Heres a thought that just popped into my head: is the reason so many religious people(no matter the denomination) oppose/believe homosexuality is a sin because they've been taught that people are created in the image of God. And being born gay isn't possible because it would completely shatter that theory?
Not exactly. More like, the "religious people" have interpreted select passages of scripture to mean that homosexuality transgresses God's teachings. I don't think the doctrine of being created in God's image has much, if anything, to do with that and certainly isn't threatened by the practice/tolerance/acceptance of homosexuality.
Anyway, that's kind of off-topic, isn't it?
I like this thread a lot. Not that my opinion matters or adds anything to what has been expressed, but I struggle to believe that a higher intelligence in the universe didn't start this whole thing we are trying to make sense of now, and evolution was a deliberate part of that. But, with the pretext that there is indeed a higher intelligence involved here, I struggle with the question of why this vast intelligence-- "God" seems to have stuck-- would set all of this in motion, and then, for all intents and purposes, simply move on and leave us to our devices. I mean, most spiritual/religious explanations I hear characterize us more as a science experiment than anything to me. How does our sentience figure into the whole thing, if after millions of years of sitting on this relative speck of dust pondering our existence, the only thing we've figured out how to do REALLY well is manipulate and kill ourselves and each other? Are we confusing sentience with being special, when the truth all along has been that creation itself is the point of the whole thing, and we're just a part of it, with no truly significant role to play? Does the intelligence that launched this little blue orb-shaped raft just not really care all that much what we do with ourselves? Did he/it observe long enough to see where we were headed, and then throw in the towel? Why aren't there more of us close enough by so we can talk to each other, because it seems like that would be really beneficial? I'm not asking why there isn't intervention, but why we are here at all, when it looks like the everything we know would either be better off without humanity, or at least not suffer from our absence?
Yeah, yeah-- that's where religion comes in and gives purpose to our longing for purpose, explains our reason for suffering, etc. But why? Because that's not good enough, man. I'm exhausted by this meaningless construct of a world we live in; a vague suggestion of faith-based reward doesn't cut it for me any more than the cold belief in nothing. Peeks, you said something about owing your children a better explanation than you can offer them now, and that hits home for me in a big way.
Sorry for the long post. All my sleeves have heart stains on them lately.