This is one of my favorite Bible passages, Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3:
verse 18:
I said in mine heart
concerning the estate
of the sons of men,
that God might manifest them,
and that they might see
that they themselves are beasts.
verse 19:
For that which befalleth
the sons of men
befalleth beasts;
even one thing befalleth them:
as the one dieth,
so dieth the other;
yea,
they all have one breath;
so that a man hath no preeminence
above a beast:
for all is vanity.
verse 20:
All go unto one place;
all are of the dust,
and all turn to dust
again.
So, did you realize that the Bible supports Darwin?
Here is a link, in case you want to read the whole chapter:
Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3
I am a firm non-believer, but I like the Bible, because I think most of it was written by non-believers.
I think the Bible is mostly parables, except for Ecclesiastes.
I think the parables are mostly about searching for the correct philosophy.
So, if a Bible story seems odd, try reading it as a parable about searching for the truth, the correct philosophy.
For example, an important part of the correct philosophy is the understanding that
there is no good,
there is no evil.
That is the meaning behind the parable of the forbidden fruit.
The forbidden fruit is the belief in good and evil.
If you believe that, you can easily become like Fred Phelps.
You give up on the evil people, and you tell others to do likewise.
I have had folks here at Daily Kos claim that
some people are willfully ignorant,
give up on them.
Some people are jerks,
we can wish them dead.
Some people are assholes,
douchebags,
etcetera.
But the truth is:
The correct philosophy has no good,
no evil,
anywhere in it.
The weather is cool,
here in Wichita,
49 degrees.
I walked the dog with no jacket.
I walk the dog in short sleeved shirts,
unless the wind chill
gets below 40.
There was no wind,
so we walked,
I in short sleeves,
Rowdy Joe in his classy red fur coat.
He cannot wear doggie clothing,
because,
his fur coat is so thick,
he would be way too hot
in a sweater
or a Halloween costume.
The miners are out,
in Chile.
I imagine a world in which
we only have one billion humans,
or less.
In that world,
we would have much less need
for whatever they were mining
out of the Earth.
Maybe we could salvage
metals.
We could burn wood,
and we would never cut too many trees,
with less than one billion humans
on planet Earth.
Or, we could still mine coal,
but very little.
And somehow,
I feel,
the news would never be
such a big deal.
Even though each event
would affect a larger
percentage
of all humans,
I feel
that each news event
would seem
less important
because
it affects
less
people.