If you believe, as I do, that all people serve their own perceived best

[heidler1]

interests then you may feel compelled as a Christian to make extra points with your God by converting a non believer. However, if your explanation of faith is so shallow and obviously put forth as a safety net for your own chance at eternal life the conversion is going to fail because it will not meet the test of true concern for others let alone any logical probability of truth.

Just because your own need for mental tranquility is met by believing in some unprovable objects of your faith these do not carry any weight with a person who's mental tranquility stems from seeing a perceived scientific connection in his/her view of the universe.

If someone tries to upset this perceived scientific view of truth with blatant disrespect for the scientific methods expect the nonbelievers to react with all their well honed logical ability. Faith does have a numerical advantage in regard to people, but it has little or no chance in a logic quarrel. One could say quite truthfully that it was rather dimwitted of the religious to start a logical based fight in the first place.

With all of the internal rethinking about getting God into the Constitution and science class rooms, who appears to be the loser? IMO the loser in this is and will continue to be the religious community. Why? Because parents are more concerned with their children growing up to be competitive and they are sure that scientific truth is more apt to make their kids competitive. Yes, this a more precious perceived self serving behavior.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Not all carry the concept of God you describe

Not even all Christians :) . I have friends who are Christians who attend Unity, and as mystics their believes and God concepts are similar to mine (I'm not a Christian). We don't have a problem with science, and believe that it should be taught in schools rather than "creationism", which, after all, only fosters one concept of God and God's realtionship with the world, nature, and mankind. But I don't know that people like us have any more sway with those whose beliefs follow those of the fundamentalists. Since we don't believe in trying to convert others to our concepts, we try to educate without insisting that these people forego their tenets. It's tough, and often frustrating, because these people's faith is often fear based.

[heidler1]

3. OK your not in this fight for changing the Constitution or selling ID,

which is good, but the fight is real and my post was meant to show how and why it is not a smart fight from a Christian standpoint. IMO all people are basically selfish whether they admit it or not, but of course you get to disagree. Some people practice enlightened selfishness where in there motivation protects others because in the long run this works better and is therefore actually & realistically more selfish. This is where Bush and the Republicans are so sorry because they have do not believe in any protection factor for those who are less fortunate.

[applegrove]

2. People do good by growing their whole lives and adjusting that

percept. Someone passive like me becomes more assertive and selfish, the controling types learn to let go.

People learn and change. You hope.

I don't think that your title is normal for people, or christians.

[heidler1]

4. It is a complex issue and I did not explaine it very well.