David,

As I keep telling you God proves Himself to those who are open to the truth and wish to receive Him. You are not open to the truth, unwilling to receive Him, and will not even go so far as to lift a finger to find out. This is why you don't know God. God has already provided you sufficient evidence to know that He exists but you suppress the truth. I could give you many logical arguments which show that a God is likely, or even certain to exist, but in the end the only thing which is going to convince a hardened skeptic like yourself is personal revelation.

As far as creationism versus evolution, I'll let a scientist explain it to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY2Xy52U6tA

Jesus said you're a sinner on the road to hell and you need a Savior. You're free to disagree with Him but you will have to meet Him one day. He died for your sins on the cross taking your punishment and promised to save you when you call upon His name. He is knocking on your door..it's up to you to let Him in:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Dark matter/dark energy are believed to exist although no one has ever observed them directly. It is postulated that they existed at the point of creation/big bang. Scientists believe they exist because the universe makes no sense without them and the laws of physics don't work unless they exist. It is also so prevalent in the universe that occupies our very being.

That is dark matter/dark energy have all the properties of Yahweh other than intelligence. But, since we have yet to observe it, maybe it contains the universal intelligence as well...who knows.

So let's get the scientists to rename DM/DE to Yahweh and we can all go home. Science and religion finally in agreement. Of course Richard Dawkins would be out on his ear, but that'd be a nett benefit as well.

That's a very good point, mhaze. Scientists are more than willing to invoke theoretical, invisible, unobserved entities to punch up holes in their models of reality. Then they put it in a textbook and everyone believes its a proven fact. They will not go where the evidences leads and have stated this many times:

We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism.

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

Richard Lewontin

He says materialism is absolute..and this is the way many of them think.

Josephus,

Your god would not be offended by how I describe it. A god would not be able to be offended – full stop. Why then are you offended? Could it be a case of insecurity?

That I use a metaphor for your sky god doesn't mean I think it is in the sky. That would be silly. In fact, it is nowhere.

David

washed,

I ask for peer reviewed scientific studies in accredited scientific journals disproving the theory of evolution and you provide a link to a creationist. Your understanding of science is more than flawed; it is non-existent at the basic level. I gave you a link to Eugenie Scott who gave a talk at the GAC using the best known scientific discoveries about geology and other stuff. Your creation scientists have ample access to genuine scientific avenues for disproving Scott’s and the thousands of other peer reviewed scientific evaluations but they don’t because they can’t. If they could they would submit studies through the proper channels.

You then come back with more magic talk and think that will convince me your particular god exists.

You may believe your god to exist and I guess you are young. Could be wrong but young people tend to believe in magic of all kinds as a product of evolution such as pattern recognition when no pattern is present and also in the process of getting to know reality. Get yourself a good book on psychology and read what makes humans tick. I mean that sincerely.

Or, what about, Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. A great read.

And, you will grow out of this is if you are lucky. I certainly hope so for your sake.

David

Sorry mhaze (and washed), but it appears you've bother missed where I discredited that line of argument on this thread... http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=5547#151490.

Funny too, mhaze, how you mock belief and faith on another thread (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=14511&page=0 (forgetting for a moment that the accusations were completely inaccurate on that thread)) and yet it seems to be alright here?

Care to explain the inconsistency? 

David,

I believe that God exists because He revealed Himself to me. He hasn't revealed Himself to you because you refuse to open the door. He will continue knocking but it is up to you to open it.

You have shown yourself to be irrational in the sense that even if you knew God existed you wouldn't follow Him. This is because you think you can judge God on moral grounds, when you are the one who is proven to be morally flawed individual because of your sins. You have an imperfect understanding of morality, and an even less imperfect execution of it, but you think you can sit as judge over God, who is morally perfect. This is the height of hypocrisy. You don't even have a justification for why something is right or wrong. You are drowning in a sea of nihilism because your worldview provides you no foundation for meaning, value, or purpose.

>>>Your understanding of science is more than flawed; it is non-existent at the basic level

So, you think pointing to a video establishes your credentials as an expert? You are unqualified to judge what I do or don't know. I do know quite a bit about evolutionary theory, but I am not really interesting in having a fruitless debate about it. I will ask you though if you believe that science is the only road to truth?

As far as peer review goes, if you haven't realized this yet, mainstream science is in a state of war with creation science. There is no research being done, and no papers being accepted, because they are not going to give up even an inch in this debate. A scientist who questions evolutionary theory has no future as a scientist. He will not be able to get a job, have access to labs, or get the funding he needs to do his research. Any scientist questioning the theory of evolution may as well throw out his diploma and go work at Taco Bell. Evolution is a sacred cow, and it is conventional wisdom in science