Actually, Christianity doesn't outright discourage knowledge; it simply stresses that not all beliefs are in fact true. the world system's mantra seems to be, "All ways of life and all beliefs are equally true"; well, what about all the vast differences between them? So many belief systems constantly contradict each other, which means that at least some of them have to be false. Attempting such an "all faiths are equal" stance would be outright blasphemous to anyone who's really devout. Chances are, if you told a Hindu or a Buddhist that their views were equally true with those of Christianity, they wouldn't be very happy with you.
So because by birth you ended up in a region where you'd be much more likely to believe in the Bible, then the Bible must be the one that is right? Ever think to yourself that if you had been born elsewhere you'd be just as adamant about some other religion?
All religious text contain bits of human truth and wisdom, but it is also filled with a lot of tripe as well.
God commanded Adam not to eat from that tree because He wanted His creations to come to Him for that knowledge in trust, instead of being selfishly disobedient. God's in favor of knowledge, but He also knows there's right and wrong ways to get it.
Sure, the only right way to get knowledge is through him...
Nice system you've got there.
The Bible and such things were a nice way to make sense of the world and give yourself direction back in the day. But many people have worked much harder since then at getting actual answers for how the world functions, and they continuously revise their findings. Religion is basically stagnant, completely conservative in that you have to take things as they are and not question any further.
Actually, Scripture encourages people to pick the verses apart in a search for truth. the problem arises when folks go into that search with a pre-formed opinion that it's false...because in that situation, they will be deliberately seeking random excuses to back up that pre-existing view.
Sure, and that's why Christianity has tens of thousands of denominations, because the way the book is written is so often ambiguous you can interpret it just about any way you'd like, or even better, focus on one part of it that rings true to you and ignore most of the rest.
Well, since God can't lie, anything that blatantly contradicts Scripture would inherently be false. You can't have both light and darkness, and both being equally valid.
But where did you get the notion that God can't lie, that there even is a God? In a book written by men, filled with stories that were passed down by word of mouth for many years, evolving into something different by the time it was actually added to the book.
You talk about common sense, but your admitting you'll only go so far as the Bible tells you you can go. How will you ever expand past the bubble you've set yourself in if you can't even let yourself consider anything but what an outdated, erroneous book tells you?
Your views on geology and science in general are completely out of whack with what anyone who has given the subjects the slightest attention know to be true due to overwhelming amounts of evidence... And you've got the nerve to talk of common sense!
Your just learning from creationist sources, like Bill said, don't go to church to learn about science and atheism.
And who do you think created that conscience? If it's simply a man-made "invention", then why do people freely ignore or corrupt it so much? Evolution ultimately teaches that people answer to no one but themselves; if that's true, then why do we have any moral standards at all?
Evolution doesn't teach us anything. And it functions on a group level, ultimately behaviours that are only beneficial to the individual organism but a nuance to the group won't increase the groups chances of transmitting its genes into the next generation, therefore behaviours that promote group selection will be more likely to help that species advance.
If morals were just a relative concept (as some would seek to believe), then it would be perfectly acceptable to everyone worldwide for a situation like this to take place...
Man #1: "I decide my own morals. I decide what's right or wrong for my life."
Man #2: "OK, then I'm going to shoot you in 2 minutes."
Man #1: "You can't do that!"
Man #2: "Sure I can. See, I've just decided that I make all my own rules as well, and I think that it's perfectly okay for me to shoot you."
Man #1: "But...but you can't do this to me!"
Man #2: "Why? If all morals are truly up to the individual, then how can you say my shooting you is wrong?"
See where this kind of thinking can go really quick? If all moral views were equally valid, then there soon wouldn't be any. The fact that morals still remain is evidence that they're not just a creation of man.
It is sad that some people think that as soon as you remove the iron hand of the Bible from your life that you become some self-centred raving lunatic.
