To: <darwin@atheists.net>
Subject: 'feedback'
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 18:44:10 -0700

Hello.  I find it rather interesting that you all hate Christians so much.
Are you proposing something better than what Christianity offers?  I don't
think so.  I haven't taken the time to read your entire site, but everything
I have seen so far has misrepresented the Bible, and consequently God
himself.  You mentioned that you think it is ridiculous that people believe
every word of the bible to be true.  Well, I ask you, would you believe
something that is not true?  Or is it just that you cannot comprehend the
entire thing being accurate and true, in all things??
I read a book a while ago written by someone who set out to disprove the
bible, based on something that he could prove.  In Genesis 10 is found the
table of nations.  This is the bible's account of where different races,
people groups etc came from.  This man decided that if he could prove, with
acceptable external evidence that even one of these claims was wrong, that
the bible would be flawed, and not worth believing.  I forget exactly how
many years he spent on this, but it was close to twenty, and he traced these
names into the people groups and nations they are today, and was able to
prove 99.5% of them accurate.  The remaining .5% there was no surviving data
on, and remains unproven.  From here he went on to other parts of the bible
that can be historically proven, and didn't find one single thing he could
prove wrong.  And you say this book was written by a bunch of idiots?  How
can you say that without ever having met them?  Christians believe that the
bible is the inspired word of God.  This means that although it has been
written down by men, God inspired each and every word that was written, and
so it is infallible.  So my point is that the information and the proof, if
you need it, are available if you are willing to look for it.

About creationism, firstly, evolution is not a science, it is a belief, and
in many ways requires more faith than Christianity does.  Creationism is
also a belief, but, interestingly enough there is much more scientific (by
this I mean proven by scientific means) evidence supporting it that there is
for evolution.  Much of the "evidence" you find for evolution has, on deeper
investigation, turned out to be made up.  Take for example the skeleton
pieced together to form the "missing link."  Turns out the parts came from
different places of the world!!  hmm.  sounds fishy to me.  There is much
geological evidence pointing towards a massive flood, all over the world.  I
dunno, call me crazy, but it seems to me that if all this evidence exists to
prove the bible's validity, shouldn't we take into account what it has to
say about other matters as well?

You also mentioned that there are so many versions of the bible, so how can
we believe it??  Well, the majority of these different versions you are
referring to is undoubtedly taken up by the myriad of languages other than
english that the bible has been translated into.  It is true there are
several English versions of the bible, but I think you will find if you
compare them that they are all very similar, and mostly just differ in
wording of phrases or ideas.  Another interesting thing: if God doesn't
exist, and the bible was written by a bunch of guys who got together over a
beer, how come it is the single top selling book in the history of the
world, and has more published copies than any other piece of literature?
Would people be spreading it around if it didn't do something for them?
People come up with new religions all the time.  How come these don't "take
off" like Christianity has?  Could it be that Christianity can actually
change people's lives and give them hope?  I would say yes.

One last comment:  You say God doesn't exist; you can't see God himself or
evidence of him.  Well, if God were limited to being something we could see,
he wouldn't really be all that great would he?  He is far bigger than you or
I can ever comprehend, and doesn't have to limit himself to being visible.
Personally, I am far happier to know that he is not living on a mountaintop
somewhere, but instead inhabits the universe.  As for evidence, the
complexity of life, and the beauty of creation seems to imply that something
created all this.  If you actually think about it, what are the chances of a
747 evolving out of your local garbage dump?  or even your shoes tying
themselves.  You may have heard these analogies before, but compare this to
humans, not to mention everything else, evolving from a little speck of
stuff.  Stop, and really really think about that for a minute.

You know that when you say God, or even any sort of deity doesn't exist, you
are basically saying that 99.9% of humanity that has lived so far is wrong,
because 99.9% of people who have lived have believed in at least some sort
of god, if not in the God of the Bible.  Basically, you know better than the
entire rest of the world, everyone else has been deluded all along, and a
good thing you came along to tell them about it.  Does this seem a little
shortsighted or ego-centered to you?  Do you believe in any sort of spirit
world?  I challenge you to do a bit of research on that.. there is plenty of
evidence of spirits, good and evil in this world, that might blow your mind
a bit.

Have a nice day.

J*

ps, if you have questions or comments about what I wrote, please email
back...