I hate dogma of any kind. Dogma, and the persons who benefit from promoting it are stopping real progress for everyone. Religious dogma, scientific dogma, it's all the same to me. Science would seem to have upper hand because you can test your theories to see if they are true. Religious experiences can be anectodal and hard to prove. So until we can actually part the Red Sea no one will believe it. Still if I reason about my world, EVERYTHING I see has been made. The most gigantic skyscraper to the tiniest nano-bot all had to be made by someone. The natural world is infinitely more complicated. I just can't believe it came to be by pure chance. The Bible says that God created everything according to it's " kind ". What happened after that is anybody's guess, a slow evolution of the " kinds " into thier modern varieties? I could buy that. Life was seeded on earth by " God " I can buy that. A " spiritual " realm that co-exists with ours and sometimes interacts with it? I can believe that. What I can't believe is that a small mammal decided to swim into the predator filled waters in the distant past and survived long enough to either find another mammal swimming around and mate with it, Or it reproduced by masturbation somehow and little mammals came along. Then they were not immediately eaten. They swam around too, until they eventually became what we call dolphins today. All this from a "similar " bone from a fossil. That's as bat shit crazy as 1,600 furlongs being the distance from Hoboken to Bethel! THAT is why I am not an atheist. I may not know all the answers but I don't have to believe dogma that sells a Watchtower or a National Geographic.
Dogma #1
Dogma #2
"By the space of a thousand and [six] TWO hundred furlongs. - This cannot be interpreted to refer to the 2100 mile battle line of the world war. A furlong or stadium is not a mile and this is without the city whereas the battle line is within the city. See Rotherham's translation. A stadium is 606¾ English ft; 1200 stadii are, mi., 137.9 The work on this volume was done in Scranton, Pa. As fast as it was completed it was sent to the Bethel. Half of the work was done at an average distance of 5 blocks from the Lackawanna station, and the other half at a distance of 25 blocks. Blocks in Scranton are 10 to the mile. Hence the average distance to the station is 15 blocks, or........... 1.5 mi. Official Railway Guide time-table distance Scranton to Hoboken Terminal, 133.0 ft. New York City Engineer's official distance Hoboken to the Bethel, via Barclay Street Ferry, Fulton Street and Fulton Ferry, 8,850, 4,950, 2,540 and 1,460 feet respectively, or a total of..............3.4 ft. Shortest distance from place where the winepress was trodden by the Feet Members of the Lord, Whose guidance and help alone made this volume possible. (John 6:60, 61; Matt. 20:11.)...........mi.,137.9"
Neither should be believed by a reasoning person.