I don't look at this thread for a day and this happens?
Pokequaza, do some research on stuff like cosmic microwave background radiation and other stuff. There's plenty of evidence for the Big Bang and pretty much no evidence for our universe always being there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang
There could of course be more universes beyond the edge of ours, but our current universe, in which our galaxy is located, has most certainly not always been there, or it must have exploded and imploded again, and is repeating this cycle.
Moving on, we need to thank Forum Shark and Bippa201 for giving us 2 prime examples of the tactics used within the Bible or Christianity to make sure people believe against all odds:
Forum shark shows us the believe in dogmas, believe only what the Bible says, and consider everything else false, or you will be defying God. This is pretty much indoctrination, it teaches close-mindedness and shuts down all scientific advance, debate, or even normal conversation about the subject. A society living based on this would be one easy to control, and it was. In the Middle Ages, people were deliberately kept dumb by these kinds of things to make sure the church remained in power, as it was the most powerful institution at the time. Forum Shark isn't debating, he's ignoring everything someone says which could jeopardise his arguments, and just keeps on stating his dogmas and biblical "truths" as means of avoiding conversation.
Know I don't hate you, Forum Shark, I just hate this system of mindless indoctrination which seems to happen way too frequently even in countries which claim to be civilised.
Bippa shows us the fear element. If you don't believe, you will not be saved by God and you will be forced to die in the hands of the antichrist so that a new world can be created. If you die as a non-believer, you will burn in the eternal depths of Hell! These claims are of course ridiculous for everyone who was not raised within this religion, but if someone tells you from birth that this is the undeniable truth, you will believe it, and you will be afraid, as you are not capable of thinking rationally at that point. If you threaten someone with something extreme, and he or she believes you, you can pretty much make this person do everything you say will save him from this terrible faith which will otherwise befall him. Giving someone the promise of reward when this person does do what you ask him or her to will increase the chances of him or her obeying you even more.
Fear is an easy way of controlling people, as nobody wants any harm to befall them, especially not for enternity.
These exact same tactics are used for suicide terrorists to make sure they're even willing to blow themselves up for something they believe for no rational reasons.
Rationality is what dragged us out of the dark ages, dragged us out of the time of witch hunts and the Spanish inquisition, and brought us a modern age based upon science, technological advances and democracy. Of course your precious book will claim that all of this is unnecessary, as heavens await you anyway, but at least you can see, hear and feel this, it is as real as it gets. Just try to live in reality for once, instead of believing a single book and using it as an easy answer for everything, this cannot be considered rational from ANY possible point of view, except for your own. Open your eyes, please.
Religion may seem like it answers all questions, but in reality it just hides the question and replaces it with a more vague one, "who is God", "Is he real?", and so on. You're not answering a question, you're slapping the label "God" on it and calling it a day.
As for the post before you last one, Forum Shark.
1st of all, groups of animals with morals (not killing each-other, sharing food, and so on) will obviously be superior to groups of animals which aren't, so these morals will be passed on, natural selection, as explained a million and one times before in this thread. Morals can be considered a perfectly natural psychological evolution, and is part of the focus of a field of (semi-)science call evolutionary psychology.
And I have no morals, as I am a fiendishly evil, demonic, baby-eating atheist, duh.
But seriously, to me, morals are based upon not doing to others what you don't want others to do upon yourself. The discussion about morals was a while back, you can read it a few pages ago, but I could also link you to quite a few videos if you wish.
And yes, as Christians, you have "answers" based solely upon dogmas, no evidence, no research, nothing. Nothing but a single book, written by a bunch of people, in the bronze age, a time where people didn't even understand basic things like electricity, gravity, energy, speciation, or even rain and wind.
But there's also something you refuse to accept, not having an answer for something. I can't perfectly explain morals, and I will be the 1st to admit this. I would love to know, and admire those people who research this, but I wouldn't go as far as making up an answer, or accepting an answer which is not backed up by anything. Learn to accept that we're not omniscient, the quest for knowledge is an exiting one, and you're withholding yourself from it based on some irrational belief in some deity conceived by men, and that's just being stubborn and narrow-minded.
I know debating with you 2 is probably futile, as indoctrination is very hard to undo. I just hope that you will at least consider what I said, and maybe try to think of a world without a God, learn how rational and logical science can be, and abandon relying on a single book to answer all your questions. Don't give in to fear or false promises, just, please, for once, THINK.
