Thanks for your nicer tone (Lynn?) I don't claim to be an expert on any of this, but I don't have to dissect things quite as much to make my own assumptions or beliefs nor am I defensive. Just don't like debating. My SIL who is the same faith as me likes to debate natural health issues, too, and I won't go there. It is contentious to me and I don't feel the need to go there but it doesn't change how I see things. I'm sure to her, though, my state of health with mercury poisoning is "evidence" to her that my ways aren't good, but they've kept me as healthy as I am.

Concerning things that didn't sell me...I was "updated" I guess you could say with the newer theories out there concerning evolution and the newer information with bacteria, etc. I don't claim to be a biologist, but it still doesn't make me think we came from that or evolved that way. My science classes from college were back in 1979-81 so it had been a while. I was at one time open minded about evolution while still trying to fit it in with creation, but don't feel the need to do that anymore. I have some tapes that talk about how carbon dating isn't that accurate (which I haven't watched in some time so couldn't explain presently, why). How even strata dating isn't. (May not be the scientific name for it....but you know what I mean). I used to think I wanted to go into being a science teacher, but not anymore. I think it confuses too many kids. It is obvious there are things on this earth that have changed and grown and evolved, but I do not believe humans did. I don't believe in neanderthal. I really think, like I said, that men take fossils and make them what they want them to be. I know the differences between the bone structure of the pelvis, etc. etc., and the head and all that. Just doesn't convince me. And yes - I go by faith on some things. I just choose to accept some things "blindly" that I can't "prove" because it is what I've been told is the truth and my spirit testifies the truth of it to me. I don't feel the need to prove it to myself...let alone a zen rebel who likes to argue. (I looked into Zen myself at one time...) I was about to throw religion out the window at one point but found what I was looking for in a church. I don't want to debate religion either, though. If someone wants to learn with an open mind, I'd love to share, but refuse to debate something so personal and precious to me in a contentious manner. My point, I guess, is that I see the same evidences that Zen rebel does but don't interpret them the same way nor do I see them as evidence. Frankly you can get lost in evidence and not see the truth. You can find that with anything. You can surmise that all men are evil if you focus on all the bad things happening in the world. You can think God isn't there if you ignore Him and don't believe in Him and your own darkness will verify that belief to you. We are here to live in faith and THAT is when truth is revealed to you. But you have to be open to it. Truth has all the answers. Truth is reality. Truth starts with faith - even the size of a mustard seed. All this is really about that.