Your thoughts on prayer

Thank you, Diana!

By the way, the latest Dawkins TV prog is available in full here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4471435322910215458

Worth watching, in my opinion.

This is a game of ping-pong, John!! I know Richard Dawkins and others want to present evolution as fact but it still remains a theory. I also commented that there are many scientists that don't sing from the same hymn sheet as our eminent professor. Presumably they have examined the same evidence.

Anyway, in the interests of balance, here is something that anyone with an open and unprejudicial mind might find most interesting.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee

Has anyone read the book or seen the PBS showing of "The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life?" It was excellent in my opinion. Here is a link if anyone is interested:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/

Sue, thanks for the link to that website. I've spent a fascinating hour or so reading various sections of it, and I hope I read with an open mind. I certainly tried to.

But when I read this:

No apparent, perceived, or claimed interpretation of evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record...

I had to conclude that the people who run that site can't possibly claim to have minds that are 'open and unprejudicial'.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/about/faith

They also say the following:

Those who do not believe in Christ are subject to everlasting conscious punishment, but believers enjoy eternal life with God.

That's me in eternal hot water, then! 

On the contrary John. It's the people who make statements like this that are in eternal hot water, not you. And I say that as a Christian.

John, please try and ignore the 'religious' element here. I don't believe in eternal damnation, either.

I could, if I decided to look, quote  equally hardline and dismissive words from Richard Dawkins. He is as adamant of his 'truth' as they are of theirs.  Personally, (though disregarding the eternal punishment) I found my beliefs strengthened when I came across this website. It is a thorough as any evolutionary angle. The bigger picture, to me, is that when you and me, and Richard Dawkins have cast off this mortal coil, the greater part of humanity will continue in their belief and love of our Creator.

In St Paul's Cathedral, the monument to Christopher Wren reads something like "If you seek his memorial, look around you."

I look around me, and into the night sky, it's not a memorial though, but a testament to a power my mind cannot even begin to imagine.

We will have to agree to differ, John. 

Not read or seen that one, Diana.

I did read C S Lewis' Mere Christianity many years ago - and long before that I loved his Narnia books. In fact it was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that first got me into reading.

Sue H - thanks for that! Mind you, I quite like it hot!

We will have to agree to differ, John.  Fair enough, Sue G-R. As I said, I just like discussing this stuff. Keeps the brain-cogs turning! Thanks for playing!

 Yes, this is interesting and even more so is the myths of yore, and rather they were real...or an species of imagination of the spirit realms. I think our own playing around with genetics and cloning and even husbandry of the past goes to show you that we do indeed "evolve" in many cases. I think it's going to be an stand still of middle line case forever. Indeed it is that as far as we know we were made in the image of "God" and different then say an bird, at least for now...but if you go to the Native Ameircan Shaman,..they talk differently then what they merely see by way of physical looks.  I remember the first time I was told I was I had an "eagle" for an totem animal.  I was much into understanding the concept back then. OK...and what makes you say that I said...they said...look at your life as it is "naturally...hum...you have one child, most "Eagles" seldom have mroe then two chicks, they mate for life..hwo long you ben married...hum over 40 years..didnt' you say you wereborn in June, that makes you an "air" sign doesn't it?...well I guess it does and on went this conversation...until I understood what an "totem" is. I am an "eagle" I do beleive now. I liked his saying that we are all an tree and we branched off in the years into different species of the same tree perhaps.I am though somewhat beleiveing strongly in "God" and I am learning that there are an myrid ways of doing that also.  

I am though somewhat beleiveing strongly in "God" and I am learning that there are an myrid ways of doing that also.  

I certainly agree with that, Shirley.

I've had many, many chats with different religious folks and found that, when you dig a little below the surface, they all believe in different Gods!