The state of public education in the US has apparently deteriorated severely compared to what it when I was in high school and college in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s. It frightens me to think there are people out there such as Cameron who want to dumb it down even further.

I was expecting something relating to trying to get an award. http://www.darwinawards.com/

His conversion to Christianity (of the evangelical/fundamentalist type) came after he was on the show…

To me he was such hypocrite on the the show. Was he not the honry little teenage who wanted to get in to every girls pants back on the show? Sure did not turn down his pay check each week to be sweet innocent virgin.

I disagree with your assessment that people must choose to believe either in God or the scientific method, but cannot do both. Faith is indeed beyond reason, but it is not antithetical to it.

You state correctly (in my assessment) that the only thing required for faith is faith. Many believers hold that faith itself is a gift and therefore they cannot be arrogant or smug about belief over those who do not believe because their faith is not self-created. You write that, in order to believe, one must deliberately reject facts. Being a believer does not mean that one must disdain observation and study.

In the Nicene Creed of the Christian tradition, one professes, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” If one truly believes that God created the universe, including all the laws by which it operates, then it is only logical that one can get a glimpse into the Creator by studying the creation. It is not unreasonable to infer that, if God indeed created the universe, the universe operates in such a manner as to be pleasing to him, including that idea that living things evolve. If God is the ultimate truth, the believer has an obligation to constantly seek the truth through whatever means are available to him. One needn’t ever fear a new discovery. Each new discovery simply reveals a new facet of the Creator.

Man is given but five senses through which he can observe the world around him, but his understanding of the world is not limited to sensual observation. You talk about observing facts; but, you do much more than observe. You interpret. You reason. You infer. Many of the topics considered most important to people who frequent this forum cannot be directly observed through senses alone. Truth, consciousness, beauty, love, justice, equality and freedom all rely on reason, thought and interpretation, not mere observation.

In my way of looking at it, both the believer and the non-believer realize that there is an infinite amount of knowledge to be learned about our world. For the non-believer, the purpose of studying is to try to make sense of the world and his place in it. For the believer, the purpose of studying is to try to make sense of the world in the context of his relationship to the one who created it.

For some people “faith” means a belief in the irrational and inexplicable. For me, faith is a trust that even the unachievable infinity of knowledge and understanding about our world is but a fraction of the far greater infinity of wisdom and love of the one who put us here.