There should have been a choice for neither.
Usually, those pimping hard in the media for one or the other are trying to raise funds or sell books. And I find that many of them come across as nasty ideologues.
At the end of the day its just a feeling, not facts or evidence.
And humans are filled with feelings. Overwhelmingly so. Some are rational, some irrational, some debatable, and some beyond description.
The other day I was approached by some fellows and asked if I had heard the good news, I politely responded with a no and then they both got really really passionate and starting talking about Jesus before I could blink. I also found myself holding a pamphlet... I was very polite and said I'm sorry we don't share common beliefs and walked off... and one of them actually followed me asking if I wanted to learn about the good Lord. I wonder what kind of society we live in when we tolerate this type of behavior in public. Had an atheist started approaching strangers in the mall I'm sure security would have been notified as someone would have been deeply offended... I wasn't offended as much as I was mildly annoyed.
Lost opportunity: You should have used your atheism to wow him. Or invoked the Great Pumpkin.
When a large group of atheists have such deeply held beliefs that they try and sell their program in public places, call the media. But until that day comes (probably when hell.....I mean Hawaii freezes over), to avoid another shocking encounter like that, try walking away faster.
I sincerely believe that religion is a cancer to man kind. It gives us the wrong motivation for being virtuous, it teaches us that god likes people to suffer to test everyone around them and so forth. What kind of sick message is that?
Perhaps if there weren't millions upon millions of deaths and countless more suffering attributed to religion I'd hold it in a higher regard, but since that's verifiable I will think the way I do... and wish more atheists were vocal about their beliefs. Supporting the notion that we don't need religion is drastically different then selling a particular faith.
Hmm, eliminate all tests. I like that!
In Rwanda, a tribal feud led to mass murder. Hitler, Stalin (atheist!), Mao (atheist!) and the Mongols (just to name four) killed in the tens of millions and religion was no factor in all (though you can argue about Hitler but he didn't hate Jews based only on religion, and, in fact, Darwinian biology actually played a part in Hitler's twisted mindset......but I digress).
You can kill in the name of anything (or not much of anything) under the correct conditions.
I too cannot understand why people who hold "Christian values" dear to them would say that evolution was "guided by God's hand".
Not agreeing with it is fine, but if you can't understand that some people (or even a lot of people) think differently than you on an issue, your head will hurt forever.
Planet earth may have won the lottery and been one of the small % of planets capable of sustaining life (there's little doubt that there's others out there), but that doesn't mean the life on this planet is itself random.
WHOA! There is EXTREME doubt that there is life anywhere else in the universe (I for one think we're all there is), and WIKI says:
To date, no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life has been discovered which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community.
but we still make movies and write books about it, and, one could argue, the belief in extraterrestrial life has become a religion unto itself (and I mean apart from Scientology). Is that good or bad?
Hey, YOU are in DIRECT conflict with science!!! Fifty lashes for you.
There are only two options because the poll is about where life came from. Either it was created, or it wasn't.
The poll is not about religion being true, it's about how you think life originated. If you think there was some sort of divine intervention, at all on any level then choose option 1 as that would render option 2 false.
Then your question may be incorrect. Evolution does not answer how life was
originally created. According to WIKI, evolution is:
change in the genetic material of a population of organisms through successive generations
The most commonly held scientific theory for the creation of the universe is the Big Bang Theory.
Therefore, in the case of Creationism vs. the Big Bang Theory (not the TV show), I choose the "neither" option which doesn't exist, even though I believe it actually does, in fact, exist.