OK Burlyman, here's my take. I don't believe in the Devil. I believe that man is responsible for his own evil actions. I also don't believe in the Serpent either. The Devil is just a lame excuse for explaining a person's bad behavior or even someone's mental illness. Do you believe mentally ill people are possessed by the Devil Burlyman, or have you long since "evolved" from that belief?
As for your your example of a gay guy that went straight and had 3 kids, either he was never gay in the first place and in actuality is a bisexual who's just repressing that side of his feelings out of self-loathing and fear. We all know how society ostracizes people for being different from perceived "norms" and religion can be most intolerant of those who don't follow those norms. Some people will resort to the craziest of things just to appear normal. Scientists also haven't found a "gay gene" but other studies have hinted that chemical conditions in the womb can have a effect on fetal sexual brain development,
separate from genital development by the way, so there's that little tidbit to mull over. In fact, conditions in the womb affecting the genitalia and the brain sex of the fetus
may be an evolutionary adaptation to changing climate conditions or food availability that somehow maximizes survival, we just don't know yet. We need more study and there's that inconvenient science again. Even if we eventually find that certain hormone or chemical exposures in the womb causes gayness, what then? Monitor every woman's womb to prevent gays from being created? A little eugenics maybe? I don't see that going over very well with most women, unless of course they happen to be from your camp and are deathly afraid of producing, heaven forbid, a gay child. In fact, if it were eventually proved that climate change caused the births of more gay people, I'm will to bet that every conservative in the world would suddenly and enthusiastically be on board with reducing carbon emissions, no matter the cost.
Since you don't believe in evolution, which is a scientific theory and has a lot of evidence to back it up making it difficult to outright ignore, I'm also personally free to not believe in most of the Bible's "theories" about the origin of humans either. There's ample evidence in just the Earth's rock history alone that the planet is far older than the Bible claims, so that's a big hit against Biblical earth's age "history" right from the start. There's also the fossil record that refutes the timeline of the Bible as well. Humans and dinosaurs did not live together, contrary to those ridiculous Creation Museum's claims. That's just plain ignorance.The Bible is not science, only a series of stories and parables written by men with very little understanding about their world and the universe. Human's really didn't delve into science until the Renaissance Age anyway.
Yes, I'm a moderator of the E&C, along with Jeff250. No, I don't have it out for you or anyone else. I have to be impartial. Read the who's who at the top of this forum. I tend to delete personal insults more than Jeff, but if admin wants a free for all, fine with me, although it would get pretty foul around here very quickly. However, a little spicy conversation to liven things up is not something to wantonly delete, but even then, personal attacks are still out of bounds, according to the "unofficial rule book". Top Gun, and sometimes vision and callmeslick, tend get carried away. Even I have in the past, and paid for it with a deletion. Insults get deleted. But they have to be
personally directed insults before I moderate someone. If people want to rant and rave with every four letter word in the book, they're free to do so because this forum has a swear filter for those more "sensitive" members. Me, I don't care. I worked in a shop where swear words were every other word in a sentence and I'm hardened. I've got some in my repertoire that would burn your ears and using them would be so uncouth. But baiting anyone to the point they insult you personally is not productive to the conversation and not classy. Your little Jim Carrey .gif was definitely troll bait. Funny, but still bait. It certainly wasn't germane to the topic at hand and you'll notice that I had to delete your personal insult directed towards Top Gun in the same post. By the way, monkeys turning into humans is not a personal insult. It's an actual accepted scientific theory. Until God comes down to Earth in spectacular fashion and tells us we're all dead wrong and we're in for a reaping, humans and science will continue to move beyond those still wallowing in their superstitious pasts.