Sit back and crack open a cold one, because Uncle Weltall is gonna touch on many points.
I have a distrust and hatred for religion. Religion and religious differences have been the cause of far too many wars, from the Holy Crusades to WWII. Millions and millions of people have died in the name of religion. I believe that all organized religions are corrupt and self-serving, and I single out the Catholic Church over the rest, as they have quite a bloodstained history of powermongering and massacre. But Protestant, Islam, Jewish, all the rest are equally corrupt. They use God (or whatever) to justify doing things like killing or taking money. They try to interfere in politics. They want to control us.
I personally follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I celebrate Christmas and Easter. I believe in the Lord our God. But I also thing the Bible is used in the wrong ways by religion and science alike. Religion uses the Bible to inform us that certain things, like homosexuality and pornography and, basically enjoying life at all is a sin and will earn you a one way ticket straight to Satan\'s Furnace. They use the Good Book to twist and manipulate people into believing what they want.
Scientists also frequently refer to the Bible to discredit and disprove religion. Sure, I don\'t think Moses REALLY parted the Red Sea to cross into Israel, but that doesn\'t discredit God. Scientists use the Good Book to twist and manipulate people to disbelieving what they want.
But they both overlook one crucial point, that invalidates all of their opinions:
GOD DID NOT WRITE THE BIBLE.
The books of the Bible were written by Man. Anyone who has read the Bible knows that God was never the type to make things clear for His children. God never gave mankind the straight talk, he was always somewhat cryptic. And, it\'s never noted that he told any man all about how he did what he did. We\'re told that the universe is created in six days, and on the seventh day he rested, but never is any detail given into how it was done.
I don\'t think it was a work of magic that created Earth. The Bible depicts primitive Man\'s interpretation of how it happened. But who\'s to say God wasn\'t responsible for the Big Bang? Science cannot disprove the existence of God, and Religion cannot prove the existence of God. It could very well be that there is no God, and it\'s equally likely that God exists in such a state that we cannot comprehend. Science is anything but absolute. Science is full of guesses. Science is more theory than law. Religion is also more theory than law. And both are completely the product of Mankind. There are many religions, but almost all of them share a great deal of similarities, which leads me to believe that different religions interpret the same ideas in very different ways.
God is very important to us today. Even though we\'ve seen no solid evidence he exists, he exists in people\'s minds, and while religion may serve as a reason to breed war, God is not a religion. God is a being AND He is and ideal. The fear or love of God gives moral support to those who might not otherwise have it. The fear of Hell may be used by unsavory televangelists to force you into accepting their beliefs, but it also serves to deter people from commiting certain acts that SHOULD get you sent to hell, such as murder or rape. God inspires love as well as hate. The love and fear of God is the very essence of the moral fabric of our society. And that is interpreted through religion. Religion is not all bad, and neither is Science. Consequently, neither are all good. Science has been used to give people heart transplants. It\'s also been used to create machines of war that have killed millions. Science follows many of the same rules as religion, and in my eyes is a religion of its own, a religion that worships change as a god.
To the original topic of the thread, Humans are animals, but we are so much more than animals. In a most basic sense animals can do anything Humans can do. A monkey can paint a picture, a human can create a lifelike masterpiece that is almost indistinguishable from reality. Ants can built enormous anthills where millions of ants can live, humans can build large collections of aesthetically correct structures to live in. Chimps like Clyde use tools to catch ants, and otters use rocks to crack open oysters, Humans use tools that are much more advanced. What sets humans apart from other animals is that we are much much more intelligent. Physically, human beings are not impressive at all. We cannot run from danger because we are not that fast. We couldn\'t fend off a hungry tiger because we lack the teeth and claws. Physically, we are a very weak species. However, we have very very large and complex brains, much moreso than any other animal. We can\'t fight a tiger with our natural claws (nails), so we built spears and bows to fight them. We developed new ways to defend ourselves because we adapt so much faster than other animals. Humans were really given the short straw in the big scheme of things, but we were also given the most beautiful brains of any creature, and that one single advantage is what is responsible for us being the dominant species on this planet instead of being extinct, which is where we\'d be without our brains. We are more than animals, and we are less than animals.
*whew*
