1. Order/complexity does not imply design.
2. Design does not imply god.
3. Teleological stance makes you question the design of the designer and who designed the designer of the designer of the designer, etc.

Try again.

I would totally agree but the point is that there is no good evidence for 'god' to be the judao-christian god or allah or whichever specific deity you want to believe in.

Obviously you cant prove that god does not exist but it is very difficult to prove that anything doesn't exist, unicorns and fairies for example.

False analogy comparing God with unicorns and fairies.

AFAIK there are no theopanies claimed for unicorns or fairies.

Richard Dawkins used the same point, and fwiw you misunderstand, not comparing god to unicorns, the example is used to illustrate the impossibility of 100% disproving something.

also, alot of people think they see fairies

You don't have to be religious to believe in God. But the real reason religion will never go away is this:

For many people the universe just doesn't feel right without it.

For many, life doesn't seem right when they are not killing other people. IDK if it's related to what you were hinting at but it could be, maybe we will find the answer to this in the distant future.

As far as the op:

As education goes up religion goes down. If education continues to go up religion will continue to go down. But I think education will go up linearly while religion will go down exponentially. All believers doubt their god because their god never shows himself. If there god doesn't show himself and education shows why he cant show himself (because he's not there), it will be a quick change (relatively)

So because the universe as we currently understand it doesn't "feel right" we should just pick the most self-serving and personally satisfying possibility?

Once again - the universe does not owe you a god or a happy and loving story of creation, no matter how deeply and repeatedly your ego may demand it.

And on top of this, when your 'believing' is wrongly giving yourself pleasure at the expense of others (such as when Christians vote not b/c of who is best qualified for a position but b/c of that persons religion, or when they disregard sep of church and state, make stem cell research meh, make reason and logic appear to be the devil in spirit, making little kids ignorant of science, etc etc etc etc).

Your unjustified pleasure is our pain.

The universe feels perfectly fine to me. Its you who apparently has a problem with it. My belief in God has nothing to do with my ego. It has everything to do with observations of the world around me.

Yes, it's perfectly fine to you because you've chosen a completely arbitrary explanation that allows you to avoid instead of confront the universe. You pretend to have non-existent knowledge of the universe and envision it to be completely centered on human beings simply because you prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition to humbly accepting that you do not know.

People with the courage to explore the cosmos even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, throughout history have obscured your self-serving superstitions and will continue to do so. It will be these people whom probe the universe's first cause and true nature in future generations, not people like you who think they've got it all figured out from a book written by ancient goat herders.

Keep cherrypicking science. Ignore your spiritual gene and the several areas of the brain with spiritual functions. Ignore the fact that animals don't exhibit various religious behaviors like prayer. Nor do animals build huge philosophical systems, legal codes or have our elaborate tool usage. Do you know any chimps writing any computer operating systems?

Splenda, stop offending your relatives.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/0...rush-tool.html

You're really not worth replying to.

First off your post is designed to insult by addressing me as "Splenda" which is not my avatar name.

You really need to read the bible. It teachs you that if you want to teach someone anything really important you have to show them lovingkindness first.

Obviously you don't display that so theres no reason for me to take exceptional notice of what you are saying. (Its rather funny that the atheist way is "conversational intolerance". Its the surest way to doom them with religious believers because it visibly demonstrates a lack of the spirit.)

Besides your post only proved what I said above.

I think a lot of former theists on here got knocked off their faithful paths by the nonstop ridicule on here when they should have identified it as a display of the carnal mind of people who lack the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

2 John 1 (Contemporary English Version)

Truth and Love

4I was very glad to learn that some of your children are obeying the truth, as the Father told us to do. 5Dear friend, I am not writing to tell you and your children to do something you have not done before. I am writing to tell you to love each other, which is the first thing you were told to do. 6Love means that we do what God tells us. And from the beginning, he told you to love him.
7Many liars have gone out into the world. These deceitful liars are saying that Jesus Christ did not have a truly human body. But they are liars and the enemies of Christ. 8So be sure not to lose what we [c] have worked for. If you do, you won't be given your full reward. 9Don't keep changing what you were taught about Christ, or else God will no longer be with you. But if you hold firmly to what you were taught, both the Father and the Son will be with you. 10If people won't agree to this teaching, don't welcome them into your home or even greet them. 11Greeting them is the same as taking part in their evil deeds.

Maybe you can explain to me Eddi what kind of a person replaces lovingkindness with conversational intolerance.

25,000 years from now they will have extremely little idea about anything that happened in the year 2000 and anything they do know is probably way off. They might think chuck norris was the president of the united states and we all worshiped aliens.

Awww, can I call you sugar-babe instead, Splenda? Admit it - you're more bothered by monkeys or horses being your relatives than by me calling you Splenda

Eddi (2p2 version):
You who hold on firmly to what you were taught and refuse to change no matter what, are a fool.

Maybe I can, maybe I can't, it's all in God's will.

Actually it bothers me not at all.

If God decided to blow divine breath into a chimp to create humans then so be it.

The bible does mention the word "kind" as Pletho pointed out.

What if God wants it to be a mystery so we focus on spiritually evolving instead of on physical reductionism? How can you spiritually develop if you won't focus on it and work at it?

ROFL, if God decided to take a divine piss to make rain then so be it (and a divine fart to make thunder?)

divine dandruff for cocaine imo

Humans haven't evolved from chimps, but they share a common ancestor, somewhere between 5-7 million years ago. Of course, our common ancestor is no longer extant.

Yes.

I'm more a historical, teaching, literature and law person both educationally and by natural inclination and that keeps me attuned to all those themes going on in the bible more than the theme of the creation does. I'm a latecomer to science but I agree with Francis Collins of the Human Genome Project. He says spiritual truth and science truth can both co-exist without refuting each other.

John Eldredge says this:

Born into an Epic

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

-Genesis 1:1

A Story. An Epic.
Something hidden in the ancient past.
Something dangerous now unfolding.
Something waiting in the future for us to discover.
Some crucial role for us to play.
Christianity, in its true form, tells us that there is an Author and that he is good, the essence of all that is good and beautiful and true, for he is the source of all these things. It tells us that he has set our heart's longings within us, for he has made us to live in an Epic. It warns that the truth is always in danger of being twisted and corrupted and stolen from us because there is a Villain in the It calls us up into a Story that is truer and deeper than any other, and assures us that there we will find the meaning of our lives.

What if?

What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears - what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast?
We won't begin to understand our lives, or what this gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we have found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an Epic that has already been under way for quite some time. It is a Story of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a Story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal.

Excerpt from "Knowing the Heart of God" by John Eldredge.

Er....yeah they can...except when it is "spiritual truths" and "science truths" that refute eachother. What's next on his list of revelations? That two grown men does not have to disagree on choice of cars?

I also find the distinction between "spiritual truth" and "science truth" to be absurd.

Well isn't there always a struggle in evolution. One side doesn't have to choke the other side out do they?

Struggle leads to progress.

Besides when you overcome something difficult don't you appreciate what you've learned more?