I envy people who have Faith

[BlueBloodedBlue]

I don't but it must be a real comfort to believe in a higher power and have something that gives a meaning to everything.

That's it really.

Do you have any actual figures to back that up?

Nothing to do with Christianity? So all those Christian countries that persecute gay people are what?

@Malie those countries which have 'sex education to the hilt' also have the lowest abortion rates and the lowest teenage pregnancy rates in the world. My native Netherlands are an example. And please don't try to tell me how religious the Netherlands are. They're not, bar a few small areas where an extreme form of protestantism holds sway. In the rest of the country there's just excellent freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

Tell me how you feel about the persecution of homosexuals - are you opposed? Oh, and where do you stand on the death penalty?

I see you’ve never seen how quickly the Earth regenerates itself. There is of course also the point that the Ark itself would have carried food for the animals. One of the problems is we don’t know the circumstances of what life was like at the time and so we are shooting in the dark. The more I look at your statement the more nonsensical it becomes looking at it from the 21st-century point of view when you haven’t a clue of what conditions were like and insist on performing a uniformitarian outlook on the world.

The figures don’t add up sorry. Perhaps you would also like to introduce the sex industry like they have in the Netherlands with the exploitation of women

@Malie so do you know exactly what conditions were like at the time of the Flood? I mean, I know you said you've lived a long time.

But you have said you do?

There is a Christian in Ireland who has just landed in prison because he won’t deny his beliefs that a person can’t change sex at a whim. Not persecution?

The figures don’t add up sorry. Perhaps you would also like to introduce the sex industry like they have in the Netherlands with the exploitation of women

What figures are those?

Re the sex industry - I would rather it didn't exist, but if it's going to exist then better that women have health insurance, paid holiday, legal protection and pensions, the way it has in the Netherlands. Without those things, the Dutch sex industry would be as it is in any other country - worse. Sex for money is as old as humanity, unfortunately.

So what about the tennis player Margaret Court who is persecuted as a Christian by the gay lobby because she believes that marriage is between the man and the woman? And what about J. K. Rowling who is persecuted because she believes that a woman is a woman and should have a woman’s Wright’s?

What does they have to do with the persecution of gay people in Christian countries exactly?

Women’s rights (no edit facility)

But you have said you do?

Not at all. I've just said that @Vincitveritas ' explanations and article about regeneration after the Flood do not make sense in the light of modern biological knowledge. So far the only answer has been 'well, but things were different then' with no supporting evidence. And that's fine - it's belief. It's presenting a very complex, convoluted explanation to make the preconceived beliefs fit. This is how the religions manage knowledge.

I choose to prefer the empirical method. Occam's razor. Proposing and testing a hypothesis, discarding it if it does not fit. The conclusions of my dissertation were shot down three years later by another student, based on finds at a recent excavation. I didn't have access to that studen't knowledge, but my thesis enabled them to ask questions, posit a new hypothesis and test it, and that was that. Do you know what I did? I sent them an email congratulating them.

Are you going to answer my point or just deflect?

@SnoozyLucy7 I'm not a creationist and don't believe that mankind is 6000 years old.

@Moonmelodies See my previous post - not every single animal was carried on the Ark so aardvarks may not have been on board at all.

@pointythings I do agree it takes a leap of faith to believe these events actually took place.

@Malie if you want to believe in the Bible good for you. People are fine with that. Its your nastiness toward anyone that doesn't believe exactly what you do that's the problem!

You sound to me like like you think you are defending your faith, but you're not - you're belittling other people then being surprised that you don't get a good response. That's why you are getting pushback on this thread. Not because you read the Bible but because you're not very nice to other people. All the 'my friend' and faux niceties that you are now using also make you sound like you are boiling with rage under the surface, which seems pointless. Why? Just enjoy your beliefs and stop having a go at other people and you'll have a much nicer time of life.

I know that you are desperate to be right, but why? That's what I feel your anger comes from. None of us know the truth, and we never will, ever. I'm personally fine with that.

I’m not at all angry. What I can feel is the anger that you guys have at someone who has the temerity to say they have faith. Why are you projecting your own feelings onto me? It is only you who is boiling with rage not me as I am perfectly secure in my position. I’m not desperate to be right because I know what I believe but why then do other people launch their attacks when I say what I believe? They are the ones who are absolutely boiling with anger and call me names. You are the one who says we cannot know the truth and you are obviously very angry with me because I say I do

@Malie 'what about' isn't an answer to a question.

Margaret Court hasn't been persecuted for her views. She isn't in jail. People just like and respect her less because of her views.

JK Rowling has been treated badly by some TRAs, but on trans rights she's wrong. She's allowed to be wrong, obviously, and does not deserve the hate she gets.

The Irish teacher is in jail for contempt of court. That's a crime in pretty much all countries. His refusal to acknowledge someone's pronouns is rude, smug and self-rightous so I can't really feel sorry for him. You don't have to agree with pronouns, but a little basic courtesy hurts no-one.

@Malie what names have you been called?

So the teacher is wrong not to lie to a child?

Wow! So you are one of these people who believe that someone can change sex just by believing they can. Takes a lots faith that!

@Malie you sound like you are going to explode! You certainly are angry.

Perhaps you just misunderstand...other people disagreeing with you isn't attacking you. The way all your posts read is that if you don't get 100% endorsement or agreement of what you believe, you feel persecuted and so angry because you think people are hating on you. They are not, they just have a different belief. Which makes you spiral. Which is pointless, as why not just enjoy your beliefs and the comforts they give you?

Its much lovelier to say just live and let live (I love that approach), but that also seems to make you extremely angry.

I don't think you know what persecution is. Criticism isn't persecution. What is persecution are things like the apartheid in South Africa, which Margaret Court publicly praised. Whereas criticising or even insulting someone - like Margaret Court insulted Martina Navratilova for being a lesbian - is not persecution.

Anyway, like I said, you can't blame the soviet Union for lgbt persecution in Russia when the gay propaganda law was passed in 2013.

So the teacher is wrong not to lie to a child?

The teacher is wrong not to address the child in the way they wish to be addressed. It isn't about truth and lies, it is about acknowledging another person's wishes and preferences. It's the same level of disrespect as someone addressing me as 'Mrs' when I have made it clear I wish to be addressed as 'Ms'. (just to be clear I don't actually care, it's an example).

The teacher is not in jail because he refused to use the pronouns, by the way. He is in jail because he persisted in coming to school despite being suspended on full pay, and then coming to school despite the school having an injunction in place. That is contempt of court, and it is a crime. It really is that simple.

And as a pp said, criticism and disagreement are not persecution.

If the entire planet had been flooded - and it had rained for 150 days, and then it took another 74 days for the water levels to start receding, in accordance with you belief, the planet would be utterly decimated in every way. Think how long, how many years, it would take for the earth to dry out by which point all terrestrial plant life would be impossible to revive. How would that be a 21st century point of view?