Yes, nice and succint!

I mentioned in passing somewhere on this forum another way to look at it. Since on this thread I am more or less focussing on using god-botherer viewpoints to look for consistencies (oh woe is me!), one might say that evolution is creation, but it's in a sophisticated form worthy of a serious divinity. What kinda god whacks together a universe on his week off, and sits back with a smug expression thinking that's it?

I'm afraid any debate with fundamentalists on the subject very quickly falls to a level where a rational organism simply stares and gapes. The same folk who accept everything came together in seven days 4000 years ago come up with gems like;
"If evolution war real we would see it happening" (Stick around long enough and you might)
"So how come we don't still see half-evolved monkeys?" (Nobody said we came from monkeys. But we do see them - they join fundamentalist churches).
"It doesn't make sense" (Compared to...?)
and a favourite of mine,
"God created fossils to test our faith." (No, God created fossils to test your stupidity)

BTW John: A petard was a small medieval bomb used to blow up gates and walls when breaching fortifications. So says Wiki. Let's not hoist them unless we're really going to use them. Perhaps Mormon target practice.

I think after reading through here, which was quite entertaining btw, I will have to agree with Azh summation of God is schizo and in need of meds. Al Pacino's character in The Devil's Advocate does a wonderful speech on God and his conflicting rules.

And follows up with "Humans are doomed to fail this test of God's. He's sitting up there laughing His ass off as we run around trying to do His will and can't. It's a faulty test." I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist. Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't enjoy.

A conundrum. (See what reading all those dictionaries got me Orly? lol)

Thanks, I had hoped "hoisting by their petards" would be painful, oh well!
The people who made up those rules so they would feel superior to the rest, then said it wasn't them, it was god ... what a shame there's no god, I'd like to hear them explain that to him/her/it.

Oh, I have had that fantasy so many times ... some "holier than thou" person who has caused a lot of trouble on Earth, being called on the carpet after they die.

Envision a committee of holy characters from that person's specific religious tradition, with the main god at the podium, a bunch of saints and maybe a prophet or two, all seated behind a big mahogany table. And, oh, let's say George W. Bush finds himself in the room. He thinks he's going to get big grins and praises.

Instead, they start to run a movie of his life, and the questions begin.

"Explain to us about Abu Ghraib, George."

"Well, er ... I was doing Jesus' Will. I was saving the world for Him."

Jesus speaks up. "I told you to do that? What the hell did you think I meant when I said 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?' "


Oops.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

There's an interesting animated TV series around here, made in New Zealand, so most of the world probably doesn't know it. It's called "Bro Town" and the characters are a bunch of Maori lads and their families, plus a token Aussie Aboriginal, some Samoans, and the school bullies, a pair of Afrikaaners. The episode begins with the gods looking down and deciding what lesson they will teach in this episode. God, the serious boss god, is Maori, but they all get into it - Charles Darwin wanders in for odd chats.
Generally the punch line is along those lines - "What are the mortals playing at, we never said that!"

John, you. Shall be receiving reputation for your monkey comment!! :d

I wish I had a whole bunch of money. I'd buy that show and bring it to the US. "Lord knows" we need it here.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

Aaah the bible, a fictional novel that I never ever finish

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Better than a soap opera, what with all the begetting and smiting, the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And you should finish it. The very last book of the New Testament ("Revelations") is excellent SciFi.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

Thenk you, but I don't recall saying "ook! ook! ook!"

Ah, how can it fail? Sex, violence, drama and tension!

Didn't I see the movies? The ones with the Damiens, or the one with Schwarzie fighting for the angels?