runner, if you're going to accuse Brian of some unspecified 'sin', at least have the cojones to come out and say it.

david f,

"One can be a religious person and an atheist person", yes, if we use the simple dictionary definition.

The Atheist Foundation of Australia defines atheism as "The acceptance that there is no credible scientific or factually reliable evidence for the existence of a god,gods or the supernatural".

So, by this definition, one cannot be a religious person and an atheist.

I wonder how all

Those "millions of fossils"

Happened to form?

grateful,

I'm afraid the Sheik is rather incoherent himself, I have to say I don't see where he's refuted evolutionary theory, based on the text you provided.
He seems to be attempting some philosophical approach, which really is quite pointless, where is the scientific evidence for any experiment that has invalidated the hypothesis?

He has employed a straw man argument in characterising evolutionary theory as 'absolute', it is nothing of the sort. He has totally misconstrued or misrepresented a scientific theory as a philosophical or religious doctrine and then tried, unsuccessfully, to undermine it.
If you can find, amongst all the verbiage, evidence for the invalidation of evolution I'd be very amazed.

Dear mac,

Definitions of words should reflect common usage not ideology. Although I am an atheist I think the definition of atheist by the Atheist Foundation of Australia reflects their ideology rather than common usage.

In common usage an atheist is one who doesn't think there is a God.

davidf,

Definitions are not absolutes. When they are no longer useful, they change, as has the AFA definition. It has nothing to do with ideology as you suggest. Maybe you can expand on that.

And as you have mentioned it, why would an Atheist think there is no god? Can you expand on that also? Thanks

David