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the two driving forces in the world are Science and religion they both are best kept apart but i find a deep problem in that who's to say that god didn't start "evolution" because i'm very compelled to not believe that through random processes that life can be created in a mass amount of chemicals because look at Venus they have no life and the Gas giants don't AS FAR AS WE KNOW OF . now you see that i believe that their is a god in fact i'm a Christian and very rooted in science with my mind it is one of the subjects i excel in and through both i believe the two are deeply intertwined but that's just me what do you all think

I never thought the concepts of 'god' and 'evolution' were mutually exclusive. tho I reject the idea of personal deities, I do believe in a source and nature to me is divine. it is clear to me that this planet is regulated, and I also cannot view the existence of life and the delicately balanced cycles of nature, complete with it's own laws, as some random roll of the dice chance, accident, or mere coincidence.

The reason people tend to exclude religion from science and science from religion is because of vast misconceptions and poor logic from both sides. They can coexist quite peacefully and I know several people who are living proof of it (not being especially religious myself, I'm not one of them. Personally, I prefer to keep an open mind.).

Science explains the "how" in the physical world, the mechanisms and methods by which we can predict and reasonably explain phenomena that occur in the physical world.

Religion provides a set of moral guidelines pertaining to the metaphysical world, one which cannot be proven or disproven at this point, and therefore must be taken with faith. It provides explainations for the "why" we must act certain ways and provides comfort that there is a grander scale than we are seeing. At least, this is generally what religion is SUPPOSED to do; as we've seen, many tend to take this a step further and use it to justify their own political agendas. There are also those who take religious stories and interpret them quite literally, despite their status as myth and legend. What these people do is focus far too much on the WORDS and not enough on the MESSAGE.

I get what you're saying, but calling it "chance" makes it sound trivial in a way, like an insult or something. I guess it's the same way very religious people feel when their beliefs are scrutinized. (Not saying you're scrutinizing me or my beliefs.)

And yes, something did start it all, but I do not assume, nor will I ever assume to know exactly what happened. Nobody will ever truly know for sure. That's why a lot of people turn to faith. At least there, there's an explaination for how everything happened. It might not all be true, but at least it's something to get people through the day. Religion and faith are coping mechanisms, in my opinion (not my original idea... check out the book The God Part of the Brain.)

Humans began to realize that they were mortal and came up with a means and a ways for it all... a reason for existance, so that life would not seem so pointless and scary. Unfortunately, it became scary with all the warnings and cautionary stories in the bible and other holy books. And then there is all the abuse of power. But that's another story alltogether.

There are days when I feel that things would be simpler if there was some all-seeing, all-knowing supreme being that had a plan for everything and made sure things didn't go spiraling down the drain. But it just doesn't make sense or work for me personally. Maybe that part of the brain that controls all the religious aspects is dormant in me and most of my family. Or maybe we just know better.

Religion is only a way to answer questions which are not yet scientifically answered.

Thousand years ago, people thought a god is upset if a volcano erupted or a Tsunami hit them. Today, members of Voodoo think of a curse if they get ill, but they could never imagine to run to a doctor and get medications, they are running to a shaman instead.

There is no higher will, except evolutions or natures will. For example the earth has only life, because some matter thought it'd be cool to catalyze to DNA, mutating to single cells.

Also I don't believe into aliens visiting the earth, what interest should higher evolved lifeforms have to visit us? If they search for another intelligent race, they should visit the star system next door.

was reading this and remembered I read something about evolution begining to look like it went a different way. So I'm posting the link for you guys so you can take a look.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070809/ap_on_sc/human_evolution;_ylt=AnsmLqcMX0gahwDseNlRRs8PLBIF

I just thought t might help people understand some things better or make it a little more interesting. /shrug. I just believe in the earth more than anything else so i didn't want to get too into the conversation just thought it would be interesting for you guys biggrin

"Both sides"? You're kidding me, right? Science and religion aren't mutually exclusive-- they're not even related. They're in totally different playing fields.

You do realize that most SCIENTISTS in the US are Christian, right? How are scientists suffering from "vast misconceptions and poor logic" when they're religious for the most part?

No, NO. The ONLY misconceptions come from the fundamentalists. Everyone else with any common sense knows that it's silly to think there's a dispute between religion and science. That's like saying there's a dispute between my computer and your underwear.