to Judaism which was not the same as Greco Roman morality, which was not the same as ours. Similar principles, but not the same. Similarity does not make an absolute.

Similarity comes from existential conditions, death, property, family, friends, nation, state, tribe....

Religion, especially the hope of a paradise waiting after death was a powerful thing to a slave population.

Until very recent times, even those people not in chains were enslaved by their environment. They spent most every waking moment tending their flocks, gathering herbs and roots, or hunting meat. As soon as they could walk at their Mother's side, they began helping in the gathering of food. Or the little ones took their dogs and tended flocks and chased away predators.

Religion and the thought of Heaven gave them hope of some reward after their unending suffering with labor, hunger, pestilence and early death.

Today, in developed nations, there is much less need for such. It is a natural progression, just as is the move toward smaller families.

.
Those ancient Romans did not seem to be so friendly to the Judeo/Christian traditions when people started abandoning the old Roman Temples en masse and flocking to a new tradition.

I have a hard time believing that...

Each believed their God was the true God and from that belief they derived what they also believed was a non-relative standard of right and wrong by which they regulated their behavior. Exemplary are the immortal words of Lord McCauley "Then out spoke brave Horatius, the captain of the gate. To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods." The salient point is that true religion and morality (not the spurious kind that characterizes so much of Christianity today [Exhibit A being our own Mr. Texas Jaguar]) tends to result in beings who regulate their own behavior without need of external regulation from the state. They don't tend to steal (for example) not merely because they might get caught, but because it is wrong. A society of those kinds of people requires a far less intrusive government than their opposite. The Founders were explicit about this.

The benefits to not killing wontonly are that you yourself and your family are safer if your society adopts this standard. The same for stealing, social manners, etc, everyone benefits. We don't need religion to tell us that.

Secular societies now are doing better than theocracies ever did.

And yet, as we me make our transition from one nation under God to that of leftist secular enlightenment, the corruption, violence, general disrespect of fellow citizens and destruction of our society escalates.

Hitler was a Catholic. Ivan the terrible spent his mornings in the Chapel and his afternoons dismembering and flaying victims in his dungeon.

DBT, I can't help notice: you're very quick to attack anything theistic, but I've not once heard you speak out against the virulent racism that is so prevalent on this board. Not once. What's the problem, no testicles or are you in sympatico with the racists here?

Neither the title of “Catholic”, the attendance of chapel, or the broad stroke term “religion” is what Christianity is about. I understand the point you’re attempting to make, but it just muddies the waters. They are irrelevant with our country’s shift to secularism and the fact that the timeframe in which it becomes more pronounced is the same exact timeframe we increasingly become what is often described as a Godless society. The characteristics I described in my last post could be sheer coincidence and I can’t provide the missing link, but, apparently, missing links are of little value to the highly educated. If we can “just believe” one exists between ape and man, can we just believe one exists between Godlessness and a deteriorating society.....or is a PhD required to qualify our leaps of faith?

Religion is defined by belief. If someone believes in the existence of a God or gods, they are by definition a theist. That someone believes in a different version of God does not make them any less a theist.

DBT, I can't help notice: you're very quick to attack anything theistic, but I've not once heard you speak out against the virulent racism that is so prevalent on this board. Not once. What's the problem, no testicles or are you in sympatico with the racists here?

And yet, as we me make our transition from one nation under God to that of leftist secular enlightenment, the corruption, violence, general disrespect of fellow citizens and destruction of our society escalates.

[quote=Tarquin]DBT, I can't help notice: you're very quick to attack anything theistic, but I've not once heard you speak out against the virulent racism that is so prevalent on this board. Not once. What's the problem, no testicles or are you in sympatico with the racists here?

Atheism is about control and power. Don't believe it? Look at Dem party. The truth is that a nation of believers requires far less government than a nation of unbelievers who are unrestrained by any moral code. This point was made repeatedly by the Founders.

Spot on, Ray.

Although America began as a Christian nation, we are seeing unparalleled apostasy (falling away of the Truth) and spiritual delusion in the world. 2 Thess 2:3

There is growing deception and the world is in rebellion to God. We are seeing literal moral degeneration of man.
2 Tim 3:1-15

All this, just as the Bible said, imagine that. And yes, the scoffers and mockers will be along shortly, just as the Bible said, to mock and scoff.

Scoffers and mockers will continue to reject the Word of God and the WARNINGS that are coming on the judgment of the world. 2 Peter 3:3-8

You're missing the point: each of those societies/cultures/countries appealed to a diety or dieties and held a belief in an absolute moral code.

I have a hard time believing that. The priests of Zeuss never had a conflict with those of Apollo, or Mars, or Diana, or Athena etc, etc, over the best temple site or competed for accolytes????

Even the remaining mythology is full of competitions and outright battles between the gods of Greece/Rome.

We are well aware of battles fought and human sacrifice made to the gods of the S American indigenous peoples.

Polynesian cultures were also big on human sacrifice and yes, even cannibalism.

Those ancient Romans did not seem to be so friendly to the Judeo/Christian traditions when people started abandoning the old Roman Temples en masse and flocking to a new tradition. Hungry priests get vengeful and call upon all the power of civil authority.

Even the Crusades had little to do with religious conversions and much more to do with wealth, trade routes, and protection thereof. The wholesale slaughter of the peoples of South and Central America, and the catholicization of the remainder was much more to ensure a steady supply of labor for the Spanish Crown and income to The Church, than it was about the saving of souls.

Each believed their God was the true God and from that belief they derived what they also believed was a non-relative standard of right and wrong by which they regulated their behavior. Exemplary are the immortal words of Lord McCauley "Then out spoke brave Horatius, the captain of the gate. To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods." The salient point is that true religion and morality (not the spurious kind that characterizes so much of Christianity today [Exhibit A being our own Mr. Texas Jaguar]) tends to result in beings who regulate their own behavior without need of external regulation from the state. They don't tend to steal (for example) not merely because they might get caught, but because it is wrong. A society of those kinds of people requires a far less intrusive government than their opposite. The Founders were explicit about this.