Hallowed are the Ori.

Ok. I'll bite.

The Earth was not created by the big bang. The big bang was about 13 billion years ago. The Earth was formed about 8.5 billion years later. The first Homo sapiens arose about 200,000 years ago.

Humans are primates. Primates have been around for over 60 million years. Primates evolved from other ancient mammals.

The first dinosaurs evolved from archosaurs about 230 million years ago. Sharks have been around, in one form or another, for about 450 million years (which makes them far older than dinosaurs).

So, it would seem to me, you've just defined god as ignorance. The benefit of that, I guess, is that every time we learn something new, god is diminished.

But (and we're moving into theological discussions that we've had many times before) if the issue of regression discredits science, I'm not sure why it doesn't discredit god as well.

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I've said before I really don't care what other people believe, regardless of how odd it may seem to me, so long as they aren't trying to force me to believe it too.

If you say "I pray for people's health because it makes me feel better" then I can't argue against it. I don't understand why it would but it's no skin off my nose.

If you say "I pray for people's health because I believe it makes them better" then in a discussion forum I'll be interested in examining the implications of such a belief since if accurate it would have observable impacts. The underlying belief, is still no skin off my nose.

If you say "I believe prayer makes others better so you're a bad person if you don't pray for them" then it is now some skin off my nose.

And if you say "I believe prayer makes others better but there is only one correct way to pray and therefore people should be prevented from praying in any other" then a lot of skin has come off my nose.

And if you say "Please let me go talk to your grandmother about this cancer cure I've discovered where you stick a lit candle in your ear" then I'm going to lock you out of the house.

Even if I were to agree with the dubious supposition that something "had to have created the universe", I don't see how one could divine (so to speak) the nature of that something. It's no more likely to be the Judeo Christian god vs. some nebulous benevolent entity vs. sadistic aliens screwing with us vs. some barely cognizant being that created our universe when it squished some other smaller being. There are literally infinite possibilities of what "god" might be, such that whatever version of god any individual decides to believe in is almost without a doubt wrong.

I can't fault the comfort any individual might feel due to the particular version they've settled on. But there is simply nothing that I know of within human perception that requires the existence of supernatural forces to exist. And certainly nothing that points to the nature of any hypothetical supernatural force.

But where did the primates and archosaurs and sharks come from to begin with. I'm pretty sure they didn't appear out of thin air.

(and now you all can see why I was not the teachers favorite during religious education...)

If God did not create everything -- how do you explain the face on Mars?


(Pic related - it's the face on mars)

Left unexplained, however, is who spilled pepper on the face on Mars.

Also, I miss Richard Hoagland's insanity.

Evolved from earlier lifeforms.

I will save you all some time and summarize the article.
According to the link that JWbear sent, the face on mars is
actually made entirely of cheese.



(Pic related -- It's cheese)