Individual,

Nobody knows what God's plan is for one's
life. We all suffer for what we've been
given in one way or another.

However, as Benjamin Franklin once said:

" We're all born ignorant but one must work
hard to remain stupid."

Foxy,
Sadly, Billions are spent on the dumbing-down !

To ttbn,

Sorry for my mis-type. I meant to say whether God made man or man made God. Don't know why I put it the other way. :) your right though, man couldn't have made the world. We'd have no place to stand to do it.

To Individual.

My point isn't an explanation why people are here, any more then why dogs, whales, and kangaroos are here. I don't know why God wanted to create us outside of the points I read in the bible. Because He loves us, or because He wanted us to look after the earth, or potentially another reason as well? That's for Him to know. The point I made is an observation that we are here, as well as dogs, whales, kangaroos, and a whole lot of other living creatures on a level of life that is amazing, complex, and in the scope of the universe too rare to ignore and pass off that abundant and diverse life just "happens." When looking at the world as a whole picture without including God in the picture, just doesn't make sense.

The current explanations for how the earth was formed, how life started in it, and how life changed to become this world of diversity and abundance doesn't make sense. Things don't fall together that way. Instead if life would happen spontaneously like that there's no reason life would still be here on earth instead of falling apart in the fist century that life appeared on earth.

To Mhaze.

Interesting discussion on YouTube. I've a little left to watch. My thoughts are that I don't think evolution is a great as it's claimed, even before watching the video. There are too many holes to apply evolution to the beginning of a species or the beginning of life on earth. And when evolution is applied to anything outside of biology it's pure rubbish and philosophy that just sounds like science. Where there's actual holes in the theory of change in micro or macro evolution can be debated as much as people want. However it doesn't stand as a creditable scientific stance for the beginning of life on earth.

To Yuyutsu.

For the sake of brevity, let's agree to this topic to being about biological life, as it's the only recognized life that can be easily observed.

To Foxy.

The question of whether God made man or man created God is a conundrum to those who don't know that God exists.

It's not a conundrum of whether God made man or not, or man made God. If God is real then He made man regardless if mankind recognizes that or not. Regardless if God is real, mankind has made up idols to worship. If God is worshiped among those idols, it neither makes God less real nor those idols less fake.

"Did God make man, or man make God?" is a false dichotomy.

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

«whether God created man or man created the world.»

I am wary of the verb "created", because it suggests a physical, human-like, action. In some sense it would indeed be true that God created man, but to prevent a misunderstanding I rather phrase it: "man is made of God".

Man did not create the world. What man did create, are concepts, including the concept of God. Atheists believe that man created God because they think of God as only a concept, which He is not.

«If you have a better explanation for life then that we were created and protected»

I am no expert on the biological technicalities, but you seem to mix up yourself with the biological body of yours which is enlivened by you. You are not created, nor is there anything in existence to protect you from, nor can you be destroyed. It is only your body which was created, is presently protected and will eventually be destroyed. By whom? By God.

In Truth, you are not a body - You are God, the creator, protector and destroyer of life and all.

To Yuyutsu.

My point is that the world is a creation of God. (Mankind included). Any other explanation falls short for the reasons I've given. Due to the stability of life on earth still being here; the diversity and complexity of life on earth; and the rarity that life happens as seen in a comparison between earth and outer space.

Again for the brevity and focus of this conversation, I mean biological life when I speak about the term life.

As for the word choice of created. I stand by my choice of words. God created us. God made us. I see no issue in the word choice as a Christian, nor do I see an issue with my the word choices choice due to the observations I've given in this discussion.

From the bible it says God made mankind. It also has a more personal verse telling a prophet that God knitted that person and knew who they were and their path and future while they were in their mother's womb. The word created is the correct word to use. (On this point on created being the correct term or if it makes it seem that we are separate from God, perhaps we should acknowledge that we disagree on the underlying point of whether we are God or whether we are separate from God).

Even without bringing spiritual understandings into the mix. There's no current understanding of how the world was formed to overcome the obstacles in those theories of the duribility of life on earth, the diversity of life on earth, and the contrast between life on earth and the scarcity of life outside of earth. Only by acknowledging that God is real, do the theories (of how we think life formed on earth), have a foundation to lean against and dismiss the obstacles given in this topic.