jmcrae, you said “I think this is a good enough reason to stop beating my head against the wall trying to believe in evolution.”
One of the nice things about science is you don’t have to believe anything. Belief is not required because there’s this thing called scientific evidence.
When a creature gives birth to what is not of its own species, but a new, hitherto unknown species, of greater complexity and better adapted to the local environment than itself (and capable of reproducing its own kind when mated with the opposite sex, which presumably is being born in close proximity), then I will believe. Not before.
Evolution has tons of evidence. Extremely powerful evidence from analysis of DNA has made it impossible for an educated person to deny the basic facts of evolution.
You might be thinking of micro-evolution - small changes within the same species.
You also said “I talk to God every day, so I know He exists.”
Sorry, but I find your conversations with the Universe Boss to be a bit hard to believe. A one-way conversation is certainly possible. I hear this is called praying, also known as talking to yourself. When you imply God talks to you, an atheist (and maybe some theists) might question your sanity.
Sure, they might. Then again, my “fantasy” doesn’t interfere with my job or my family life in any detrimental way (and in fact, it makes me easier to work with and live with), so they don’t lock me up, or anything.
I will give you the benefit of a doubt and assume you were joking.
I wasn’t.
Don’t get me wrong - I don’t hear God speaking to me with a strange voice in my head all that
often. (Twice or maybe three time in my life, so far.) Mostly, He speaks to me through the medium of other people, through the teachings of the Church, and through nature. For example, I might pray and ask God a question. Then, my telephone will ring, and my friend will tell me the answer to my question, even though, from
her point of view, she is telling me a story about her day, or about her plans for the afternoon, or whatever. Or else I might go to Mass later in the day, and someone will read something out that contains the answer to my question, or I might notice something as I’m walking or driving, that shows me the answer to the question that I was asking, or gives me a new perspective on something I’ve been wondering about.
jmcrae, you also said “And the evidence for Original Sin is on the front page of my morning newspaper every single day of the week.”
There’s almost 7 billion human apes on this planet, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if a small percent of them are violent. When I read the newspaper I notice most of the violence is religious.
I don’t think most of those gangsters who are beating up old ladies downtown ever went to Sunday School. As far as war goes, religion doesn’t really enter into it - people are fighting for power and for the right to live freely in their own country.
How religion enters into it is that people want to be free to practice their religion without being penalized economically. In places where you can be any religion you want, and still be able to participate in the economy, we don’t see this kind of violence. That’s why I believe in freedom of religion.
I also sometimes read news stories about the Christian war against science education. Some Christians, instead of spending their time learning about evolution and the massive evidence for it, prefer to try to suppress the teaching of evolution in public schools.
I don’t think it should be suppressed. But I do think that people need to be taught that you don’t have to just accept everything that you’re told in school as “fact,” since a lot of it is just speculation.
