I've resisted chiming in on this derail of the thread, but this discussion highlights some my biggest concerns with the anti-God mindset.
You would think that as humans have evolved physically that they would also evolve socially. However, we don't see much of that, do we? For example, if people got mad at one another in the stone age, they would hit or throw rocks at each other. Today, after a million years of evolution, we still hit and throw rocks (small metal ones) when we get mad.
From an evolutionary standpoint, shouldn't we let Ebola, AIDS, and other extreme diseases run their course? Most infectious diseases are best mitigated with behavioral changes. Pure Natural Selection would dictate that the weaker, dumber of the species simply die off if they make the wrong choices. An argument against doing that to preserve culture doesn't even meet humanistic standards.
This is the type of rationale it takes to make many of the arguments above on both sides!
I don't believe in shoving belief systems down anyone's throat. Asking for a basis of morality shouldn't be offensive to anyone. It's a fair question. Just because my answer is different from yours doesn't mean I'm irrational, nor that you are necessarily wrong. However, dismissive attitudes do get old.
I happen to believe that there is a Creator who does things that I don't understand. If He can create a grown man, He can create a grown universe. How evolution plays into that doesn't concern me near as much as the way that we know HOW gravity works, but don't have a clue as to WHY it works.
Life is precious. I didn't really learn that from the Bible, my parents, or from institutional instruction. I learned that with the birth of my first child. I heard it from various sources, and probably should have learned it from several encounters (injury, near-death, etc.), but it never clicked until I saw my son for the first time. Similarly, my faith didn't really come from my actions or things people told me. It came from a personal experience that I cannot deny.
Circling back to the actual intent of the original post: I'm headed to Texas to help people with storm damage. There is no charge for my services, they were paid for 2000 years ago. If you want to be a climber for Christ, I invite you to join me. If you prefer to do it just to help out that's cool too. You don't have to have my motivation to be kind to others.
