I work with some one who believes in “the flood”

Laughing said:
Roofie I am not sure God and religion is the same thing. Let's assume there is a creator for a minute. He may have created the universe, gave it a set of rules, let's call them the laws of physics. Then he had a well earned rest. None of this requires religion. He doesn't even have to be omnipotent, just smarter than your average bear.

The Bible and organised religion seem a bit scammy to me to be honest so I get where you are coming from.

I am an atheist and an comfortable being so, but each to their own.
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I couldnt care less.
God is a woman (!) - my mate married her as he always refers to her as "she who must be obeyed".(y)
 
BoroMart said:
you could argue but you'd be wrong about the key elements of it
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Seems we’d probably disagree about quite a lot. Bit i wouldn’t tell people theyre wrong id rather listen to what theyve got to say. I’ll leave the bombastic stuff to you fella
 
Ted_DN38416 said:
Seems we’d probably disagree about quite a lot. Bit i wouldn’t tell people theyre wrong id rather listen to what theyve got to say. I’ll leave the bombastic stuff to you fella
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That's fine you take the high ground and I'll take the right path 😛
 
BoroMart said:
we have an active planetary surface, some mountains were once sea beds. it's how tectonics works
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Agreed, but if those sea beds are suddenly thrust upwards, perhaps through earthquakes, could they also cause floods through tsunami?
 
Laughing said:
Roofie I am not sure God and religion is the same thing. Let's assume there is a creator for a minute. He may have created the universe, gave it a set of rules, let's call them the laws of physics. Then he had a well earned rest. None of this requires religion. He doesn't even have to be omnipotent, just smarter than your average bear.

The Bible and organised religion seem a bit scammy to me to be honest so I get where you are coming from.

I am an atheist and an comfortable being so, but each to their own.
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That's about the nearest I get to a god. But...............................
I know now, through science that we can trace our beginings to the Big Bang. But what was there before it? And how did it get there? And if it by was some omnipotent being, how did that get there? .............. and so on................
 
Trug said:
That's about the nearest I get to a god. But...............................
I know now, through science that we can trace our beginings to the Big Bang. But what was there before it? And how did it get there? And if it by was some omnipotent being, how did that get there? .............. and so on................
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This links to one of my favourite responses on the subject. Prof. Brian Cox, when asked what he has in common with Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury (a personal friend), replied "There is very little to separate us. We both believe in the big bang, the only difference is what we think happened in the split second beforehand. Why fall out over such a small thing?"

Very civilised, I thought.
 
How far back does human History go? The oldest, physical, written language was 3400 BC. That is less than 5500 years ago. Compared to the life of the planet that is tiny. We could have gone through the cycle of primitive life, cave men, middle ages, industrial revolution, nuclear war, Armageddon, over and over again. The oil that is miles below the ground is created from the remains of dead organisms. How did they get there? Maybe the Earth is a recurring life cycle? Nature eventually ending up as humans who eventually destroy all living creatures. The planet lies dormant for a while then life begins again?
 
My opinion on a lot of religion is that they are just stories attempting to make sense of an uncertain world or as lessons on how to behave.
Thanks to science, we can discuss extinction events and the like with a far more robust frame of reference than they could 2000 years ago. Imagine if there had been stories passed down about creatures that roamed the earth that no longer existed. In biblical times it would make sense to try and explain their absence by something like the Noah story.
Our understanding of the world might be ridiculed in the not too distant future.
 
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sambaDTR said:
How far back does human History go? The oldest, physical, written language was 3400 BC. That is less than 5500 years ago. Compared to the life of the planet that is tiny. We could have gone through the cycle of primitive life, cave men, middle ages, industrial revolution, nuclear war, Armageddon, over and over again. The oil that is miles below the ground is created from the remains of dead organisms. How did they get there? Maybe the Earth is a recurring life cycle? Nature eventually ending up as humans who eventually destroy all living creatures. The planet lies dormant for a while then life begins again?
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I'll give the example I used to use when talking to my kids. The numbers are approximate before I get nit-picked, I know that.

Imagine the earth's existence was shrunk into a year - 4,800,000,000 years / 12 - 400 million years per month.

The Cambrian period started at the beginning of the last week in November. The dinosaurs started towards the middle of December and became extinct on Boxing Day afternoon. The first human-like apes appeared about 3pm. Our species appeared around 11:15pm. Jesus was born (or wasn't, you choose) about 13 seconds ago. A human lifetime is around 2/5 of a second. A single generation is literally the blink of an eye.

Sparked an interest, all 3 of them went on to do Geology at University.

Oh - and it's about 3 years since the Big Bang. Approx.
 
The oldest constructed artefact (a stone wall at the front of a Greek cave) has been dated to about 23,000 years ago. It is postulated that it was built by hominids to keep out cold winds. Then we have the DNA records that prove we shagged Neanderthals (or they us) and also various other hominids have left traces in our DNA.

The Cambrian period is fascinating, it marks the period at which life "exploded" on earth with almost all the major flora and fauna groups appearing within a (relatively) short period of geological time. There was life on earth before the Cambrian period but from the fossil record it was of limited variety and sparse. No one really knows why there was a sudden acceleration in the development of complex organisms at this time. May be "God did it"?

A thought I find amusing if faced with a Creationist is to ask why God loves beetles so much? He must do he "created" over 300,000 identifiable species but left only a single hominid. Someone asked on a thread how racists would deal with contact with an advanced alien civilisation? Simple, they'd become Speciesist. (It is a thing apparently)
 
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