[LOOKAYANNER]

Don't get me wrong. If you're dead set to deny that proof of God's existence is lacking, that is your privilege. The point I made at the beginning of my post was it is far easier to accept that all the life and all the matter that makes up the universe was created by God rather than an exploding rock. To that point I would ask, who created the rock?

And, not wanting to appear confrontational but, as I mentioned, acceptance of the notion of evolution is based in faith, not science. The basic surmise dreamed up by Charles Darwin goes as follows. While observing Marine Iguanas that dove under water during high tide to feed on the algae that grows on the rocky shores of the Galapagos Islands, it occurred to Darwin that these lizards must have once lived in the sea. And, that their feeding behavior must be a hold over of that past life, as they re-entered the water each day to feed. The point is, the idea of evolution popped into Darwin's head prior to any known geologic proof or discoveries in the fossil record.

The scientific community has since continued to build and put together a very impressive and extensive body of data to support the basic premise of evolution. The problem with their work is that never has there been found so much as even one transitory life form, an absolute prerequisite to the plausibility of evolution. They have however, concocted all kinds of charts and divisions that depict man's imagined bridges between animals they say evolved into the animals we see around us and are alive today. They retro engineered a hypothesis to give Darwin's theory credibility. Scientists didn't follow a trail of evidence to conclude that man evolved, they took his assumption and used science to build the elaborate guesswork which is the theory of evolution. No transitory life forms, no evolution.

But to your point. I have much more than words written two thousand years ago. The fact that within those words, are thousands of prophesies that have been perfectly fulfilled with out so much as one failure, is none the less incredible in and of itself. Ironically for this discussion, God has revealed Himself to every man through creation. Romans 1:20 (KJV)
20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"

BTW, if you're suggesting those who are brave enough to defy God are also willing to risk the Judgment and, those of us who have kneeled before Him are scared. I can live with that. At any rate, whether the words one believes are 2000 years old and inspired by God. Or, 150 years old and written by men. You and I are still compelled to accept them by faith or reject them by contempt.

You're vastly over simplifying Darwin's work. And you're also using the age-old method of fear to motivate subjects to faith. Without the threat of fear the numbers of faithful would probably decline. That's one reason it's in most holy books, not just the Bible. It helps with the numbers (and I suppose the offering plate) But I'm not going to get into that. That's a philosophical debate based on opinion.

Also, in your opening paragraph discussing how the universe and life began, you said you'd rather believe that the makeup of the universe was created by God than an "exploding rock". And then you go on to ask, "who created the rock?" Well, I suppose that is a good question, but one would also have to ask, "who created God?" I've read quite a bit about that topic and no one has ever really answered that question with anything that makes any sense to me. You can't have it both ways.

As far as elvolution, it is based on scientific research, not faith. And due to the scientific method used by all scientistist it is an on-going process due to new discoveries and more advanced reasearch over time. Your example of Darwin's work is not being fair to this great man of science. As far as the issue of transitory linage, it has been proven with the fossil record many times, with the most notable being the origin of birds. Archaeopteryx is a genus of theropod dinosaur closely related to birds. It lived around 150 million years ago. It could fly and glide, and fossil records show that it had feathers for an advanced form of flight. Palaeontologist have used the fossil record to trace Archaeopteryx to the origin of birds, basicly the first known feathered bird-like species. This is just one of many scientifically accepted examples of transitory life forms. There are many others but I'm not going to write an essay on this subject.

I have no problem with people believing whatever they want. There's nothing wrong with having faith in a creator if that's what the individual want's to do. Just don't slam the science world while doing it. I have been up and down on this issue for much of my life, and I have not totally ruled out the possibility of a higher power, a creator. But there's no way of ever knowing for sure. It is totally based on faith. However, I consider myself a Freethinker who likes to have logical, provable answers to as many questions as possible. That's not always possible but it's what we need to strive for.
I was raised in a Christian household, my parents were Baptist, as are my brothers and sisters. But as I've gotten older I've been more inclinded to drop the fear and not be afraid to ask questions. The question of who created God is a good one to start with. But there are hundreds more. I decided several years ago if I was going to have faith it was not going to be 'Blind Faith'. I want a reason for it. I've felt more enjoyment reading material about this subject in the area of science. I recently watched a documentary about the origin of the universe on Netflix by the great scientist Stephen Hawkin. He and other scientist are constantly searching for answers through their thought and research. Their ideas and research are very enlightening.