cain, when he was thrown out of the garden for killing his brother, went to the land of nod to find himself a wife(gen 4). my thinking on this is, that when god said "let us make man in our image, after our own likeness" (gen 1:26), what he was saying was , "let us take one of these men things, and mod him to be more like us". this would mean that the wife that cain found was an un-modded human, possibly along the lines of a sexy neanderthal chic that had a kink for murderers.

this doesn't sit well with most christians, because it conflicts with the traditional view of 'intelligent design', but is it so unbelievable?

Wheat? You traitorous slimwad. Don't you know by now that the signature grain of choice for most Snarkpit members is RICE! If your going to make an example of nature, pick a more perfect grain. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_lol.gif">

Personally, I am just about tired of near minute pages.

? quoting Addicted to Morphine

UD, your rice fixation is getting out of hand

And seriously, this thread is only six pages and it took:
SnarkPower made this page in 92.142 seconds

Seriously. Not counting the time it took the page to load for me to SEE your reply, it took over 5 minutes for the subsequent pages to load so I could reply, and now, there is no telling how long this reply will take to post. I am figuring about 7 minutes per post.

As for the rice thing. I use it as a simple tension breaking measure. This thread is to serious and needs a comic relief moment. Its not heated or anything. Its just to deep for a forum.

I have had discussions with religious people in the past. Its a topic that cannot end on a good note. It may end cordially, but never end well.

Religious people tend to act 3 ways when you discuss things religious.

1) If you pin them down with scientific fact, they will slither away with Gods will that science exists so science is gods will.
2) benignly, if you show scientific proof they will act as if its sad that you cannot see the religious beauty of science. but otherwise not hinder you in any way.
3) denial- there is no science that can ever explain things. ever.

In the end, everyone can only hope that the discussion will end with a parting on good terms in so far as "agreeing to disagree"

Rice on the other hand. Everyone loves rice. If not to eat, then to throw, or make alcohol. Everyone uses rice in some form even if its only the paper they use to smoke with. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">

You know, there is absolutely no good way to take a comment like this. Why would you even think of posting it unless, you intend to be an ass?

My viewpoint on religion, is just as valid as anyones. Even if I think that discussing it can come to no good thats no reason to insinuate that I cannot comment any way I please within a public forum and format.

If I think that the discussion needs a breather, I can interpose one any time I feel like it as long as there is no harmful comments in doing so.

Unless, you are suggesting that this thread must remain pure for some reason?

And, you guys say I post without thinking first.

I find that the biggest hurdle that man in general cannot overcome is the immense time frames involved when discussing how man got here. Most would like to think themselves capable of envisioning it clearly but the fact is damned few actually can. A good analogy I guess would be one that my teacher used upon us when I was in school. If someone could ask an ant, how long they had been there, the would most likely say, "Always". The tree's, and rocks have been around as long as they can know so in their viewpoint, their world has been around nearly forever. It would be a massive overstatement to say that man is on the same level as an ant in relation to our place in the universe but it does have some basis for contemplation.

Man just cannot wrap his mind around millions upon millions of years of natural selection. The very idea that man cam from a lower order of primate truly makes some cringe. It doesn't matter that most of the scientific evidence says that this is exactly how it happened. These people cannot envision the slow be inevitable actions of natural selection when it comes to how an organism evolves from one stage to the next.

Personally, I have always been of the mind that we are the accident from some mishap eons ago. Some cosmic spaceship dumped their toilets and the blue ice of doom landed on this planet. I do not believe in some higher power governing our progress. I believe that given time we will find life elsewhere (or it will find us) but in effect it will show that life is basically the same everywhere within our realm of the universe.

Our makeup is predominately iron based. Not because iron makes the best building block but because its one of the most common elements available on this burg we call home. I do believe that a metal will probably be a base for all life throughout the galaxy, but whether its iron or not will depend on whats most common on the other worlds.

If there is an entity at work, its not driven by how smart it is, but by how smart we are. Natural selection is the only true power.

Anyway, thats my view.