New evidence life on earth began before God existed.

Article?
How do you know when God was born?
Article?
How do you know God counts time the same way you or I do?
Again, no article.

You're slipping.

Wordslinger wrote:Check out the following article -- which indicates that life on earth began 3.9 billion years ago.

Judge Moore and his white trash, conservative hardcore Christian following (Alabama, of course) claim that Jesus's dad did everything just 6000 years ago.

Which means god had nothing to do with the beginnings of life on earth.

Why am I not surprised?

Oldest evidence of life on Earth found in Canadian rocks

3.95-billion-year-old Labrador rocks contain graphite that appears to come from living organisms

Rocks from northern Labrador have been found to contain the oldest known evidence of life on Earth.

Graphite — a form of pure carbon — found in the 3.95-billion-year-old rocks shows the geochemical signature of having come from the decomposition of living organisms, researchers report in a new study published today in Nature.

That's at least 150 million years older than the oldest graphite from living organisms previously found in 3.7 billion to 3.8 billion-year-old rocks in Greenland and northern Quebec.

It's also not much more than 500 million years after the Earth formed, about 4.5 billion years ago.

Some of the signatures in the Labrador rocks suggests that the organisms that left them were autotrophic — that is, they could produce their own food from chemicals in their environment, as algae and some kinds of bacteria do — report researchers led by Takayuki Tashiro and Tsuyoshi Komiya at the University of Tokyo.




http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/oldest-earliest-life-labrador-1.2503953

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/news/stardust_amino_acid.html

I have no doubt that the earth is far older than 6000 years. I also have no doubt that we are not the only intelligent (questionable statement there) life form in the Universe.
I suspect there have been civilizations that existed billions of years ago as we know time, that most of them no longer exist, and that some of them may be just at the very beginning of their lifespans.
I believe in Science.

I also don't understand why there is such a synchronicity to life, why coincidences  happen that are almost impossible without divine intervention. If there is no God, or no intelligent order whatever, there are just things I cannot explain any other way in my life. It's weird.

I know that I will die not knowing these things, and therefore, I don't plan to waste my time thinking about them. I won't preach religion to anyone, but I also do not understand why atheists are so adamant about proving to people of faith why they are wrong. Unless a so called Christian, and I say so called because I've only known a couple of people during my life I would label as Christ-like, tries to change my way of thinking or bothers me at my door, I don't care what they believe. I hope whatever it is that it gives them peace. I also hope they don't use it to hammer other people over the head with their idea of what's right and wrong. They should stay the hell out of government. Jesus did, right? They are supposed to want to be like him.

As for atheists, I don't get why what  church people believe offends them so very much that they go vocal with it. Someone preaching a Non-belief boggles my mind. I'm not necessarily speaking to the people on this forum-I have a family member who is a member of atheist organizations. Why? If you believe in nothing, that's fine. But having meetings about not believing- LOL. Life is short guys.

Oh, and I also agree with you that Judge Moore is white trash, running around brandishing a pistol in a public place and personally condemning gay people to hell.

He is NOT one of the one or two people I've ever known who I believe are Christians. Jesus never said "blessed are the well armed."

Judge Moore does not speak for all Christians, nor do rigid interpretations of the bible accurately establish time lines or relevancy.

How do you know when God was born?

God was not born.

How do you know God counts time the same way you or I do?

good point, I do not know how God keeps time, but certainly the bible has contradictions in regard to time in multiple places. These distortions are easy to criticize, but not necessary to defend. Creation is an infinity and trying to put a calendar on the same is futility. There are some things beyond our comprehension in faith and science , and some day there may be a unified theory, but until then gloating about primitive science contradicting primitive man's rendition of God's words is silliness.

I do not have to believe what Judge Moore believes to be a Christian.

bigdog wrote:

As for atheists,  I don't get why what  church people believe offends them so very much that they go vocal with it. Someone preaching a Non-belief boggles my mind. I'm not necessarily speaking to the people on this forum-I have a family member who is a member of atheist organizations. Why? If you believe in nothing, that's fine. But having meetings about not believing- LOL. Life is short guys.

As an atheist, I freely admit that some of us are obnoxious about it. I never worry much about if someone believes or not, as long as they're a good person. I'm only vocal about it if the person is overbearing with their religion and try to force it on me. But I know what society I'm living in here in the South -- casual references to prayer or whatever aren't going to set me off. I'm not one of those atheists who get ticked off that "In God We Trust" is on our coins or whatever, and half the time I say "Merry Christmas" because it's what we call the holiday, and it doesn't matter. Everybody talks about Halloween but nobody believes in the Great Pumpkin... well, except that one kid, and he's a little odd.

I think the atheists who do get overbearing about it just get fed up with the constant barrage of religious stuff. If you're a believer, you don't notice it, but if you're a non-believer you soon see that it's EVERYWHERE -- billboards, tee-shirts, half the newspaper, everyplace. You can't get away from it, and it gets old. Ever have a cousin who's really into something that you're not interested in... like, a "Star Wars" cousin or a "Batman" cousin or a "Lord of the Rings" cousin or somebody who's really into the band Rush or whatever? Even if you don't really dislike those things, you don't want to get stuck sitting next to that cousin at Thanksgiving, because you know what they're never-gonna-shut-up about. Well, in Mississippi, 85% of our society is that cousin, but for Jesus. It never stops, you can hardly get a break from it. When you meet a Mississippian, the first thing after "Hello" and exchanging names is "What church do you go to?"... followed by witnessing if you don't have an answer. So, it does wear on people after a while. I get the reason for backlash, although I try to avoid doing it.

But, I've never joined an "atheist group" or whatever. That's always seemed against the point. One advantage of not going to church is freeing up one's time, so... why screw that up by having to go to meetings? Then it becomes a hobby. I don't believe in God, but I don't believe in unicorns, either... it's not something I have to constantly think about and keep disproving.

Pretty much me too. I don't mind either position as long as it stays civil. I would never bring up the subject... and rarely reply to it in person. I just could never reconcile religion with my observations... even when I was 12 or 13 years old. I do have plenty of wonder at the amazing events and orders that allows this tiny speck of perfection to exist. I like it so far... lol.

What is silly to me is that people believe in the silliness of a God when all evidence shows no such thing exists? I mean no matter how many times their God fails them they keep on believing. They then attribute any good thing that happens out of coincidence to a God specifically targeting them. Having faith is just a delusion people afford themselves because they don't understand life and it's origins. They would rather believe some prophet from thousands of years ago was sent down from a fictional heaven to save the world and writings from primitive followers who were a product of the times than reality. I'd much rather believe in "nothing" than delusions of the mind.

Vikingwoman wrote:What is silly to me is that people believe in the silliness of a God when all evidence shows no such thing exists? I mean no matter how many times their God fails them they keep on believing. They then attribute any good thing that happens out of coincidence to a God specifically targeting them. Having faith is just a delusion people afford themselves because they don't understand life and it's origins. They would rather believe some prophet from thousands of years ago was sent down from a fictional heaven to save the world and writings from primitive followers who were a product of the times than reality. I'd much rather believe in "nothing" than delusions of the mind.

Amen!

bigdog wrote:I have no doubt that the earth is far older than 6000 years. I also have no doubt that we are not the only intelligent (questionable statement there) life form in the Universe.
I suspect there have been civilizations that existed billions of years ago as we know time, that most of them no longer exist, and that some of them may be just at the very beginning of their lifespans.
I believe in Science.

I also don't understand why there is such a synchronicity to life, why coincidences  happen that are almost impossible without divine intervention. If there is no God, or no intelligent order whatever, there are just things I cannot explain any other way in my life. It's weird.

I know that I will die not knowing these things, and therefore, I don't plan to waste my time thinking about them. I won't preach religion to anyone, but I also do not understand why atheists are so adamant about proving to people of faith why they are wrong. Unless a so called Christian, and I say so called because I've only known a couple of people during my life I would label as Christ-like, tries to change my way of thinking or bothers me at my door, I don't care what they believe. I hope whatever it is that it gives them peace. I also hope they don't use it to hammer other people over the head with their idea of what's right and wrong. They should stay the hell out of government. Jesus did, right? They are supposed to want to be like him.

As for atheists,  I don't get why what  church people believe offends them so very much that they go vocal with it. Someone preaching a Non-belief boggles my mind. I'm not necessarily speaking to the people on this forum-I have a family member who is a member of atheist organizations. Why? If you believe in nothing, that's fine. But having meetings about not believing- LOL. Life is short guys.

I agree with much of what you stated, especially the part in bold. Where I disagree is with the number of people I know or have known that I believe are real Christians (expand that to "people of faith"). I know many people who I consider "Christ-like" in their actions. None of these people are creationists or hard-core evangelicals. That stuff is as fake as a dinosaur park. The people who promote such fantasies are con artists...pseudo-Christians.

Does anyone remember Old Daze? We both admired the work of Flannery O'Connor.

http://www.thecampion.com/5-flannery-oconnor-stories-that-everyone-should-read/

You are a lucky person if know more than one or two people who act like real Christians should act. My next door neighbor is one. She's been a rarely-attending member of a Universalist type church for most of her adult life. She's in her 90's now and the world will be a MUCH worse place when she passes. I've never known anyone as eager to help in any crisis or as non-judgmental as she is. She told me one time that every single action a person takes is based on either fear or love. I'd never consider those two things opposites before, She is the "mother" of our entire neighborhood, and is grace defined in a human form. Just a magnificent woman.
The other person I've met that I know is a Christian is my best friend. She's been through a lot of troubles in her life, more than most people could ever stand, including the loss of her only son last year. She faced it all with a courage and faith and even a sense of humor that I could not in my wildest imagination dream that I could have. These two women are way beyond what most people I've ever met are- maybe I just hang out with the wrong crowd, but I've attended a lot of churches in my time and I don't think a lot of people in those churches even attempt to be very Christ like in their actions. Judging other people seems to be their number one occupation. If there is an afterlife and a heaven, and I'm not so sure there will be, I think there will be very few people who will make it there. I don't think all of them will go by the label Christian either, because any afterlife that didn't include Gandhi would be a farce. And Hell fell out of my list of things to believe in a long time ago.