Marji

I'm a Christian - more specifically, a Messianic and I've only been "on board" for a few months but I can definately see why this has driven some folks to drink.

My question is, for people on all sides of the Deity Debate, what purpose does the "we're smarter than you" or "this famous intellect/academic is on our side" type questions serve?

Common sense and experience tells us that there are people of all levels of intellect and education that are atheistic, agnostic, pagan, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. etc. etc.

Am I missing some point, or is this simply just a slightly modified version of the playground "my dad is bigger than your dad" thing?

I expect a few answers that feed the stereotypes, but I'm hoping for one or two serious ones - that are actually more reflective than ranting.

George Barna, Josh McDowell and others have statistics stating that 85% of teens raised in evangelical churches in America stop attending church in their late teens and early 20's. In addition, a SBC study conducted in 2002 found that 88% of all children are leaving the church (regardless of denominational affiliation) permanently once they leave home. My own experience as an educator at the collegiate level indicates this to be true as well. While not all are abandoning the Christian Faith - they are rejecting its current dominate form of expression (the congregational/traditional church).

I posted this info in my answer to another question and received 7 "thumbs down" - which got me to thinking. How do you respond to this information? Denial? Acceptance? Anger? Joy? Apathy? Apprehension? What do you think?

Good? Bad? Indifferent? Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

Is the way we "do church" a contributing factor to this problem?

I spent some time going through old questions (not to mention the countless "new" questions I've seen since being invited over to R&S). It seems that "There is no evidence for the existance of God" is almost a mantra among the atheistic element.

Serious questions: Do you really believe that Theists believe based on a total lack of evidence? Do you really think that Christians define faith as some blind leap into a dark abyss? Is it only Theists who offer an intepretation of empirical evidences with philosophical arguments?

I'm not oblivious to the fact that stereotypes exist because a few folks actually are "like that" - so I suppose my question is geared toward those who "dwell in the middle".

My position is that - while you may well reject my interpretation of the evidences for the existance of God - those evidences do exist and the Theistic interpretation is convincing enough that some folks who do know how to "think for themselves" accept them.

. . . have ever read Jonathan Edwards writings on the topic? Just curious.

Our Critical Thinking homework asks us to sketch a model of the orientation and interaction of HI and Cl that is most favorable for the reaction HI + Cl ----> HCl + I.

All I can figure out that may be applicable is the fact that molecules have to collide in order for a reaction to take place (I know - duh!) - but I have no clue how to "sketch out the orientation and interaction" or even what the question means. Can anyone point me in the direction of the Start Button?

. . . or does anyone else think a Logic 101 course would be beneficial to the general population of R&S?

Can you say Ipse Dixit? I KNOW you can!

I'm not sure what happened, but when I turn on our digital camera, the screen goes directly to Card Setup, indicating that the card is unformatted. I tried removing it from the camera and putting it into the drive on our computer, which also says the card needs formatting. I cleaned the contacts, but that didn't change anything. We've been using it to take pictures of our remodel project and it has been working fine until this happened. The card is less than a year old and hasn't been used excessively. Is there anyway to recover the pictures of our remodel project. Is there anyway to recover the pictures?

I'm supposed to design a scheme to seperate the cations Ca and Pb based on the concept of precipitation and the differences in solubility. I got the first one - adding Cl to a solution of Ag and Cu will cause AgCl to precipitate while Cu remains in solution - but my brain refuses to cooperate with me any further. Anyone willing to offer a jump start?