kaiju_wars wrote:I don't see why you can't respect my beliefs, I mean it's really not that hard.
But science in itself, can be evil, so can Christianity.
Science can't be evil, it is merely a systematic manner of thought. You can use it for evil purposes, but the system itself is obviously a moral neutral. Also, the difference between respecting your beliefs and respecting Jomei's beliefs comes down to rationality. Believing in something because other people wrote it down a long time ago is not the same as believing something because it has been tested to the best of our abilities.
The scientific model of creation is a theory based upon logical principles, the basis of which can be thoroughly explained to anyone who cares to learn them. Religion is based on faith alone, and cannot be explained in terms which can be understood without sharing that faith. You say your beliefs are based upon the Bible, which is a book written by people who (ostensibly) had faith that they were accurately transcribing the word of God. Of course, if you're basing your beliefs on that book, then your faith is in the human authors and not God, but I digress. Faith can be a wonderful thing when it fills in the blanks in our knowledge, or gives meaning to our lives. However, when you choose to accept as literal truth certain tenants of faith that directly conflict with rational theory, it is hard to respect that.
Saying that the earth was created in six days is as scientifically unsound as if you looked at a fully grown man and insisted that he was born this morning. I don't need to look at his birth certificate in order to take the evidence into account and logically conclude that he is much older. If you tell me that you have faith in your belief regardless of the biological evidence, why should I respect that? You might say that determining a human being's age is much simpler than determining the age of the Earth, but that's not really true. To anyone that understands geology, the issue is nearly as obvious. In both situations, my conclusions are upheld by objective observations, yours are not.
Now, all that being said, I do think that everyone must respect your
right to believe what you do. I can respect your choice without respecting the ideas you embrace. Respecting your faith does not mean that others must pander to it, but it does mean that you should not be forced to renounce them. Believe what you want, but don't be surprised when people challenge you to provide more than faith as evidence to support your assertions.
EDIT: Darn it, I'm just repeating myself now...here, let me repeat my last attempt at explaining this in the clearest possible terms:Spirituality is VHS, and Science is BetaMax. People base their lives around whichever fits their heart best, but they can't pull a cassette out of one, and expect it to play in the other. Let Bob watch his videos in peace. Don't tell him he's evil for picking his standard. Don't throttle him because your tapes won't play for him. Most importantly, don't burn his tapes and smash his player because they aren't compatible with the equipment that you inherited from your Grandma. Just smile at Bob, and be on your way, secure in the knowledge that what you have chosen works for you. That's called being a civilized human being, and whether you've built your life on a foundation of science or reason, being civilized is something that we can all do together.
