So, all you Brown fanboys we have in the house can you list the major plusses of GBs reign as Chancellor and PM? Personally, since the day he strode into office with the words (in effect) “there will be no more boom and bust” I have the opinion that he is an arrogant, deluded bell end with little understanding of what prudence means or how to run a national economy. I suspect that time will prove him to be the worst chancellor we have ever had, leaving this country with a crippling debt that whoever succeeds him as PM will be stuck with for decades. I cannot think of a single good thing that GB has done, so please, fanboys, educate us and show where we are wrong.

Its absolute rubbish to say the bible provides with any moral framework in fact the opposite is the case.
People who do good because they believe they are going to heaven are morally nferior to those that do good but believe they only have one life. In effect in this instance one could argue those who dont believe in god have the high moral ground.

Perhaps you should have a read of it sometime. You seem to be stuck in an Old Testament time warp with some obscure examples. Not sure how you arrive at the opposite point either.

I also think you will find that Christians do not do good becasue they believe they are going to heaven but rather because they believe it to be the right thing to do even if it is a cost to themselves. Christians / religious people do not claim to have exclusive access to “doing good”. No good act is morally better or worse than another. Religious people though are driven through a combination of their own personal moral compass and the lens of the faith that they subscribe to. Where the two differ, they will endeavour to do the thing that their faith suggests is the right thing to do – which is not killing babies or lynching homosexuals.

2) The Big Bang Theory is just that, it is the best model scientists. physics bods and cosmologists have been able to come up with so far. It is open to pretty fierce peer review and additional data from new experiments. And it wasnt a “couple of atoms” it was the entire universe condensed into a singularity. I have had the good sense to investigate religion before giving my opinion on it, please extend the same courtesy to science.

My, it gets even better. And people have difficulty in believing in a deity? So, we play with semantics a little with the big bang. But even so, surely a reasonably intelligent person would struggle to believe that the entire universe was compressed into a singularity?

And why the scepticism over someone’s wife being healed through prayer when, as has happened in a number of cases, the physicians have done all they can have no other options open to them? I have no idea why she was healed and I have no idea whether there really is a God that healed her. I think you will find a majority of Christians who will struggle to answer the question of why some are healed and others are not.

Anyway, as had been commented I don’t think our rambling uninformed discussions on here will change what anyone does or doesn’t believe. Or solve world peace. Or make those nice new Shimano bits I want any cheaper.

It’s rather fascinating seeing how some people are happy to posit an argument based on no knowledge and little fact when it comes to discussions of religion and berate people who choose to have a faith of some description and yet will quite happily exhibit those very tendencies when it comes to arguing about the benefits and joys of mountain biking or one bike / part / etc over another. The truth of the matter is that you have extremists in almost all walks of life and the argument shouldn’t come down to knocking a belief system because there are bunch of nutters at the extreme ends. And since when was evolution a 100% guaranteed, proven fact? And these completely infallible scientists who are obviously intelligent and superior because they don’t believe in any religious system always get everythint right do they? LIke global warming? No playing with figures there is there, or bad science? Oh no, because they are intelligent human beings who know everything and would never make a mistake. Or what about the big bang? So you find it hugely amusing that a large number of people choose to believe in a devine being but are happy to believe that suddenly, like a Paul Daniels magic trick a couple of atoms mysteriously appeared into the cosmos (which of course didn’t exist at that time) and exploded with such a mighty bang that we have a universe that is trillions of miles wide and still growing and filled with all manner of gas and rocks and minerals. Right. And you think Christians are a funny bunch? So which of these can be conclusively proved? The universe started with a big bang or God doesn’t exist? I don’t know about you but I am not sure I am in any qualified to authoritatively and conclusively argue either of those. While Christianity may get knocked it does provide a framework and a moral guide to many people against which they can assess their decisions and how they live their lives, to motivate them to think of others and do good for society as a wider entity that just themselves. For all the hilarity in these posts I don’t think anyone would necessarily disagree with the fundamental guidelines of Christianity or see them as somehow bad. But then again, in order to know what they are you would have to know what you are talking about and to have studied what those core beliefs are. And that’s just too much effort for most on here so instead we will pick up on the fundamentalist weirdos and octogenarian vicars with their tea parties to show that Christianity is somehow just for sheep who cannot think for themselves and somehow believe in a fairy story. And Richard Dawkins is not a self centred, pompous cock is he?

Ho hum.

Thanks for the heads up CG and understand.Hmmm, two badly behaved ladies – definitely need to leave the kids behind! I guess they can go shopping with wifey for the day. :-)

I am hoping to come along as well. Might bring my daughter with me too maybe even my son if that’s ok. They are 14 and 12 respectively and have spent many happy (well, mostly happy :-) ) hours trundling around Swinley. I know quite a few of the routes but would love to see where you are planning to take people and what sort of things you are hoping to get up ie. will you be heading out through the corkscrew and on round to Babymaker / Labrynth etc.