You are wrong about millions of Christians believing in evolution. Evolution contradicts the Bible and if you believe in evolution you don’t believe in the Bible. If you don’t believe in the Bible then you aren’t a Christian or you’re illiterate. I don’t know if you are just too stupid to see something as obvious as this or if you are lying to try and convince good Christians that they can believe your lies without rejecting Jesus. I think ti’s both. I have read a few of the things on this page and you don’t have any idea what you are talking about. You say you are moral but without the Lord you are pissing on at least three of the 10 Commandments which makes you a liar so that’s another commandment you’re breaking. You covet corrupting Christians and that’s another commandment. You said that you were raised Christian so you are disrespecting your parents and that’s another commandment. I’m sure that your lies will lead to the death of many who beliee them and that’s another commandment. You’ve broken them all. You deserve to die in horrible torture for what you are doing and you will!

Evolution contradicts the Bible only if the Bible is being interpreted literally. The Catholic church, for example, has no problem with evolution, but it’s possible that you don’t consider Catholics to be Christians. If so, then you are saying that many people who believe they are Christians are not really Christians, and I think that makes your definition of Christianity overly narrow.

Now, the Ten Commandments. The 10C aren’t the whole of morality (I’d say they aren’t even part of morality unless you are Jewish). There are many immoral acts not listed in the 10C, including some which are worse than some that are listed (I’d argue that rape is worse than coveting, for example).

I won’t respond to your list of my “sins” — it’s really rather silly — but I will ask you a question: why do you care about the Ten Commandments? As a Christian, you believe that Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament and the covenant with Israel, right? Well, if Jesus superseded the law of the Jews, then why are you hanging on to the 10C, which is clearly part of those laws? And if you are holding onto this part, are you holding onto the whole of the law (including maintaining a kosher kitchen, etc.)? Perhaps you are, to use your words, “too stupid to see something as obvious as this” or are just denying Jesus and holding onto the 10C because they are a handy way to berate people who disagree with you.

I like the main page you created, it made me laugh inside. the comments and questions you respond to are either made up, or created by 12 year olds, how a bout debating some real theology, even if this website is a joke, like it appears to be? anyway instead of bitching at you like it seems most people here do, i just want to ask you some questions. and hey, maybe if your lucky ill turn into someone like you.

- how do you believe the universe was created? assuming you are like most other atheists it would be evolution, and don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of evidence for evolution, even though it hasn’t genetically linked one species to another. but you reject the idea of a god influencing it. also the big bang. an explosion of substances and chemicals that creates life and a suitable place to live. the chances of which are the same as blowing up a book, in your case the bible, and the pieces landing in the same way it was originally. you know if the worlds axis tilt was off by one degree either way life wouldn’t be able to exist? id rather believe in something outside of pure chance and coincidence. one more question …. if humans are more fit over monkeys to live, sense only the fittest survive, why are there still monkeys?

“If a watch proves the existence of a watchmaker but the universe does not prove the existence of a great Architect, the I consent to be called a fool.” Voltaire

i know your first immature impulse is to call me a fool, but try and resists.

Wow, you managed to frame some very tired questions with quite a bit of condescension and insult — a rare combination indeed, and one that put me in a foul mood almost immediately. I’ll address your points one at a time.

1) “the comments and questions you respond to are either made up, or created by 12 year olds” — So either I’m a liar or all of the people who write to me are juvenile. I’m guessing that you didn’t read very much of my correspondence. Quite a bit of it was intelligent and insightful. None of it was made up by me.

2) “how a bout debating some real theology” — I am happy to do so and have done so repeatedly in the past.

3) “how do you believe the universe was created?” — I don’t see any compelling evidence that the universe was created. The universe appears to be the result of natural processes.

4) “assuming you are like most other atheists it would be evolution” — You assume incorrectly, and I believe that you are wrong about “most other atheists” as well. The theory of evolution does not have anything to do with the origin of the universe.

5) “there is plenty of evidence for evolution, even though it hasn’t genetically linked one species to another.” — I can’t understand where you go the impression that there has been no genetic link found between species. There is a massive amount of data showing genetic similarity between species — humans and chimps, for example, are something like 95% genetically identical. If you mean something else, you are not making yourself clear.

6) “but you reject the idea of a god influencing it.” — I only reject the idea of god influencing it because I don’t see any compelling evidence for such a thing. If there is a deity involved, then that deity’s actions are indistinguishable from natural processes.

7) “also the big bang. an explosion of substances and chemicals that creates life and a suitable place to live.” — This is an incredible oversimplification of the issue, to the point of near meaninglessness. The big bang did not create life and suitable places to live any more than (from an evolutionary perspective) ancient fish created my parents. The big bang is how our universe began. No chemicals (and, depending on the definitions used, no substances) were involved. It made possible what came afterward, but did not in any meaningful sense create those results.

8) “the chances of which are the same as blowing up a book, in your case the bible, and the pieces landing in the same way it was originally.” — You give the impression that I believe the big bang threw a bunch of matter into the air and it fell into place as planets and living things. I believe no such thing, so your Bible analogy is irrelevant. You also give the impression that I believe the Bible should be destroyed. I do not believe any such thing and have read the Bible many times.

9) “you know if the worlds axis tilt was off by one degree either way life wouldn’t be able to exist?” — If I remember correctly, earth’s axis moves over time in relation to the sun (which is why the north star isn’t always Polaris), so if this is true I’d be surprised. But even if it is true, it doesn’t bother me. I would expect that any planet with life on it would be suitable for life — if the earth’s tilt was such that we couldn’t be here, then we wouldn’t be here to worry about it.

10) “id rather believe in something outside of pure chance and coincidence.” — I can’t argue with your personal opinion, but opinion on this point is not compelling evidence of anything but your desire to believe.

11) “if humans are more fit over monkeys to live, sense only the fittest survive, why are there still monkeys?” — No scientist says that humans are more fit than monkeys to live. In fact, under some conditions it is more “fit” to be a monkey than a human. This question seems to reflect a gross misunderstanding of evolution.

12) “i know your first immature impulse is to call me a fool, but try and resists.” — Actually, my first impulse was to call Voltaire a fool since he asked me to. My second impulse was to be insulted by your calling me immature. So, having been worked into a rather bad mood by the tone of your letter, I will respond in kind. Your condescending missive is nothing more than a morass of tired arguments that anyone with a smattering of relevant scientific knowledge would be able to shrug off with nothing but a bit of sadness for the gross ignorance that they reflect. You do yourself no credit attempting to “challenge” me with what sounds like a collection of anti-atheist, anti-science one-liners passed around among the unlearned for the sole purpose of congratulating themselves for thinking of questions no unbeliever could possibly answer without going to the trouble of actually checking whether they make any sense.

If you do have some real theology you’d like to discuss, I’d love to hear it. But if this is the best you have to offer, then I suggest you do a lot of reading before you again attempt to show off your debating skills. You do neither yourself nor your beliefs credit.

You are the most hateful, horrible evil man I have ever found. How dare you presume to know more about how to raise my child then I do! [Name] is a good Christian and if she has any questions she can find the answers in the Bible. I’d tell you to read it yoru self but it would burn your fingers to the bone. There is no room for doubt in the love of Jesus Christ. Doubting His love is rejection of the Holy Spirit which is the greatest most unforgivable sin. She is NOT old enough to be talking to perverts on the computer. She is a CHILD! I saw your Web site now and see that this is so much worse than I could have imagined. [Name] will be on her knees with her father and me praying for forgiveness for what you have done. You are the devil’s servent and when you burn the angels will sing.

Please do not punish your daughter any further for this. I have no problem with your being angry at me, but your daughter is completely innocent of everything but stumbling upon a Web site and asking a question. Depending on how she uses the Web, she may have even been directed to my site inadvertently. Now is a time to explain to your daughter why you are concerned, not to punish her for trying to use her mind or sending a curious e-mail.

Take a step back and look at this situation. Don’t let your anger make you do something that you will later regret.

I am a mother and a Christian. I monitor my daughter’s email and saw that you recently sent my daughter [name] an email encouraging her to “think about” cher Christian values which is just a slick tongued way of tempting her to turn her back on the Lord. My daughter is 15 and still a child. She relies on her parents for moral guidance and should be free from the machinations of a child preditor such as yourself. I can only imagine where you would have tried to lead [name] if I had not been there! She should have told me immediately when you contacted her and she has lost her computer priviliges for two weeks. If you continue to harass her or attempt to contact her in any way we will inform the police. I will pray for your soul.

Madam, I have no idea who your daughter is. I receive a great amount of correspondence through my IAmAnAtheist Web site and blog, and most of it is either anonymous or signed with a screen name. I don’t know the age of most of the people I correspond with, and frankly I feel that anyone old enough to write to me with an intelligent question is old enough to receive an honest answer. These aren’t toddlers asking whether Santa exists.

I encourage all people — religious or not — to think carefully about their beliefs, and frankly I think you should, too. How is your daughter supposed to resist temptation and know right from wrong if she is not confident to her core in her own religion?

I must be very clear here — I didn’t contact your daughter, she contacted me. And to be further frank, if she lives in a house hold where inquiry into the religious beliefs of others gets her two weeks of lost computer privileges, then no wonder she is asking questions behind your back. You might do better to give her a little freedom now rather than trying to keep her bottled up and risking a full-scale rebellion when she’s old enough to head out on her own.

I appreciate your offer of prayer but, frankly, I think you need to use them at home first.

I can give you a source that will answer all of what you’re looking for and I can guarantee that you can’t read it from cover to cover and not believe. Its called the BIBLE. And don’t try to tell me you already have, because I know you’re lying.

My home library has nearly 100 Bibles and books about Judeo-Christian scripture. I’ve read the Bible in whole several times, in a variety of translations, including the 12-volume Interpreter’s Bible. I’ve read particular parts of the Bible more than this, including multiple readings of the Gospels when I was putting together my www.gospelsinparallel.com Web site.

Can you tell me what it is in the Bible that you think would compel an atheist to theism? You may be interested to know that it was my first attempt to read the Bible from cover to cover as a teenager — and the religious community’s response to my questions about what I was reading — that lead me down the road to atheism.

I look forward to your response. I also hope that your knowledge of the truth of your beliefs is based on something stronger than your “knowledge” that I have not read the Bible.

I think I need to make my position more clear. “God” or “god” or “deities” or whatever you want to call them don’t exist. It just makes no sense to say that they exist. People like you who play into the hands of religious gropus by semi-validating their aspaciotemporal beliefs but call themselves “atheists” are more correctly termed “idiots” and/or “morons” and/or “dupes.” Lumping me in with creationists and other starry eyed dunderheads is a cheap shot and a complete ad homonym attack, I had hoped you were above such things

Thank you for demonstrating just why you get so much hate mail and how thoroughly you deserve it. I can’t believe I wasted all this time on you.

This is a very interesting letter, in that it seems to be pretending to be part of one of my regular conversations. Fortunately I can tell that it’s not — both from context and from its e-mail origin.

Just in case anyone else out there has feelings similar to the hoaxer, let me point out that I never intended a personal attack against the person I was conversing with. I think his views are legitimate, and the fact that something he said reminded me of something a creationist said is not at all intended to imply that his arguments are not valid.

I also don’t believe that I’m “validating” religious beliefs by saying that I can’t prove they’re wrong. Not being able to prove something untrue doesn’t make it true.

Holy fuck! You’re a woman! I read you saying that you don’t like to talk about whether you’re a man, then I read more of your comments and it’s obvious you’re a woman and just tyring to hide it because you know that it explains everything! All the great thinkers are men. Men wrote all the great works like the Bible. Jesus just had women around to wash his feet. You can’t use female logic to get out of what the Bible says anymore than you can use it to get out of math class. Everyone here will now understand that you hate God probably because you’re ugly, or you’re having your period, or you are mad at your dad or got a divorce or some guy raped the fuck out of you. You’re such a stuck up, conceited know it all bitch that I can’t even blame him! You probably just hate the bible because it says you can’t be a whore or a lesbian and what you really need is a real god fearing man to give you a good smack and send you back into the kitchen to get a better of your rightful place. You know what you need? You need to take it up the ass a couple of times good and hard to remind you where you belong. If you don’t do it know then you’re going to be getting it up the ass for eternity in hell, bitch!!! Don’t ask me to come over there and do it because I wouldn’t soil my dick in you, skank.

Rape isn’t funny. You’re not funny. I don’t even know if you are serious, but you are a good example of why I don’t talk about my gender. Some people think gender explains everything.

when i saw that you said you hadn’t posted because you were having financial trouble i laughed my ass off. you deserve what you get asshole

God helps His children. You have lost your job just as you lost your Faith. You should learn a lessen here. That you are rejecting the master so you should not be surprise dthat you are in sorrow. Your eternity of punishment has begun. Embrace Jesus if you want salvation and an end to your misery.

Glad to hear your out of work! Fate has caught up with you for your sins and arogance! Now maybe you’ll do us all a favor and starve and die!