Being a YouTuber, both in creating and viewing, I've watched thousands of videos of differing varieties. Everything from music videos to gaming videos, weird videos to documentaries; pretty much anything and everything that crossed my screen as a suggestion or a search result. One of the videos that grabbed me, recently, was the debate between Bill Nye & Greg Ham. Here's a breakdown of the debate, topics at hand in the video & a video link (I'll continue at the bottom):
The idea of a young earth is interesting, I'll admit. It would mean that families have only had so many generations of relatives, extinct species of animals died off after only hundreds of years, etc. Everything would have to happen so quick within such a small amount of years, that it's mind-boggling. I'll even admit, in my younger years, that I mulled around the idea of the earth being created within so many years because whom or whatever created it was in a big damn hurry; like a student putting together a science project at the last minute. I toyed with the idea of the Earth being created within 7 days, however, 7 days being equal to a thousand years per day in "Heavenly time". But, like I said, I was young and was exploring thoughts in my own head.Tom Foreman, a broadcast journalist from CNN, was chosen to moderate the debate.[21] Each man was allowed a five-minute opening statement, followed by a thirty-minute presentation of the evidence for his side; each man was then given five minutes to rebut the other's arguments, and then the floor was opened for questions that the audience had previously submitted on cards.[21][22] Ham won the coin toss to determine which man delivered his opening statement first.[21]The debate lasted two and a half hours.[14] During his opening statement, Ham declared, "I believe science has been hijacked by secularists."[21] He followed up by pointing to several examples of scientists who profess a belief in YEC, most notably Raymond Vahan Damadian, a pioneer in the field of magnetic resonance imaging.[23]Ham also drew a distinction between "historical science" and "observational science", a distinction the Christian Science Monitornotes is unique to creation scientists.[23] "We observe things in the present, and we're assuming that has always happened in the past," said Ham, adding, "You've got a problem, because you weren't there."[24] During his rebuttal, Nye asked, "Why should we accept your word for it that natural law changed 3,000 years ago and we have no record of it?"[24]Nye cited radiometric dating, ice core data, and the light from distant stars to argue that the Earth must be much older than young Earth creationists like Ham theorize.[23] Ham argued that these various dating methods are untrustworthy because they often give varying ages for the same artifacts.[24]The Genesis flood narrative, which Nye repeatedly referred to as "Ken Ham's great flood", was a major topic of discussion, with Nye arguing that a boat constructed according to the parameters given for Noah's Ark in the Book of Genesis would not float.[21][23] Nye also calculated that, if there were 7,000 "kinds" of animals on the Ark, on average, 11 new species would have had to come into existence every day for the Earth to contain all presently known species.
Nowadays, though, I'm coming to the point of simply believing that the world is here and we got here somehow and someway. While this logic may leave my Christian upbringing in utter disappointment, I have not forgotten what I was taught and why I was taught it. Truth be told, throughout the last twenty years of my life, starting at age 10, I started balancing belief in religious teachings, or at least the core ideas, and the proof of Science. It's not an easy thing to do, either; at least, not out loud. Safe to say, there were times when I thought I might be crucified myself if I had ever talked about what I was really thinking during church service. Then again, if that were the truth, would that church be a good place to be? Probably not. Any congregation that would reprimand a person for being curious about life is not worth the air they're freely breathing, in my opinion. But, that's a matter for another entry, entirely.
At this point in my life; I'm 30 years old and married to an awesome lady, with whom I hope to have kids one day. And, what will said kids be taught in my household? Free will and thought. With that, though, we will be teaching to have faith and hope in life. Currently, I can, also, say that the odds of attending a congregation is slim to none; this being due to past experiences of ill-will amongst "good people". It could be argued that coming from a family and background as I have should be reason enough to attend a weekly service with my kids; however, again, in my experiences, it's too risky to introduce a child, at an early age at least, to potential favoritism and mocking and/or shunning of social status. They'll be getting enough of that in middle school and high school! If they choose to want to attend a service later in their life? So be it. With that said, I have attended every so often with family, at their own services or ministries. So, maybe there's still a chance my heart can changed on the matter? Possibly, but it'll happen later, rather than sooner.
Here's a breakdown of things I do believe in, and some reasoning why:
Evolution - We come from a web of common life here on earth. We fit too well on this planet to be otherwise.
Outer Influences of Life - Aliens, Spirits, etc. This universe is too big and life too full to not have any other kinds of beings living it with us. On the topic of little green men, I believe they exist and have visited us, either for good or bad or neither. On the topic of spirits - ghosts, demons, angels, whatever - I believe it's possible, and I have had experiences that I can only describe as "other-worldly". I'll go into that in another post.
Religion - A powerful idea that can be good or evil. Personally, I tend to fallback on Kevin Smith and what was introduced in the movie Dogma; “It doesn't matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith.”
Mankind Being Directed - A lot of people believe that there are big players in this world who are steering humanity. Powerful people that are using us, or herding us for their own gain or for a higher power. I'm not too sure about this topic, but I could see it being possible and very plausible. They use the media to introduce ideas to masses and in response the masses due as their lead to do. Buy products, fear a country, start a war, believe in a certain individual, etc. Far-fetched, but if done right, it would be very, very scary to discover.
Climate Change - Earth changes and so does it's climate. Nothing lasts forever, as the old saying goes.
The Bible - It's a great foundation for moral guidance & lessons for life. However, certain sects have taken it to an extreme level that should never have been practiced. Overall, though, it is a book. A man-written book that has been translated and omitted for centuries! I'll leave the rest open for your own internal debate.
Terrorism - This is apart of humanity that loves to spread fear and death. It's an unfortunate part of life, but it does exist and may always exist, in some form or other. However, I do believe that it's a word thrown around for financial gain by some many governments and institutions; it's sickening.
Monsters - Bigfoot, Loch Ness, Chupacabra; take your pick! Which ever one you choose, I do believe that may exist or existed at some point in our history.
Vampires - Sure! Why not? There are animals that survive off of human blood, or blood altogether; so why not some sort of homosapien blood-drinker? Though, they would be few and far between...I hope!
Immortality - Possible, but highly implausible. Certain species of jellyfish have lived for centuries, but only because they were naturally engineered that way. Humanity on the other hand is too sentient to have the luxury of immortality. With that said, it may be more of a curse than a luxury.
The Moon Landing - Humankind is capable of such awesome feats and I believe this to be one of them. It happened! Deal with it, if you haven't yet.
Violence Inspired by Entertainment - This is bull-crap! Movies, games, books, etc. have been hid behind by criminals since it was first used in court as a "scapegoat". Truth is, some people are just naturally more violent than others, or have no control over their impulses, and they want to blame it on some outside force other than their themselves. If you want to get down to statistics; religion and politics have shed more blood than all the crimes put-together that were done by a "crazed" gamer, book-reader, movie-goer or television viewer.
Well, there you have it! A small but concentrated list of things that I believe. Thanks for reading, and always remember; you are awesome! Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment