Prairie_Scouter

Guys, c'mon. I know that I'm new here, but we're not going to be able to have an open discussion if we quickly drop into personal attacks. I think it's good to have this kind of news out in the open. The bad part about this is that news coverage never, ever, covers the entire story. They'll cover the sensational part, and then quickly move on to the next "body count". At least that's how I see it. So, there's value in knowing that a Scout Council had a problem like this because maybe we can learn from their mistakes. But, since it gets very difficult to follow a story once the me

I don't think the issue with Boy Scouts has to with how many atheists there might be, or whether they are growing or shrinking in number. The question for Boy Scouts, I guess, is whether they can substantiate their claim that atheists cannot make good Scout leaders because of their beliefs, or lack thereof. As far as I can tell, their main argument in favor of their policy is "because we said so". Regards the comments made about finding a loving God, there are those who believe exactly that, and there are those who believe that your "loving God" is the same God who brought us the Crusade

To Hunt.... As I think about it, you're right. The two issues are related, but I should segment my thoughts better. I'm kind of new to these forums, and still learning the ropes. I'll try to steer my commnents to the appropriate threads better than I have.

Thanks a lot for your insights, folks. Appreciate it. I'll take that all into consideration.

Fuzzy, I agree with you 100%. People seem to feel the need to stifle any dissent against their God, even tho their God seems perfectly capable of taking care of him/herself (anybody remember the story about the Great Flood?). I've been a believer for some time that, in the grand scheme of things, the major religions of the world are pretty much a net zero game when it comes to the good vs bad that they've done over time. I've read that Christianity spread rapidly across Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages, as a percentage of population, largely because they killed off so many of t

To Hunt.... I'm not so sure that that's true. If I were to belong to a religion that believes in the inclusion of gays, then that would seem to be odds with Scout doctrine. Taken to its conclusion, then, I wouldn't be able to sign an adult leader app that requires me to agree with Scout doctrine, which would disallow me from Scouting. There have been examples, haven't there, where particular religions found their Scout religious award (I forget the formal names) at least temporarily "de-commissioned" because their faith was at odds with BSA on the gay issue? I'm almost certain that that

Well, of course, I could be completely wrong :-)

Wow, what an interesting site the Geocentric Bible is! The basic premise behind their belief system is somewhat reasonable, ie, "well, we believe this, and everthing you say to counter that can be explained in some way by our belief system". Well, yeah, I guess so. The same is true of any belief system. I think science differs in that it tries to explain things within a set of rules that are consistent with each other, while religious belief allows for contradictions within their own belief set, explaining them with such things as "the Lord works in mysterious ways". Sure, could be. Frankly

I'm sure that, like me, most of you see the same folks helping out at our kid's activities, whether it's Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, PTA, other school activities, sports, etc. We have the usual problems with getting parents to help out, but we've noticed something interesting recently. Interesting, and potentially politically sensitive. When you look at the demographics of the parents who participate, you get a smattering of everything, but what we've noticed is that there is virtually no participation by people of Indian descent, whether they be Indian or Pakistani, etc. Check th

to Rooster7... I think that the real difference between people of science and people of faith is that the process of science is one of constant discovery and rediscovery. Laws are constantly being updated, proven, and disproven. People of faith hold onto faith regardless of what contrary evidence is placed in their way until the evidence is so overwhelming that they are forced to let go. How many scientists were killed before the Church would admit that it's teachings on the flat Earth and the solar system were incorrect? I find the whole idea of Biblical literalism to be quite intere

To Torveaux... Your comment is sort of a chicken and egg argument, I think. The laws of physics operate within the domain of the known universe. Since there was no universe at the time of creation, there was no domain for the physical laws to exist in, therefore, no laws of physics because there was nothing to apply them to. Now, having said that, you're entering into an area that scientists have debated for years and years, and this is, can science allow for the existence of a God, or does everthing, by definition have to have a scientifically proven answer? You have people who believ

Not that we need to discuss the laws of conservation of energy, but the basic laws of physics relate to the amount of matter in the universe, and that's what they're talking about. When they say that matter can be neither created nor destroyed, they are talking about the constant amount of matter in the universe. Einstein's equation relates to the conversion of matter to energy and back. Relating to the posters comments on the thought that BSA policy has not changed, etc., I would respectfully disagree. The interpretation of Scout philosophy as originally discussed by Baden-Powell cre

I think that there's a certain reality that has be considered as well. BSA is not going to change it's policies easily, regardless of whether they are right or not. The move of BSA headquarters to the Bible Belt should have been an indicator of where things were going. The BSA leadership seems to be insulated from the opinions of the local units; I really don't think they care what we think one way or the other. I've been a leader for about 7 years now, and I used to think that it was possible to enact change from within. I've come to believe that that's not possible with the BSA. So, I