(October 30, 2014 at 3:17 am)fr0d0 Wrote: That's a cop out though isn't it? Have some balls and nail your colours to the mast. When it comes to the nitty gritty, I don't fall back on theism and say, well, the only thing you can hang me for is that I believe in a god or gods. I get into the detail of what I think. Atheism is a broad term with a simple meaning should we choose that definition. Let's not hide behind it so we can avoid any hard questions.
Nobody is avoiding hard questions, simply clarifying terms. Theists continually attempt to patch together various beliefs into an 'atheist world view'. I assume this is because a theist is accustomed to not straying too far from an established creed and filtering observation through a single source guide that restricts what qualifies as acceptable interpretation of the aforementioned observed facts.
That said, not all Christians accept as fact the account given in Genesis. Some Christians also accept abiogenesis as a reasonable explanation, pending definitive proof, of the emergence of life on this planet. What then of the Christian 'world view'? Is there only one Christian world view? Who decides?
Constraining a conversation about abiogenesis through the prisms of poorly defined, and I'll argue non-existent Christian or atheist world views, is absurd. Doing so quickly leads to arguments about how consistent one's view on abiogenesis conforms to a non-existent standard.
We can discuss the merits of abiogenesis. We can discuss how abiogenesis contradicts what's written in Genesis. We can discuss how some Christians reconcile abiogenesis and the obvious contradictions. Hell, we can even use abiogenesis as the basis for a discussion about belief, justified true belief, and knowledge. This is what I was looking forward to when I came to the thread, but Heywood derailed the potential in the OP by invoking the hideous world view concept and making this just another science vs. god did it (atheist vs. Christian) thread.
So, we can back up and have a meaningful conversation or we can just continue to sling shit.
