I'll second the endorsement of ReasonalFaith.org. There is supporting scientific (and no, I don't mean Answers in Genesis type "scientific") evidence for belief. Being a Christian does not require one to turn off reason or disregard evidence. There are pastors that teach that way, but that's because they don't know any better. Education about the logic behind the Christian faith has been lacking for too long; that's why you encounter so many fideists these days. But their way is not the only one. :iagree:

I went the other way, from atheist to Christian as an adult. I think it's interesting that so many people lost faith over Christians acting contrary to the Christian faith. I think God has a strong opinion about this also: Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Isaiah 66: 3-4 (on hypocrites) “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig's blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.†Jesus had a lot to say about hypocrites: http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hypocrite&qs_version=ESV

Corruptio optimi pessima. Kind. Also, obviously most people would want both. That is not interesting. What people would choose if forced to make the choice--that is interesting.

So people were upset that LoF includes set theory?

This reminds me of that huge Circe thread. I never posted in that thread, but it changed the way we homeschool to something more like what you are describibg here as oldschooling. I think my main take away was that teaching is, at heart, relational and cannot be fully systematized. Therefore, what you use is much less important than how you use it. Not that I know. My oldest is in kindergarten.

I worried about the exact same thing. Turns out, it didn't matter. He's five now and writes like a second or third grader according to teachers I know. I wouldn't worry about it. My son especially liked me to write letters in dashes on his Magnadoodle so that he could then trace over them with the large circular magnet. ETA: This is assuming that even though your handwriting is terrible, you can write a legible single print letter when you aren't rushed. (My writing got much better after the seemingly eternal amount of time my son wanted to spend on the Magnadoodle.) If you couldn't print, then yes, it would be important to learn how, but you're a functional adult, so odds are that you are print capable. I'll also add that my son had to switch styles more than once in those early years due to preschool, but it doesn't seem to have hurt him.

A grilled cheese sandwich made with toaster waffles instead of bread.

I would not see attacking it on the Internet as being in your face. If she has a blog, you don't have to visit it. Tolerance doesn't require general silence or lack of opinion. Is a friend really a friend if you can't look at her Facebook posts and say, "Those are some of the most ignorant/stupid/ill-considered things I have ever read; I love her anyway!"? Now if by attacking it on the Internet, you mean that she is attacking your religion on your blog or your Facebook page, that's different and obnoxious.

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I have friends who think homeschooling is crazy. I have friends who think being pro-life is horrible. I have friends who think voting Republican is evil. I have friends who think limiting media as much as I do is narrowing and small-minded. I have friends who think believing in evolution makes a person non-Christian. I have friends who think I am going to hell. I have friends who think raising children in a religion approaches child abuse. Etc. Etc. Etc. I don't care. They don't either. (The people who do care wouldn't be friends with me anyway.) Love crosses these boundaries.

There's a lot of pathologizing in this thread. I don't think it's that weird. Take a gifted kid with a long attention span, put him in a situation where he's made to believe he's on the side of justice, and of course he goes on and on. If I had a child like this, and I said a bad word, I would apologize. If he continued sulking around, crying about it, and acting angry at me, I would not continue to apologize. That only feeds into his false feelings of justification. I'd have a talk with him about how certain things are just part of life, that his reaction is over the top, that forgiveness is part of good character, and that he needs to go to his room until he can get himself together. And I would tell my DH to knock it off. He's doing your son no favors by encouraging this.

Yeah, there's no way I'd support that. In fact, I'd probably move my current contributions to other charities.

A friend of mine once had to sit through a sermon at her church where the priest implored the congregation to dig deeper to pay for a fancy new athletic complex for the private school because God told him to build it. Ha. There's also a famous pastor around here who was once favorably featured in the newspaper for his rockstar lifestyle with limos, state of the art gym equipment in his office, etc. How he gets people to give him money after that, I've no idea. They do though.

Wow. Rude. (Just my opinion.) I guess this also depends on what they're spending on the money on. If someone sent me a letter asking for more money to fund missionaries, open an orphanage somewhere, expand economic opportunity in a Third World country, pay for tutoring for poor students, or something like that, then sure, I'd be happy to see if I can dig deeper. But if it's supposed to fund a too expensive building mortgage, a million dollar mansion for the pastor, a showy low impact project, or something similar, forget it.

Evangelical nondenominational. ETA: We are so happy with how our church uses its money that it is a joy to give to it. They would never have to ask us to tithe. In the past at other churches, we made most of our charitable contributions to outside charities because we didn't think money given to the church was being put to good use.

So much so that last night he said he'd forgotten that there are stay at home moms who don't homeschool. "I understand if both parents have to work because they need the money, but if somebody is at home, why wouldn't that person homeschool?" (We've come a long way from seven years ago when I brought up the idea before we had kids, and he said, "NO WAY!")