[Bond]

Originally Posted by Teuthida

But really, why would a supreme being who created all of everything, make one-celled organisms on this planet? Given this discussion, I'm assuming you don't believe all the creatures on Earth were magicked into existence like the really religious types do.

I find this to be a particularly agonizing point that Evangelicals who discount evolution tend to make. Having a God that needed to intervene to create intelligent life, or who needs to intervene in every step in the evolutionary (intelligent design) process is not impressive. Indeed, it is the sign of an incompetent God.

A far more competent, and impressive God would be able to set life into motion with one stroke of the pen, with the eventual outcome being intelligent life. Evolution is God's friend.

Originally Posted by Vampyr

I'm asking specifically, why do you thank god for what you have. Why do you think he expended his power to help you, but not use it to feed someone who is starving?

Why do you assume by thanking God for what one has, one is also affirming that God extended His power to help? Is this what you assume religious people mean when they do this? For most I know, it is not.

Also, I see sporting events all the time where a player will have a great game and his or her team will win. At the end, they usually thank god.

How do they justify believing that god helped them win a football game, but he isn't saving starving people?

Again, are you assuming these players, by praying, are thanking God for helping them to win the football game, or do you know this for fact? I've watched a few players speak on this subject, and what you assume is incorrect for them, at the least.

I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but I think you might be seeing what you want to see in the actions of religious people.

Originally Posted by Typhoid

Life cannot be pre-determined if you have a choice, and if life is pre-determined, nothing you actually decide is a 'choice', it has all already been chosen for you by God.

Free will and determinism are compatible under the philosophical thought of... you guessed it... Compatibilism. See: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/compatibilism/