somathus

After seven years, this just might be the thing that keeps me from coming back

ZERO. The crimes we are trying to prevent are not being committed by career criminals....

How come non-believers now are condemned for questioning?

What about the Parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25)? He is used by Jesus as an example a person acting morally (be kind to thy neighbor). Yet the Samaritan is not a Christian or a Jew. So where did the GS get his moral basis from since he clearly didn't get it from the Bible?

Millions more then Chris Hitchens, that is for sure

Christopher Hitchens succumbed to his cancer this evening. So passes another great man....

http://news.yahoo.com/christopher-hitchens-militan...

TOWN CREEK, Ala. -- A naked man claiming to be Jesus Christ broke into a residence when a woman and her young children were home and took all the photos off the walls before he was taken into custody.

Town Creek Police Chief Jerry Garrett said 29-year-old Jeremiah Wade Buxton of Moulton is charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree criminal mischief and indecent exposure.

Garrett said the woman and her children ran from the house Monday afternoon and were not harmed. Garrett said Buxton was taken into custody without incident.

Authorities said Buxton tested positive for illegal drugs: marijuana and methamphetamine.

Buxton was being held in the Lawrence County Jail without bond. The attorney listed on his court records says he's not representing Buxton.

Is there a bigger choke-artist program in the NCAA?

Why I think there is no god:

1) Supernatural explanations are ALWAYS replaced by natural explanations:

All of these things were once attributed to god(s) or spirits: floods, hurricanes, the existence and movement of the Sun, Moon and stars, the tides, earthquakes, disease and health, success or failure of crops, rain or drought, tidal waves, eclipses, why children look like their parents, the diversity of life. ALL of them have since been explained as our understanding of the natural world has improved.

Number of natural explanations replaced by supernatural explanations: zero.

2) Inconsistency of world religions:

If God is so important and ever-present in our lives, why can't anybody agree on anything about God? If God is not important or ever-present, why does God matter?

3) Arguments for God are always weak:

The arguments presented by religious people fall into the same categories: argument from authority (God exists because the Bible says so), argument from personal experience (I just KNOW God exists), and special pleading (God is above being questioned). None of these are based on logic or evidence.

4) God keeps shrinking:

In the Old Testament, God parted seas and made worlds. Now God seems to only give comfort to a few individuals, magically craft the occasional bacterial flagellum, and put his image on toast or tree bark.

5) Religion comes from parents:

Children may learn more about subjects than their parents, may have differing views about so many things (politics, social issues, etc.). But religion is almost always chosen, not by the individual, but by the individual's parents.

6) All components of the "soul" are affected by physical things:

Consciousness, identity, personality, character, emotions - these can all be affected by drugs, brain injuries, etc. So all appear to be based on physical mechanisms. No supernatural component is required. No supernatural soul means no afterlife.

7) Nothing supernatural has EVER withstood testing:

When someone claiming paranormal powers or a paranormal event agrees to have it tested, they ALWAYS fail and almost always claim the test was unfair. If gods are supernatural, and if no claim of supernatural has EVER survived testing, why should I believe in gods?

8) Most claims of an all-powerful god aren’t stable.

Reality can be tested. A reality-based idea can be proved true or false. But a divine being with no physical form whose actions are indistinguishable from random natural phenomena cannot be tested or falsified. Knowledge or worship of God provides no useful predictions. A small coastal town full of simple, religious villagers is just as likely to get wiped off the map by a tsunami as a big city full of atheists. And if the divine being's actions are indistinguishable from random nature, why bother to worship him/her/it/them?

9) Our understanding of God never improves:

2000 years ago we had a bunch of different religious factions, all bickering or warring over their different interpretations of their gods. That is exactly what we have today. Our understanding of God never improves because there's nothing to understand. But over the same time period, our understanding of the natural world has grown:

- from huddling around a wood fire to harnessing the power of the atom;

- from witch doctors to eradicating smallpox and polio;

- from astrology to the Hubble Telescope;

- from mud huts to skyscrapers;

- from camels to Airbus;

- etc...

10) Complete lack of evidence

If a powerful god wishes our worship, he/she/it need only part a sea, write in the sky or do SOMETHING sufficiently grand and inexplicable, and all religions would unite, all bickering would cease, and all atheists would pray. If a giant voice boomed across the Earth and said "You must protect the planet, must never have more than 2 children, must help a person in need every day, and must stop burning coal and oil within 5 years or I will smite you all", the entire planet would unite in common purpose.

I am writing an essay on cognitive dissonance and schizophrenia

3-0 without Big Ben. I figure they lose next week to the Ravens, but they are still 3-1 and BB will be back in action. Can you still not consider this team a front runner? I didn't think so.

Goldline.com in his "I Have A Scheme" speech on Saturday?

Would their shared ignorance combine and create a singularity?

Michael Jordan or Michael Jackson

That all the RS questions have taken a very Christian slant in the last 15 minutes?

Church must be out

By definition, faith is a firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

This seems ludicrous to me.

Please spare me bible quotes. If you cannot think for yourself, do no answer.

Middle relievers seem to get the most of them. I have only seen them on stat lines where a pitcher gets a save. Is it holding the other team scoreless while they are in there?

Guess what that makes you....

1984 or Idiocracy