Evolution?

[publius2k4]

That is the issue. You cannot lump all Christians into the same category. Some Christians believe the Bible must be taken literally, passage for passage. Some Christians believe some parts of the Bible are written in metaphor, while other parts are literal. Some Christians believe that certain parts applied until the coming of Christ, then the older passages became merely historical record but no longer guideline, where there is then further split as to whether the passages pertaining to after Christ's coming should be taken literally or metaphorically. Some Christians believe the entire Bible is metaphor and should be used as guidelines for behavior only. Still other Christians believe in Christ but feel the Bible has been translated so many times and books hand-picked by men centuries after their writing with other parts discarded that the Bible is not all that useful at this point. Then there are several combinations of the above. The broad label of Christian merely means someone believes in God and Christ. The methods of pursuing that belief differ radically after that point.

But this is exactly my point; If a person cannot make heads or tails of whether or not the bible is even relevant, how can a person base their entire belief system on it? And if so many groups of people are claiming different beliefs about what the bible says, how do you know who to believe?

Just because it makes the counter-argument neater and tidier does not make such generalizations right, and that is where debates such as this break down. There are atheists that do not believe in God (hence, atheist) but believe in aliens and the possibility that an extraterrestrial host seeded the Earth. Using the same generalization logic, would I be accurate in assuming that all atheists believe aliens brought life to Earth? Not remotely.

I disagree. I think a generalized group label is justified.

If all atheists shared the same sacred text, as all Christians seem to do (plus or minus a book or two, depending on whether or not you consider mormons to be christians.....which, they believe in God and Christ, so they clearly fit into your definition) and the common sacred text shared among atheists made a claim about abiogenesis being extraterrestrial in origin, then I believe that a generalized group label would be justified in that case as well.



Of course, these are just my opinions. I do enjoy a lively debate, but please don't think me as being disrespectful or making fun of your beliefs.