If you already know the answers to your questions, then they're just rhetoric, they're not real questions. (You also might like to work on your question numbering system).

And if you think life is about simple answers to simple questions, then I don't think you'll find much joy here at OLO.

McReal,
I don't think you're saying more by posting the same thing twice.

Nice questions Dug and Ammo etc, wish I’d thought of them. Saw one recently about if God could do anything could he make an object too heavy for him to lift.

Do Christians and Muslims etc really believe the Noahs ark stuff? I had no idea it was taken literally. I’m too embarrassed to even ask my Christian friends, it seems bad form and if they say yes I may well start laughing. Which for me brings up an interesting thought about not challenging mates because sometimes you don’t want to be right.

Having listened to bible stories as a kid it didn’t occur to me that they were true and I don’t remember them being presented in that fashion, but in no way do I want children being taught this as a fact and I also don’t want govt money going towards trying to convince young minds that these are real historic accounts. I have no objections to Christian, Muslim, Jewish etc parents taking their little kiddies off to private religious lessons. I wonder what Scientologists teach their children.

Do these religious children side-step areas of science that are not compatible with what they have come to believe? It must be confusing at school for them, do we have a term for abuse of children where the information they’ve been given has messed with their minds?

Anyone watched the movie "Dogtooth"?

Thanks Jewely

As for Dug I did warn him he wouldn't get a straight answer from Dan - just further obfuscation and sophistry (I'm not a marine biologist).

I'm not a marine biologist either, but you don't have to have much more than secondary school science to tease apart the inconsistencies in the Noah's Ark tale.

I was taught R.I. at school - when very young I used the time to goof off, when I was older (age 12) I would write essays questioning these same bible stories and why were there so many religions all claiming to be the 'one truth'. I'm guessing that most kids work it out for themselves - kids are great at spotting fakes. Also my parents weren't very religious, we stopped going to church when I was about 10. Mum used to go just for the social side of things - she sang in choir, but the serious religious stuff was never a major part of my childhood.

As for cultural heritage, that comes from a variety sources including religions, my friends whose parents were immigrants from exotic places like China or Egypt (being Anglo-Celtic seemed rather tame and boring) and my own Celtic/Pagan heritage - I believed in fairies for longer than I believed in a big daddy god.

Seems to me that Christians want it all - well, all the good stuff, bring up questionable activities like the Crusades, witch burning, gay bashing, the KKK; the list goes on and the closest a fundy Christian to acknowledging the many atrocities is the sleight of hand answer "if they were doing wrong, they weren't true Christians". Yeah, right. To me that means there aren't any TRUE Christians on this planet.

They've got that one covered too, Ammonite.

>>To me that means there aren't any TRUE Christians on this planet.<<

I'm sure you've heard the "we're all sinners" mantra. They've built a highly successful industry out of it, over hundreds of years.

Indulgences anyone? Buy one, get one free...

Here's an interesting story related to proselytizing in Victorian schools...

"The religious organisation that provides chaplains to Victorian schools appears to have breached federal guidelines that forbid it from trying to convert children.

Access Ministries provides chaplains to 280 Victorian schools and 96 per cent of special religious classes."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/13/3215690.htm