(September 9, 2014 at 1:15 pm)Losty Wrote: A command does not necessitate the commanded response. A command accompanied by a threat (like hell) is duress and it does/can take away your choice.It doesn't technically take away your choice, but it introduces a factor that can't just be waved away. If god's offer is "do as I say or I'll take away the gift of life and you'll cease to exist" he may come across as harsh but reasonable. If his offer is "do as I say or I'll torment you forever" then he comes across as cruel and heartless. That cannot be rationalized away with "but you have a choice," as far as I am concerned.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
