Texas Textbook Publishers Say No To Creationism

[Coloradomtnman]

atheism is for people who cannot grasp much exists beyond the verification of empirical data. in that sense, atheists are co-religionists to creationists: both depend of unverified faith.

Atheism is simply not convinced that there is a god or gods. It is not a foundation from which one's beliefs come, but an ongoing process of learning for which evidence either supports or is not directly applicable to the process. Faith is not applicable.

Creationism is a conclusion based on faith for which evidence is not applicable.

Faith is absolutely comparable for atheists and creationists, because their beliefs cannot be empirically verified or denied.

That is a misunderstanding. For some atheists who are dogmatic it may be true; however, atheism isn't the denial of a god or gods, its not being convinced through evidence that there is one. Its like this: I don't believe in the tooth fairy because evidence doesn't support that a tooth fairy exists. Were there to be evidence for the existence of the tooth fairy and it was veifiable, observable, and repeatable then I would be convinced and would therefore have confidence that the tooth fairy exists. Until such time, if there were, that new evidence contradicted the tooth fairy exists and then I would change my mind again were I convinced by that new evidence.

 

[Steven_R]

I'm a physics student. I have no data concerning the supernatural either way. Therefore I can't use the supernatural in anything I do. Maybe there's a God (or gods, or the Force, or what have you), maybe there isn't, but because I have no data about any other plane of existence, I simply don't take it into account.

My job isn't to prove or disprove God, it is simply to explain how the natural world functions. Until such time as I can observe, measure, quantify, hypothesize, and build a falsifiable test around it, the supernatural just isn't a going concern of mine.

 

[Unkotare]

atheism isn't the denial of a god or gods, its not being convinced through evidence that there is one. .

Or maybe it's the inability or unwillingness to recognize the evidence all around you.

"The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

[Coloradomtnman]

atheism isn't the denial of a god or gods, its not being convinced through evidence that there is one. .

Or maybe it's the inability or unwillingness to recognize the evidence all around you.

"The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Excellent. I concede to thee.

Perhaps you are right. I wouldn't categorize it as an unwillingness, nor an inability, but maybe its not a talent to see the evidence of something deeper or higher or bigger than the material. I would like to think of myself as a spiritual person, not in the supernatural sense of the word but in a new sense: the human spirit. I feel awed by the mountains, by the expanse of stars above at night, at the beauty of music, and the connectedness of everything in the universe. But I also feel doubt - not just about the mundane such as myself but in all things. To me belief in something imperceptible through the scientific method is simply wishful thinking. It doesn't mean it isn't real but I am not convinced and there is always room for doubt.

So taking a leap of faith seems delusional. Maybe I'm wrong. But to make that leap of faith, I must at least have some sense in which direction to jump.

 

[Coloradomtnman]

Evolution is about the origin of species, not about life, not about God.

You're right that it isn't about God, but you are wrong in thinking it is not about life. All knowledge is about life, the dead only know that it is better to be alive.

 

[froggy]

Evolution is about the origin of species, not about life, not about God.

You're right that it isn't about God, but you are wrong in thinking it is not about life. All knowledge is about life, the dead only know that it is better to be alive.

only those that died without God as their saviour know that Coloradomtnman.