It is difficult to explain complicated scientific concepts to a person indoctrinated by religion, just as advanced math cannot be understood by those who haven't mastered the basics--and thanks to religion few have. I find this sad, because science, like math, is a great tool for understanding, advancing knowledge, making predictions and solving problems.

Francis Crick, in his book "The Astonishing Hypothesis", pointed out that there is no such thing as a soul. Yes, it feels like we have a "soul" but it also seems like the world is flat and unmoving. Humans are so easily made stupid by believing they have a soul--it opens up the door for ridiculous claims about how one is going to suffer eternally unless one believes the right way. The fact is no one can suffer without a brain. Not understanding something does not make it "magic". If something is too complex for you to understand, attributing it to god, fairies, demons, etc. is utterly childish.

I find creationists and the like scary. These faith based beliefs are the same beliefs that allow some leader, warmonger, fear mongers, etc. to define something as "evil". The sheep dash behind this leader in a quest to eradicate this "evil". It is the notion behind every war--where concrete live are destroyed for an abstraction. Religion makes people stupid and it builds a brain not amenable to science (often afraid of knowledge).

Truth is not afraid to be challenged, explored, questioned, dissected, etc. And if you find evololutionists arrogant or not understanding of a creationist viewpoint, perhaps you ought to consider the flipside. Evolutionists usually have far more knowledge and information regarding this subject on their side, but they can't begin to get a religious person to understand because that person has been indoctrinated and is afraid to bite from the "tree of knowledge". Moreover, religious people spawn more children who are likely to be just as ignorant as their parents. And religious people want to influence what my child learns in school.

I was once a religious person with all the same beliefs. I wasn't stupid...it just never occurred to me that my leaders could be wrong. I was trusting. I had been indoctrinated well by my parents who had the best of intentions no doubt. But by reading and asking the right questions and letting the evidence tell the story--I found a far more wondrous and satisfying understanding of this world and this life--the only one I'm going to have. And I am grateful for a brain which allows me to understand, share, and add to the latest scientific discoveries. All things that we have in our life that generations past would find "miraculous" are things brought to us by science--GPS, computers, airplanes, etc.

Few neurologists or biologists of any note believe in the soul. It is well documented that feelings of both ecstasy and agony and experiences take place in the brain. Without a functioning brain, there are no feelings--no consciousness. We know this, because we can actually see it on brain scans and influence it with shocking the brain, chemical substances, and the use of strong magnets (persinger helmet). Moreover, much has been learned from those who experience seizures and those who have brain damage. There is nothing which can experience hellfire, 72 virgins, or endless bliss--without a brain, a person doesn't exist. And it would be the burden of any person making such a claim to show some smattering of evidence to prove otherwise.

We cannot prove god or souls don't exist, because you can't prove a negative. We can also never prove that fairies, and pixie dust doesn't exist, (thought I'm certain trolls exist in cyberspace:-?). We also can't disprove Scientology or the beliefs of Moonies...but that doesn't mean they are any less likely to be true than what any other religion is claiming.

Your own thinking must evolve before you can understand evolution. I couldn't explain the internet to someone who doesn't have at least some general understanding about computers and digital transmission of data, right? But that doesn't make it "magic".

Angelahttp://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/02/02/the_wisdom_of_parasites.php