I don't mean to unsettle you any further but I do not subscribe to the Big Bang theory and I do not have faith in science or for that matter the scientific method.  I try to keep an open mind at all times and if I catch myself believing in something I immediately start to doubt it (i.e., play the Devil's advocate role).  I invite you to read my "The Simplicity of Existence" article at http://www.atheists.net/pages/simple.html .

Darwin Bedford
www.atheists.net



At 12:32 AM 12/13/01 -0500, you wrote:

first there were amino acids near or in volcanoes or geysers or something like that, right?
then through some chemical reaction these acids led to the forerunner of modern DNA. Okay, I think I got it so far.
next, simple cell organisms
simple multicell organisms
ocean life forms emerge and diversify
some fish, at some point, decides the water is just a wee bit too salty and decides to march to the beat of a different drummer.
round about a billion years later, I'm sending you this E-mail.
Hey! I understand this whole progression thing.
You know its just like the universe itself, sort of.
The whole big bang thing, right?
It all started off with that BIG BANG.
You know, something the size of a grain of sand or a golf ball or a watermelon or Jennifer Lopez's ass. Well maybe not quite that big.
Then BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM, right.
Now we got particles, and sub-particles, quarks. All kind off Science class stuff.
We get our garden variety gas clouds
Soon we get some stars. Even our very own sun.
We get planets...solar systems...galaxies. Thousands of them. Millions maybe.
Even planets that develop life which in course evolve into humans.
Yes, I think I understand this prevailing wisdom.
Of course it takes a little bit of faith to believe them with any certainty.
Similarly, it must have taken some small measure of faith to believe the prevailing wisdom of our scientific forefathers.
Intellectual giants.
The likes of which gave us such enduring theories as the Four Elements. Or perhaps the one that so astutely explained how our planet was the center of the universe. And let us not forget that prior to the voyage of a certain Mr. Columbus, the world was truly flat!
Right??
 
Anyway back to our current morsel for scientific digestion, Darwinism, which of course was only made possible by the BIG BANG.
No Big Bang, no earth.
No earth,  no Darwin.
No Darwin, no Darwinism.
Progression.
 
I have but one question.
Before Man,ape,fish,amino acids,earth, gaseous clouds, quarks and so on ever came into existence there was this incredibly dense matter.
It fueled the BIG BANG.
 So, heres my question.
Where'd it come from?
Ha? Ha? Can ya hep me out with that one?
Was this really dense matter that makes a pulsar look like cotton candy sitting on a shelf somewhere in someone's garage. Maybe behind an old coffee can full of screws or that half a gallon of semi gloss that your saving in case little bobby gets ahold of another magic marker?
Could someone please direct me to the web address that can tell me where I may acquire some of this dense matter.
I think I would like to start my very own universe.
As for you Mr. Bedford. Don't be so mad. And please realize that you too have a great deal of faith in things unseen.
I believe that makes you faithful, maybe even religious.
People who are religious in the traditional sense typically find it easy to except the Bible, Koran, etc. because they contain many of the same values that they believe. As well as preaching Love, forgiveness, and the belief in a higher power.
Inevitably, you must believe in a higher power as well. Clearly you have faith in things unseen.
I hope you have enjoyed this letter and welcome any response.
 
 
                                                                                                         God bless, R*****