JV – I didn’t say anything at all about living one’s life as though there is no judgment (although I remain skeptical about after-death judgment).
Well maybe you should be thinking about it just the same.
I also didn’t say anything about each person seeking pleasure and comfort and lusts with impunity. You’re projecting and your implications are insulting – one doesn’t have to believe in a god to have a sense of morality and the basic idea of “do unto others….”
Well I am old enough to have experienced a large enough sample size, personally. In my experience, people who have no interest in God are not inclined to be more kind or charitable or well-behaved. Quite the opposite. When you have no accountability, you are more likely to do things that benefit you, no matter how selfish. And if I can take that a bit further, I am not impressed with the generosity of an “unchurched” man with his family and friends. You know what Jesus says about that kind of generosity? ---- (paraphrase) “Big deal. Even the worst of sinners all do that much to those closest to themselves.”
Man is most certainly an animal, with the same sense of self preservation and drive to procreate that all other animals on earth have. Men have an penis and testes like all other mammals. Women bear live young and nurse them from their bodies. There are animals that have fairly complex communication systems, that clearly grieve, that pair-bond for life, that care tenderly for their young. If animals have evolved have these abilities and emotions, why wouldn’t we have evolved to have them too? I think hubris resides in putting ourselves above all other creatures on earth.
Ho, hum. You know what I believe? If man is so filled with pride and so adamant about doing things his own way, God will give them enough rope to hang themselves with. So if there are fools clever enough to convince man that we could have gotten here without God, we could have evolved from inorganic matter all without God, then man is eager to here that message so he does not have to follow any rules and he can be his lazy, lustful self.
Yes, BobbyT, I know it sounds cruel on my behalf, but you are a mature, intelligent sort, and so is the audience here. If there are so easily scarred by accusatory words, then maybe the shoe fits? If not, then no harm, no foul. My point is this; I am tired of arguments that lack reason or common sense. For these people around here to still insist there is “no proof for God,” well, tell me, how much patience should one retain? You want to talk insulting, that is insulting!
As to your claim that man is an animal, yes, perhaps, but you are missing the greater reality, IMO. You have allowed science and educators convince you that the difference between man and ape is a few generations of evolution. How insane. Man is light years beyond any chimp or dolphin or whale in intelligence, in emotional capacities, in rational thought and so on. Man is rational, no other animal is. Man is created in the image of God, God said nothing about the other animals except that they are here to serve man, but we should also care for them. Like I said, God will give proud man enough rope to hang himself with if he chooses to ignore all of God’s signs and invocations. Hubris is not putting ourselves above the other creatures, hubris is ignoring God. And the more material and comfortable man has gotten, the more he has ignored his Creator.
