Well, you should explain to all of your miracle-believing friends that they are completely wrong.

By your own logic, the bible is riddled with errors, as it supposedly documents MANY impossible, not improbable, events. It takes an almost completely figurative reading of the bible to come up with the idea that it's not contradicting science.

In other words, it's only useful against the vast majority of Christianst. If you've studied Christianity and haven't realized that, you might want to dig a bit deeper.

Yup, it's a tight bit of circular logic that apologists like Keating attempt to ignore by making silly claims about a "lawful spiral" and other such nonsense.

That's some specious reasoning, there. Of course Catholics were involved with the development of science. But it certainly wasn't a church function.
That being said, I think that the OP was not being clear. It is not that the pope doesn't accept the scientific method and reasoning in general. It's just that he uses compartmentalized thinking to avoid applying those principles to certain cherished beliefs. Unfortunately, this sort of thinking is fairly common, even among those who understand science and skepticism, and it's not limited to religious thought.

Been there, done that. It's a fairy tale with no more validity than any other religion. Special pleading for your favorite deity is a fallacy. Waving hands and whispering "mystery" is silly.

I didn't. I said that Christianity was instrumental in creating the cultural climate which enabled Hitler to scapegoat the Jews by tapping into existing prejudice. The fact that he also abused others has zero bearing on these facts.

Yeah, it's not like he was drawing upon a rich history of persecution against the Jews. This doesn't sound the least bit familiar to you in this context?

Hitler's attempt to scapegoat the Jews was primed for success by European Christian society.

There, fixed that for you. Dawkins is a brilliant evolutionist and a good defender of science. And he is a shithead when it comes to sexual harassment. If this attitude is the new face of the atheist movement, then fuck it. I no longer spend time or money on such things, and I'm not going to play ball with a bunch of sexist fuckwits. And if this is your attitude, then fuck you, too.

Then you are simply not paying attention. That's just one site, and 10 seconds of typing to get to it. Make an effort to read the data, don't bitch because you aren't getting spoon fed.

Jacques Cousteau had two close calls with oxygen toxicity in his early career. This prompted him to work with Emile Gagnan to develop the Aqualung regulator, based on a demand regulator Emile had designed for cars. To this day, the principles developed by Cousteau and Gagnan are still used in modern regulators. The Titan and Conshelf regulator lines, for example, even use the same parts as some of the classic regulators, like the Aqualung Royal Aquamaster. The design is solid and stable enough to be used for newly designed doublehose regulators as well.

Everyone else passed out, exhausted from the hours of waiting. I was the only one left to hold vigil over my grandfather as he lay on his hospital bed. His breathing had degenerated into shallow gasps, like a motor stumbling and dieseling after the key is turned off. His eyes were open, blank and staring at a ceiling that he had long since lost the ability to perceive. No blinks anymore. No response. All through that night, I held his hand, knowing that the man I loved was already gone. It just struck me that it was so damned pointless. He was dead, and no one in the family had the wherewithal to let his body follow his mind. It was the epitome of thoughtless cruelty, both towards my grandfather and towards the family.

I see what you are getting at, but I'm just not sure it is true, or at least, largely true. Perhaps your church is after nominal Catholics, but the majority of missions I was aware of were not shy about wanting to save church-going Catholics, as they considered it to be a heresy. Missions to the Philippines and South America were the most egregious. There was even a Spanish speaking church started in the local town I lived in which was focused on converting the local immigrant Catholic population. They were quite open about it, and the times that they worked the local prisons with the Catholics were interesting to say the least. Of course, the Catholics were trying just as hard to convert the Protestants, so I don't mean to give the impression that it was one sided. Both sides were "poaching," so to speak.

I doubt that Texas creationists are going to find the interpretation of science from a Buddhist viewpoint very compelling.

There are some options in that area. Here is one: http://www.ck12.org/about/freetextbooks/

However, you also have to overcome the occasional stupid rule. For example, my son was issued two books that his teacher told him they would not even crack open this year. Both were replaced with other sources(digital books and such), but state law dictates that they receive a physical book for these classes. So, the district is forced to buy and distribute(and maintain) books that they never actually intend to use.

I wonder, how many of these evil "evolutionists" can you dig up who actually want less research and thought put into it by everyone involved?

Oh, and where I come from, they are called "biologists," not "evolutionists."

Apparently not...