Hi, Don -

Most of the time, I also feel more comfortable with nonbelievers, than I feel with people who profess a religion. But lately, there has arisen a group of doctrinaire nonebelievers who are intent on attacking those of us who profess any sort of belief, no matter what it is. They see belief as something evil. I have seen earnest expressions of hope from Mudcatters who await the day when the last vestige of religion will be stamped out and the world will be truly enlightened. Most of the time, they class all believers as blindly obedient sheep, no matter who we are and what we think. That sort of generalization is just not a fair assessment.

In general, the polite and tolerant thing to do is to listen to the perspectives of others and take them for what they are worth - not feeling any obligation to agree or disagree, but recognizing that each person's perspective may have some value. What I find distressing is when people assume what the other person's opinion is, and then attack it. So, basically, the people I disdain are those who attack me for believing, even when they have no idea what it is that I do believe. The rules of civil discussion require that we listen to what others have to say, and then respond to that and that alone, not to what we assume they think because of some label we have imposed upon them.


With you, I'd get along just grand.




So, Snail, what is it that you think is the correct thing to say about the theory of evolution, if we can't say it's "true"? Heck, even Pope John Paul II said that evolution is "more than just a theory," so it seems that Steve Shaw is in pretty good company. As for me, I'd say that the Theory of Evolution is "the closest we've come to the facts so far." I do think there's room for deeper understanding, but I believe we're on the right track.

-Joe Offer-