I don’t know if you’ll read this, but the way I look at it is this:

If someone provided me with an opportunity to have my kids hit in the head with a shovel every day free of charge, I wouldn’t take it.

Because school would be a negative thing for them, I choose not to send them there, even though it would be free to do so.

Deciding to send your kids to school because you’re allowed to and it doesn’t cost anything is the wrong attitude to have.

Why?
Maybe you don’t want to, deep down inside. Maybe its not “cool” to believe anymore, or its too much “work” & effort.
Kids get teased at school for being religious, so from an early age it becomes a negative in their minds & they often avoid it for fear of this ridicule. This is why they often only bring it back into their lives again when they get older, & wiser.

Every day, God proves his existence to me…. over & over again.

Why?
Because he loves me, & I want him to, & it feels great.

When I ask, I receive, & when I knock, the door is always opened, & when I seek, I always find.

These things don’t just randomly happen at the exact moment I ask…… time & time again right through my life…..

Let ignorant non-believing scientists, or any non believer try to explain that.

I believe science proves Gods existence 100%.

God is the greatest scientist of all time & the best & most intelligent scientists & thinkers of our time have intelligence of an infinitesimally lower level compared with that of our creator, so who are they to say he doesn’t exist, because they don’t have enough intelligence to prove him.

How do you think this universe became what it is?
Do you really believe it was random?? That’s Impossible!

It has to have been designed & created by someone/something(we call him God). How does it all work so scientifically perfect?
I believe in the big Bang theory, but I believe it was created by God, the greatest scientist of all. It wasn’t just a big explosion that randomly created the universe then life just randomly fell together & randomly evolved…. come on, surely we can’t be so ignorant to believe that. Every step in creation is directed by something of omnipotent power & intelligence.

If it wasn’t, then science & evolution wouldn’t make any sense at all.

As for those who believe in creation, as stated in the book of Genesis, well, don’t take it literally.

Maybe you should try to look at it in the way I believe God intended it, when he inspired the writer.
Like most lessons & inspiration in the bible, Genesis is meant to explain how God expects us to live. You don’t need to take it literally. It is a “parable”, just like all of Jesus’ parables.

That is how God teaches people. They are meant to be pondered upon so you can figure out for yourself the lesson in them.

We all have God inside us. He is the voice we hear as our Conscience that tells us the difference between right & wrong. We all have this voice in us, whether we believe in him or not, & he uses it to guide us.

Our thoughts are intangible, so science cannot prove they exist….so does that mean they don’t?

God Exists

I hear your point and was I not working FT I would probably do the same. But then my point is as a taxpayer, don’t my kids have a right to public education?

Christians are already homeschooling their kids in droves which is our ‘this sucks’ answer to this whole problem.

As individuals are given more choices, individuals will choose by supply and demand.

There are looonnggg waiting lists at public schools? aren’t there?

The bible states in 1 Corinthians 1:27

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”

Jeremiah 29:13
“You will seek Me (God, Jesus Christ) and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

There’s no reason to believe that the Judeo-Christian “God” is literally real, any more than there’s reason to believe Zeus or Athena or any of the other thousands of deities humans have invented and worshiped over time are real. They’re all cultural constructs in some ways similar to ideas such as “Freedom” and “Duty”.

My background: IQ in the low 150s, degree in Computer Science, employed by a scientific research institution, raising my son as an Ethical Humanist. I was raised Catholic, which I consider a cultural construct that has outlived its usefulness. I hang around Buddhists when I feel a need for some spirituality in my life.

Your excellent point about Pluto also applies to Blair’s point about humanity’s transition of belief that the earth was flat to the earth being round. This is exactly science – it’s a never-ending exploration of the true nature of things. Just because a scientist once observed that “Pluto is the furthest planet in our solar system” didn’t make it an unprovable fact. It was considered a generally and widely accepted theory about the nature of our solar system. When the information changed to reveal the true nature of Pluto in our solar system, the science had to change with it – along with the books on this subject. Science is a process/method of learning – not an institution of truths. By it’s very nature, science accepts its own fallibility and is continually changing to adapt.

Blair: your statement about the nature of God seems arbitrary to me. What if the true nature of God is the complete absence of information and knowledge? Certainly this is more consistent with religious faith where what you know is less important than how you feel.