I don't describe myself as religious as that to me has connotations of order and regulation that I don't ascribe to. However, I am a man of faith (I believe we all rely on faith in some way) - I've directly experienced God and as a Christian most people would pigeon-hole me as "religious". I have not directly experienced or observed evolution. I find macroevolution to be too large a leap based on the evidence I've seen.
You describe me¹ as adopting voluntary stupidity. Could you give me some pointers as to where I'm being stupid.
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¹ I'm assuming "religion is voluntary stupidity" to mean "all those with religious faith are choosing to be stupid".
Yes, but I don't have time right now - suffice to say I have as much faith in the external existence of the world as in the existence of God. I'm quite skeptical (in the metaphys sense, not quite pyrrhonic though) but as much as I experience through sense data the world and by extension other minds; as much as that I believe in the triune God of Christianity (but not all the details, many I'm agnostic on).
You describe me¹ as adopting voluntary stupidity. Could you give me some pointers as to where I'm being stupid.
When you say "I am a man of faith", followed by "I find macroevolution to be too large a leap based on the evidence I've seen," you're demonstrating that you hold an inconsistent worldview. You demand an arbitrary, apparently-unmeetable standard of "evidence" from your biology teacher, while giving your anecdotal, irreproducible, and wholly subjective experience of "God" a free pass. That's stupid.
However, your writing doesn't suggest any innate cognitive handicaps. That's why I'm assuming the stupidity you exhibited above is voluntary. It's something you could overcome with education and disciplined thinking, if you wanted to.
giving your anecdotal, irreproducible, and wholly subjective experience of "God" a free pass
I only give my experience of God the same free pass as I give my experience of reality. Yes it's subjective.
Has anything ever happened to you that you mentioned to someone and they simply said "don't believe you"? For example I met Tony Blair on the beach once and my flatmates didn't believe me - hardly an impossible scenario - as it is communicating other experiences. For some reason we don't each recognise our experience of God or experience Him as directly.
I don't think my standards for biological evidence of macro-evolution are impossible to meet.
You describe me¹ as adopting voluntary stupidity. Could you give me some pointers as to where I'm being stupid.
--- ¹ I'm assuming "religion is voluntary stupidity" to mean "all those with religious faith are choosing to be stupid".