It might seem strange to you, if you have only approached the Bible with a devotional methodology. But there are many things that can be learned from the bible without “trusting” it; especially if by “trusting” you mean I don’t believe it is infallible.

The “criterion of embarrassment” is used in conjunction with other criterion to determine the likelihood of any statement in the bible being about the historical Jesus, instead of an invention of pious followers. The bible states that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, and it’s highly unlikely his followers would make up such a shameful fact. For this and other reasons it makes it relatively likely that Jesus was actually a bastard child.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_criticism

Sorry, a non-physical source of motivation would disrupt the law of cause and effect, while a physical source would not.

If you’re interested, here is a long but fascinating discussion of this very topic.

http://jsomers.net/careenium.pdf

If your god “designed” this he’s not as good of an architect as you might think.

I would probably recommend Ken Miller; he’s a theist (Christian-Catholic) and an “evolutionist” (re: a biology professor). This book is probably a good place for them to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_a_Theory

Warning, though, he doesn’t pander to religious fundamentalists.

Thanks for your insightful comment.

very well said.

Once you get away from the dogma of “this way or no way”
all religion becomes interesting, because you are free from restrictions. This is coming from a Christian.

“Matter became self-aware through a process of physical and psychological improvements.”

whoa buddy, slow down.
consciousness is not the result of the brain and the brain only, that would disrupt the laws of cause and effect.

I was not surprised to see

mentioned as an evolution source.

to all theist, I recommend also reading books on evolution that are NOT written by Dawkins. Dawkins has a way of injecting anti theism into every word he says, and you don’t have to deny god to embrace the warm feeling of logic you get by reading about evolution.

No problem, I was wondering, lol! I thought English might be your 2nd language, but I didn’t want to say anything just in case it wasn’t. It’s much better now; I hate typing on mobile phones.

As to “what I read” that discredits creation, I challenge you to read ONE book on evolution that isn’t written by an creationist. Just. One. Single. Book. When you’re done with that book you can ask me again.

But yes, direct contradictions in scripture were a key I needed to break my dogmatic believe in scriptural infallibility. You CAN believe differently than you are taught; it’s just hard. It start by being willing to read books written by people you completely disagree with. Here’s one book you might start with:

I sincerely hope you take me up on this. You seem to be a really nice person and I’d hate for you to be so deceived by those who twist religion to fit their aberrant dogmas.