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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] atheists declare religions as scams.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 4, 2011, at 4:32 PM, spike wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:27.0pt;color:#1F497D'>A christian evolutionist is not necessarily a contradiction</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>></span>There are christian evolutionists but it is a contradiction, they just live with it the same way all religious people deal with the absurdity of their beliefs, by putting their ideas in little air tight compartments with no way for them to interact with each other. Christians believe in a benevolent God who can do anything, so He could have produced the complexity of our world by just snapping his metaphorical fingers but instead he used Evolution, a hideously cruel process. That is FAR more evil than anything Satan did in the Bible<span style='color:#1F497D'>… </span>John K Clark <span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>John, the way I am using the term christian (with lower case c) implies atheist. The term is more of an adjective. So in this sense a christian evolutionist is one who is generally comfortable with the culture that tends to form in societies where upper case C Christians live, can deal with their superstitions and so forth. A lower case c christian can be one who was once an upper case C, but was crushed beneath the overwhelming weight of evidence for evolution, and who were then forced by the iron grip of reason to follow that observation to its logical conclusion. We were convinced against our will that there is no blissful afterlife, no 73 virgins waiting our arrival, at best a future as a sim in a holodeck, at worst, nothing. Outside observers could scarcely tell there was a profound phase change occurring in the mind of that former upper case C believer as she reasoned through the consequences of unambiguous observation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Other than that unfortunate incident Mark 11:15-19, Jesus really wasn’t a bad guy. He is lucky the moneychangers didn’t gang up and beat the holy shit out of the anti-capitalist bastard. But other than that, he was a good lad.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>