Oooooh boy.
-"Evolution is not supported by the fossil record."
-"The intelligent design movement is based entirely on scientific evidence."
-"The LGBT movement is not for marriage equality because they do not accept child enthusiasts marrying young teenage/pre-teenage kids. They have left those people out so far."
-"The Crusades are not comparable to Islamic Terrorism because the Crusades are incompatible with Christian doctrine and teaching, while Islamic Terrorism is consistent with Islamic teaching and the example of the prophet Muhammad."
-"The existence of evil is actually proof of God’s existence. Because evil exists, that means there is a transcendant standard upon which we can judge that something is good or evil. Otherwise, evil is relative and is just an opinion."
-"Evolution is not supported by the fossil record."
Yeah, it definitely is. The fossil record shows changes in phylogenetic traits over time, and thus we've been able to construct a rough image of how various species have evolved from close ancestors. We strengthened the argument even further through radiometic dating.
-"The intelligent design movement is based entirely on scientific evidence."
People say this a lot, but when you ask them to actually show you the evidence, they give you some kind of loosely-worded philosophical argument that doesn't even really prove anything. Not scientific evidence.
-"The LGBT movement is not for marriage equality because they do not accept child enthusiasts marrying young teenage/pre-teenage kids. They have left those people out so far."
There is a universe of difference between two consenting adults getting married, and a middle-aged man and a 12 year old girl getting married. In the latter scenario, you have a child that's in no way capable, legally or psychologically, of consenting to marriage or love. It's essentially rape/molestation.
-"The Crusades are not comparable to Islamic Terrorism because the Crusades are incompatible with Christian doctrine and teaching, while Islamic Terrorism is consistent with Islamic teaching and the example of the prophet Muhammad."
I take issue with the first claim that the Crusades weren't condoned by Christian doctrine.
Deuteronomy 13:6
"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul,
entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9
But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."
tl;dr "Kill all infidels."
-"The existence of evil is actually proof of God’s existence. Because evil exists, that means there is a transcendant standard upon which we can judge that something is good or evil. Otherwise, evil is relative and is just an opinion."
'Evil' is just a word that humans have used to describe behavior that is inherently anti-social. What I mean by 'anti-social' is that the behavior destroys human societies.
For instance, nobody wants to live in a society where their family gets raped and murdered. All of the societies that condoned that form of behavior fell apart, leaving only the ones where that behavior was condoned as 'evil' and prohibited by word of law. Moral codes like 'do not murder' date back to thousands of years before the Bible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi
Planr, since you're clearly having some sort of conflict of identity, I have some good advice for you. Being a Christian does not make you ignorant or bigoted or delusional or anything like that. Rejecting critical thinking skills makes you ignorant and bigoted, but you don't have to reject evidence-based reasoning in favor of religion.
It's true that critical thinking is pretty much incompatible with fundamentalist Christianity, but that's not the only form that exists. For example, the idea of taking the Bible as a completely literal depiction of history was only really popularized in the late 19th century, and up until then it was mostly viewed as a book of metaphors and moral advice (with the exception of the existence of God, of course). But believing in the existence of a God isn't necessarily incompatible with critical thinking skills either. In truth, we have absolutely no idea /why/ the universe exists in the way that it does. We can describe laws and theories that model its behavior, but as for /why/ anything happens in the way that it does, your guess is as good as mine.
There's nothing in the Bible that stipulates that you aren't allowed to reason from evidence. There is nothing in the Bible that condemns you to hell for recognizing the fact that many of the moral codes in the Bible were written by
human beings in
human societies thousands of years ago, and that what was accepted as canonical and moral and 'okay' back in that time does not necessary apply to the modern age.
Jesus was a fine man, and if everyone followed his teachings of helping your fellow men, the world would be a much better place. Be that kind of Christian, instead of the kind that obsesses over metaphorical depictions of history that were never intended to be literal in the first place.
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