Hello Alice,

There seemed to be some problems with the groups email delivery. I got
yours, but the email didn't show up on the email listed on the group
page, see
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/atheismuk2/

My reply to you (through the group email) also disappeared. So below
your original message is what I had replied before. It works better to
post through the website than through email clients.

greets,
Peter


>I am online now!!
>
>I am online now!! Any one is online in this group? I want to know
>more friends here. Here is my photo:
>http://staff.maosongsoft.com/uploads/6030/62/3/120586159778.jpg
>Write an email to me if you don`t hate a lovely Muslim girl,
>lol...just a joke, I feel lonely now and want to talk to you!!
>
>my mailbox: spersheer@...<mailto:spersheer%40yahoo.com>
>
>Alice


Hi Alice,

A Muslim girl among an atheist group? You know that Islam doesn't look
kindly on those who abandon the faith, don't you?! It carries a death
sentence in some countries I believe.

Anyway, welcome here. My name is Peter, I'm an ex-Catholic. The email
volume of this group is modest, but still nice now and then.

Actually, there is a bit I could mention while I'm writing anyway. Are
you all familiar with Answers in Genesis, the Young Earth Creationist
group in the US? They are the wackos who claim the earth is just over
6000 years old, that it was fully coverd in water some 4350 years ago
and that all animals includig T-Rex, used to be vegetarians before man
sinned. T-Rex has these big teeth to crack open the coconuts it used
to live on, they say.
That organisation recently started a 'creation science' journal. Some
scientists immediately put up an online challenge for people to get a
spoof paper approved for publication in that journal. I'm a physicist,
I'm in between jobs at the moment, so I have some time on my hands. So
I wrote a paper full or rubbish, but in serious sounding scientific
language and submitted it. They were unfortunately aware of the online
challenge and therefore on heightened alert. They spotted it was bogus.

While it was a pity that the effort failed, it did start a nice email
exchange with the editor in chief of AiG, Andrew Snelling. Below I
paste his latest reply to me. I had asked him abot how he managed to
mix faith with science. His reply was full of religiosity, but
preciously little about science. If anyone can spot three or more
solid pieces of scientific reasoning in there, I'll buy you a beer!

greets,
Peter

----------------------------

Theo,

I haven't been ignoring you. On Sunday I flew from Brisbane via LA to
Cincinnati. It then takes time to adjust!

Thanks for sharing something of your own background and pilgrimage. I can
sincerely understand why you are now where you are. Man's fallible and
finite opinions and works are fraught with inconsistencies and failures.
That's why it's not about what we think, but rather about who God is, and
what He has done to rescue us. I suggest you read an article I wrote for
ICR that was published last year on "Who is Jesus Christ?" It's available
for download from their website at www.icr.org. To me that's the crux of
the issues. If Jesus Christ was and is the Creator, and demonstrated that
power in the miracles he did in front of witnesses, then the
description in
Genesis of His instant creation of all things over six literal days of
human time is totally believable. If this is true, then all other
views are
false, which of course isn't palatable to many with their post-modern
cultural thinking that there are no absolutes and truth is relative (which
in themselves are absolutes! - which is inconsistent).

History teaches us (most people ignore history and don't learn from it)
that science flourished in "Christian" western Europe, because people
believed in the Creator God of the Christian Bible who created a world of
order in which he placed laws for its operation that we could discover. He
wasn't a capricious god like that of other peoples, who could change the
rules/laws of nature overnight, but instead was/is consistent and orderly.
So if He can be trusted in those ways, He can also be trusted to
communicate truthfully, as He has through the Bible.

Anyway, enough of such "preaching". You've no doubt heard it all
before! As
for the response to Ritchie, it may still be on the Creation Ministries
website at www.creationontheweb.org. As for fellow Christians who disagree
with me, such as Wiens, their views are inconsistent with the heart of the
Christian message they purport to believe, namely, Jesus Christ came
to die
for our sins, because man's rebellion against God brought death and
suffering into the world, which was perfect when God created it. Hence
there could have been no fossils (which are evidence of death) in the
ground when God created Adam and Eve.

Again, thanks for writing. I sincerely hope you find a suitable job.

Regards,

Andrew.