re: #933 Daria Emmons

I just want to reply to this.

I never said evolution is wrong. I never said “I do not believe in evolution,” because I do.

But the very reason you pray in religion is because you believe God actually interferes in our daily lives and will in some way answer your prayers. Why would God answer prayers? Because, prayer itself is based upon the notion that God cares about humanity enough to answer prayers and even alter the course of history to answer such prayers.

Praying is inherently an act done with the thought in mind that God is an activist and listens to humans. Otherwise, it makes no sense at all why anyone should include, amongst the prayers, specific requests of God.

Evolution is part of a scientific method. Rather than mankind as a unique creature, apart from animals, and worthy of a special relationship with God, evolution proposes we are essentially an evolved animal.

I am not sure how someone could be a strong believer of the bible, with its ultimate message of the uniqueness of mankind and man’s special relationship with God, and then say that mankind evolved from animals. Forget about biblical literalism. I am not even speaking about a literal reading of the bible - I am saying that I believe even the metaphoric message includes a notion that mankind is unique upon the earth and God answers prayers and cares about mankind.

I said I would not respond again, but I could not help myself!

I hope I am explaining myself a little better.

I believe you could be a Deist and believe in evolution. I believe that you could believe in God and believe in evolution. And I am personally agnostic, and do not claim to have the answers on the existence or lack of existence of God.

However, I do believe there is a conflict in Genesis with the theory of evolution. This is why the theory of evolution has spawned such a controversy, and there are so many religious groups which fight against it!

Some people do indeed pray for thaumaturgical reasons, that is, to appeal to God to magically reveal hidden knowledge or influence worldly events. Other people, otoh, pray for theurgical reasons, in order to personally connect with the divine.

I read the book of Genesis as a parable about the ancient advent of human self-conscious awareness (that which distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom). The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil can be seen as an enabling psychedelic, and moral knowledge itself is a dividing line between humans and other terrestrial lifeforms (good and evil cannot be found in the natural world of the consciously unselfaware). Likewise, only the consciously self-aware could feel guilt or shame, or care about their nakedness. I see Adam and Eve as representative of ancient hunter-gatherers, and the conflict between Cain and Abel as a reflection of the conflict between the crop farmers and livestock ranchers who succeeded them.