Why do Atheists/Agnostics come to CAF?

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mathematician said:
Atheists who come on to Christian forums are almost by definition militants out to make bores of themselves. The open minded ones in the form of people like Mary Midgley, John Gray, Terry Eagleton or Paul Davies tend to stay away, even though you could have a meaningful discussion with them.

Still, at least we are spared the presence of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens.
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I think you need to add EvilAthiest to your list of pleasant athiests to converse with. 🙂
Just my opinion.
 
mathematician said:
Atheists who come on to Christian forums are almost by definition militants out to make bores of themselves. The open minded ones in the form of people like Mary Midgley, John Gray, Terry Eagleton or Paul Davies tend to stay away, even though you could have a meaningful discussion with them.
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yeah, but the youngest person in that crowd is way older than my mother … of course they’re more pleasant than me, they’re far more mature (at least one would hope there’s some advantage to getting old and wrinkled up) 😃
Still, at least we are spared the presence of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens.
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Oh come on … Hitchens is cool (Dawkins, I can see not liking him much, he comes off as an angry old man, and the only thing worse than being really old … is being really old and angry).
 
sorry old people … I was just joking around (I know … poor humor, I’m not sure how my mother put with me growing up :D).
 
I am an old woman and this is a take on ‘faith’ by our one and only universal catechism…#157 makes me recall Fr Thomas Dubay’s book, on ‘Faith and Certitude’…

'‘Faith is certain.’ It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but ‘the certainty that the divine lights gives is greather htan that which the light of natural reason gives.’ ‘Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.’

#159 Faith and Science. ‘Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.’ ‘Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.’

I was upset in grade school when I heard Darwin’s remarks that we descended from apes. We wondered why the present ones of apes did not turn to humans. May be we all came from dogs. You can not train a monkey to be house trained, but you can a dog.
 
The problem with cancer, besides chemo causing thousands of dollars a month, is that there are many types of cancers for a single afflicted part of a body…many types of cancer of the colon, of the breast, etc.

One chemo is successful in treating a colon cancer, but that could only be 3% of those with a type of colon cancer this chemo successfully targeted…and people may be using a successful chemo treatment, only to find out their bodies build an immunity to the cancer in two years or so…

Now how it all came to cancer on why atheists/agnostics come to CAF, that is your guess.
 
KathleenGee said:
I was upset in grade school when I heard Darwin’s remarks that we descended from apes. We wondered why the present ones of apes did not turn to humans. May be we all came from dogs. You can not train a monkey to be house trained, but you can a dog.
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I imagine evolution theory has come a long way since then (and I think your over-simplifying a bit). At this point I believe even the CC has accepted evolution (or at least doesn’t view it as inconsistent with “divine revelation”).
 
Check out St. Athanasius, born in 296 and died in 373. He recommended we always seek education in science…read one of his writings within the past year in my Liturgy of the Hours…it is in one of the four volumes…

The other is an old Austrian monk…we studied him in parochial school…Mendel?..there are thoughts that if Darwin had read some of his works, he would not have come to the conclusions he did…will look for article…
 
Gregor Mendel…Father of Genetics…laid out the foundation of genetics…in an Augustininan monastery in the 1850’s…way before Vatican II…

The Vatican holds the greatest library in the world…Wouldn’t you agree something is cookin besides myths?..
 
KathleenGee said:
Gregor Mendel…Father of Genetics…laid out the foundation of genetics…in an Augustininan monastery in the 1850’s…way before Vatican II…

The Vatican holds the greatest library in the world…Wouldn’t you agree something is cookin besides myths?..
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Yes indeed there’s a bunch of stuff cooking in the Vatican … but none of it good as far as I can tell.
 
KathleenGee said:
The other is an old Austrian monk…we studied him in parochial school…Mendel?..there are thoughts that if Darwin had read some of his works, he would not have come to the conclusions he did…will look for article…
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I guess we should be thankful Darwin never read some of his works then huh 🙂
 
For the same reason all the Fox news viewers come here spouting their half truths. To try and convince us who are rational.
 
Well, Yankee Doodle, what have you read of the Augustine monk…the father of modern genetics or anything else for that matter at the Vatican???
 
Yes, we did cover some aspects of Darwin in Catholic school when I was in the 8th grade. We were told what he believed…Mendel had read some of Darwin’s works and agreed; Darwin read some of Mendel’s work but through sources.

I came across a very interesting article from this past late spring…will share the link when I find it.

I was wanting to hear AnotherAtheist’s perspective on it.
 
KathleenGee said:
Well, Yankee Doodle, what have you read of the Augustine monk…the father of modern genetics or anything else for that matter at the Vatican???
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I’ve read quite a few theological works in the past (including the bible, and several Catholic works), but unfortunately I’ve never read any work by Mendel (although I am nominally familiar with his work. I believe he was the first notable scientist to observe and identify genetic traits in families) . However, it also should be noted that evolution science has advanced quite a bit since Darwin (so I think the focus on Darwin, much less Mendel is misplaced at this point).
 
There is an ongoing discussion, 'what happened if…Darwin had read more works of Mendel…that is the article I have been trying to locate. It might have changed some of Darwin’s thinking…but I will continue searching…may be create a new thread regarding it, but as Darwin/Mendel aren’t that interesting to me, I would have to let others lead it.
 
KathleenGee said:
There is an ongoing discussion, 'what happened if…Darwin had read more works of Mendel…that is the article I have been trying to locate. It might have changed some of Darwin’s thinking…but I will continue searching…may be create a new thread regarding it, but as Darwin/Mendel aren’t that interesting to me, I would have to let others lead it.
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In what way do you propose Darwin should have changed his thinking? Remember, Darwin’s conclusions were drawn from observation, not from thin air. Wiki (believe it or not) provides a good and easy to wrap our minds around example of natural selection.

For example, the peppered moth exists in both light and dark colors in the United Kingdom, but during the industrial revolution many of the trees on which the moths rested became blackened by soot, giving the dark-colored moths an advantage in hiding from predators. This gave dark-colored moths a better chance of surviving to produce dark-colored offspring, and in just a few generations the majority of the moths were dark.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection

Granted not much was known about genetics at the time of Darwin’s writing, nevertheless natural selection remains the primary explanation of adaptive evolution.
 
humble_maid said:
Hello Zundrah,
Can you please tell me what are the differences between catholicism and the methodist religion; and what do you mean by we all have catholic souls? Do you take the eucharist at your church and what significance does it have?
I hope you don’t feel like I’m prying but you mentionned it so I would like to know what drives the soul to catholicism. By the way I am a catholic only more so now than I ever was.🙂
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The difference between methodism and catholicism is this; methodist do not believe that the Eucharist has a part in your salvation, but catholics do.
 
I read one article that proposed that Darwin might have changed some aspect…Mendel recognized the gene pool and the variations, whereas Darwin did not have that link.

Anyway, I am speculating…I will try to find the article from this past year…but probably will start a new thread…

Think I shared enough on this thread.

Best to you!

Kathleen
 
Factoid … do you guys know the trademark McDonald’s “M” is more recognized worldwide than the Christian cross? All hail Ray Kroc 🙂
 
yankee_doodle said:
Factoid … do you guys know the trademark McDonald’s “M” is more recognized worldwide than the Christian cross? All hail Ray Kroc 🙂
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Factoid # 2:

There was guy who tried, on an experimental basis, to worship under the sign of the Golden Arches. He made a movie about his misadventure. It’s called Supersize Me. It represents the way of the world – self-indulgence.

There was another guy who said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He taught the people about God, love, and self-sacrifice. But the world would hear nothing of this and nailed Him to the Cross. A movie was made about this greatest of adventures in history. It’s called The Passion of Christ.

Truth has never been popular. Socrates was made to drink hemlock. The prophets were stoned. St. Isaac Jogues was tortured and killed by the Mohawks. Hitler tried to exterminate the historical witness for the Gospel of Christ—the Jewish people. St. Maximilian Kolbe was injected with carbolic acid. Truth is even less popular in modern secularist cultures.

But why should anyone care as long as they can have their cheeseburgers and sodas, and super-sized at that!
 
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