Heated debate on evolution with brother

[pocaracas]

He's not going to believe a source coming from an atheist author who he perceives to be "liberal". Francis Collins is about the only scientist I know to point him to as an example of someone who is not an atheist, but who understands and accepts evolution as science understands it. His views on science are totally skewed and messed up. He's a business man and an engineer. He is very opinionated, very good at solving problems, very good at managing money, planning ahead, and coming up with innovative approaches to business and engineering, but he's ignorant as can be about science, and very attached to his own opinions. There simply is no wiggle room there. He thinks he's so smart, and right about everything.

hmmm...
"opinionated"?
"intelligent"?
"thinks he's smart and right about everything"?


Well, the solution is clear: you just need to tell him that he is clearly wrong. Any blonde chick can understand his mistake.
That he can't is a product of brainwashing at its finest. (no, don't tell him this bit... we're working on insulting his intellect)

1. So, mister smart and right about everything... and very religious... Christian religious... tell me, Jesus was born a Jew, pretty much like John the Baptist... ah... but which kind of jew were they?
Pharisee?
Sadducee?
Essene?


2. The evolution of the god (lol, evolution.... see what I did there?)
2.1 What was the main characteristic of the Mesopotamic god "Anu"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu

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is the earliest attested Sky Father deity. In Sumerian religion, he was also "King of the Gods", "Lord of the Constellations, Spirits and Demons", and "Supreme Ruler of the Kingdom of Heaven"

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2.2 What was the main characteristic of the god of Israel "El"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(deity)

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Ēl (...) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or "deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major Ancient Near East deities.

For the Canaanites and the ancient Levantine region as a whole, Ēl or Il was the supreme god, the father of mankind and all creatures.
[...]
Before El's revelation with the name of Yahweh, it is said in Genesis 14:18–20 that Abraham accepted the blessing of El, when Melchizedek, the king of Salem and high priest of its deity El Elyon blessed him.
[...]
According to The Oxford Companion to World Mythology,

It seems almost certain that the God of the Jews evolved gradually from the Canaanite El, who was in all likelihood the "God of Abraham"... If El was the high God of Abraham—Elohim, the prototype of Yahveh—Asherah was his wife, and there are archaeological indications that she was perceived as such before she was in effect "divorced" in the context of emerging Judaism of the 7th century BCE. (See 2 Kings 23:15.)[31]

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2.3 What was the main characteristic of the Jewish god "YHWH"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh

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was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos and the true god of all the world.

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2.4 And the christian god? Everyone knows he's "the father", right?


3. Why do people kneel and worship an all mighty, all loving entity? Why would that god care about worship? Is god vain? Does he require it? Or do the people in charge of the religion require it?
Why would such a god care about what people write about him?
What is the difference between belief in the existence of this god and following the rules of a religion which follows this god?
What is the difference between a god and a religion?
Would you follow the concept of a god, not as described in any religious text, but as you yourself came to understand it through proper reasoning, even if it flies in the face of the religion you were taught to believe in?
Why would such a god care about evolution? He can do anything... he can set things up so that evolution happens... he can set things up so that no evolution is required.... he can do anything he wants... but why make fossils of creatures that seemingly cannot be found among the present-day fauna and flora?