RE: What Even is Evolution by Natural Selection, Anyway? A Beginner's Guide
Even devout atheists, when going into war as soldiers and are grievously wounded will often call out to God for aid.
No they don't, and in fact formed an organization to dispel that myth. Like the claim that Darwin recanted on his deathbed, it's faith promoting slander circulated by people who are disturbed by the existence of unbelievers and wish to believe they secretly aren't.
To both scientists and the religious, its wise to remember there is an important difference between evolution and abiogenesis.
This is true, but while abiogenesis does not yet have the same degree of support as evolution, there are many compelling reasons to suppose it is true that I have outlined here.
Though I personally don't think we live in a created universe or that life is created, evolution and abiogenesis do not necessarily rule that out. They just indicate that nature, even if ultimately artificial, is complete and works by itself without requiring ongoing intervention.
"Both can and should coexist, realizing humans don't live in a vacuum and are not devoid of irrational feelings."
I do not think this is a good reason to tolerate the assimilation of half of humanity by an apocalyptic cult. I am content that we disagree on that matter though.
Agree to disagree on some points. Gotcha. That's perfectly fine. :-)
I believe there is a spark of something special in mankind. Whether it came from God or something else, I don't claim to know but it continues to be my opinion that humans are more than the sum of their atoms, if you will. That's one reason I don't believe human consciousness can ever be uploaded into a machine, as something will inevitably be lost in the process.
As for your commentary on soldiers in combat, sorry that's BS. Your flat statement refuting even the possibility is unusually inflexible, even for you. Respectfully, don't go spouting off with arbitrary comments about something you don't know about. Or at least don't expect it to go unchallenged. I've been in two combat areas - and yeah, even most of the so called hardcore science-based "no religious preference" types start praying. Note - I never said self-declared atheists don't serve in the military, of course they do. What I said was people who are badly wounded (or more generally, about to go into active combat) will often turn to God for aid.
P.S. As long as that "cult" (not strictly true, as the leader - if you refer to Christianity - is no longer alive) doesn't harm anyone, is completely voluntary, and provides comfort to its members, then there's more net positive than negative.
You're right, I should clarify: It is a common, comforting assumption I see Christians make that nobody sincerely disbelieves in Christianity, and that every supposed unbeliever privately prays to the god of the Bible in times of need.
This does not preclude the possibility that some people have done this. The point I want to make is the psychological pressure driving the assumption that all unbelievers do this, and that no actual unbelievers exist, just rebellious secret Christians.