Juliet,
I really like you. When I was 15 I only wish I had the Internet to give voice to the stupidity I saw in the adult world. The best I could muster was writing a sassy column in the school newspaper. You are going far, believe me.
You have probably heard the word "epistemology." It refers to how we (think we) know things. I invite you to question why you believe the things you do about the origins of life. You may be surprised to find that when you hear the same thing from several sources (some say as few as three!) you tend to believe it as unshakable truth, unless you have some kind of conscious filter going on.
All of the supposed "disproofs" you have heard about evolution, the origin
of species, the unlikeliness of speciation, cell formation, and so on, are
false. Most of them are carefully debunked in Richard Dawkins's book "The
Blind Watchmaker"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393315703/memecentral
It is not necessary to know science in order to lead a happy and productive life. Some people simply like knowledge for its own sake. Many of those people populate this Church. (Yes, it is a Church. See http://www.lucifer.com/virus for the background of this Church.) You are currently harboring a belief set that doesn't match history very well, but history is even less necessary than science to lead a happy and productive life.
So the only problem here is one of appropriateness and boredom. Since the mission of this Church is enlightenment, it does seem appropriate to engage you and your cohorts if there is even a small chance that we can make a difference that will help you make progress on your path. But after a while, although a crying baby needs to be fed, having one at the next table in a nice restaurant becomes tedious.
I encourage you to engage the group here with questions that really mean something to you and to avoid a "debate"-style rhetorical bombardment. I can promise you that the former will be a much higher payoff activity for all of us.
All the best memes,
Richard
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
Free newsletter! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com]On Behalf
Of Snow Leopard
Sent: Friday, May 7, 1999 11:42 AM
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: Re: virus: Re: META: topical rules
>There is a difference between an open mind and a wise one. Anything
>goes doesn't wash.
>Most of us have arrived at atheism through science, reason, and the
>processes of elimination.
>
>When Christians use the same arguments we may have thought through a
>billion times we are not being intolerant to reject it out of hand, we
>are wisely standing against what we consider superstition and ancient
>anachronisms. We may have been there too, at one time.
>
>Evolutionary Biology and Cosmology have lots of information that
>Christians ignore. Why not teach these if we can.
You're right, and I was very much incorrect when I said "evolution" I meant as an explaination of the origin of life. Need I remind anyone that we've disproved spontanious generation for hundreds of years? The first "Simple" cell and its formation were the odds I was referencing.