ham must have had quite a strong immune system
and i suppose asians are just naturally really good swimmers?
and i suppose asians are just naturally really good swimmers?
I don't understand what you mean, here.
Am I missing something? Does someone here actually believe the Noah story?
i do
Awwww.. bless!
People believe in UFO's, the supernatural, all kinds of conspiricy theories hey some even believe soapies are real
so why wouldn't there be some that believe in the noah story.It's a good point you have there, and it's well made too!
No... Its a crock, like the Bible but just thought I would trow that one out there as its one of those great stupid stories that is full of holes
Same as god created the earth and then made light. So he made the earth IN THE DARK! That is huge skill in my books, even planting all the fake evidence that shows the world is older than the 4000 years some hard core Christians believe. You know, like T Rex bones etc. And made them all appear really old in carbon dating etc. ALL IN THE DARK
Personally I believe they should put the first page back into the bible. The one that reads... "All characters in this book are..."
This is a great sketch that sums it all up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMsHuVGZaf0
Dangerous ground there Woz - some people believe it was The Devil who planted them fossils in order to distract man from worshipping God. I, however, know the truth: all those fossils them sciencers keep finding are the remnants of the last meal eaten by The Great Squid before he vomited them all over the planet, went to sleep a billion years ago and dreamed us all up. If we're bad and don't worship him he'll get all narky, wake up and that'll be the end of everything!
ALL HAIL THE GREAT SQUID
Hell, why not? It's no stupider than Genesis =D
ALL HAIL THE GREAT SQUID
Hell, why not? It's no stupider than Genesis =D
In the movie "Inherit The Wind" (a dramatization of the Scopes Monkey Trial) Clarence Darrow (Scopes' defense attorney) is questioning a testifying William Jennings Bryan (prosecutor and Biblical literalist), and notes that Cain somehow finds a wife, with no previous description of where she came from.
When I was a kid I wondered about that. Once Adam & Eve were punked out of the beer garden and had kids, how did their kids have kids? It was either incest or God magicked up some womenfolk for the brothers, but either way noone thought them significant enough to mention their names, origins etc despite them being the third & fourth women on the earth ever(after Lilith - written out of the story for standing up to Adam- and Eve, of course)...pretty much proves bronze-age men, without any clue regarding genetics, wrote the book
But that aint the stupidest thing ever - there's a Creation Museum (or, Massive Oxymoron) in Kentucky which has dioramas of fig-leafed humans riding frickin velociraptors. Yes, there are plenty of people who believe Genesis and it's a fair bet a lot of them are their own half-brothers. The most shameful part? It's the brainchild of Ken Ham, a child-brained halfwit Creo from Australia
But that aint the stupidest thing ever - there's a Creation Museum (or, Massive Oxymoron) in Kentucky which has dioramas of fig-leafed humans riding frickin velociraptors. Yes, there are plenty of people who believe Genesis and it's a fair bet a lot of them are their own half-brothers. The most shameful part? It's the brainchild of Ken Ham, a child-brained halfwit Creo from Australia
It is my understanding that the Old Testament started to take form in ~1000BC, when the Hebrew civilization was already well-established. The stuff from before then, including Genesis and the Moses story and beyond, was compiled from oral traditions. It seems that they did have the Ten Commandments tablets, however, since the temple was built to house them.
I must say I don't. I believe the Bible was inspired by God. I don't believe it is was dictated by God.
Does anyone actually believe the materialist account of the universe? Unthinking, unfeeling, unconscious matter randomly accidently arranges itself into matter that writes poetry about beauty and debates the existence of God.
So if everything is just matter behaving according to physical laws then even your belief that there is no God is just matter behaving according to physical laws. My belief that there is a God is also just matter.
We are all puppets controlled by the hands of physics. Everything we say think or feel is controlled by this hand. Even now as I write this sentence it is the all powerful hand of physics controlling my words.
People just accept atheistic materialism without really questioning it. People mock those who believe in God but in truth it's very rational to believe that human beings come from something that is very much like them--God. On the other hand it's quite irrational to believe that human beings come from something completely unlike them--unfeeling and unconscious matter. Aren't we a part of the universe? If the universe is unfeeling and unconscious then so are we.
The Big Bang hypothesis, and hypotheses about the origin of life, are inferences from conceptual models derived by the Scientific Method. Science necessarily assumes that the laws of the universe, are constant.
That's a very circular argument. It starts with the unquestioning assumption that the bible is absolutely true when it says we were made in god's image, then goes from there.
The irony of that statement is glaring. How is that different to accepting a statement that we "look like god" without questioning it? Who's seen god? Noone, so I've read. So you must take it on faith that the bible is being truthful when it says we're made in god's image. Why would god choose the form of a bipedal ape when something with ten tentacles would be much more efficient for creating worlds and designing galaxies?
The entire point of atheism/materialism is that you can't accept anything until you question it and your questions are answered to your satisfaction. Your intellectual, reasonable satisfaction that is, not your emotional satisfaction (ie not choosing an answer that just makes you feel good - sometimes the truth can uncomfortable or even painful).
An atheistic materialist doesn't start with any assumption or assertion or claim to absolute truth, he looks at what is and what can be seen and asks questions about those things. When there aren't satisfactory answers, he doesn't invent them, he keeps looking and reserves judgement until the answers are found. I'm no expert on the universe's origins (and you could almost say noone is, really). However, when it comes to the age of the universe, the age of our planet, the differentiation of species and other questions of that nature (and many of different natures entirely), I know what I require to be convinced of any particular viewpoint and I know equally what doesn't satisfy me. It's not because I have a chip on my shoulder about the supernatural, I just have certain requirements when it comes to what I choose to believe. The entire point of science is to research and explain and verify what can be seen in our universe. Anything supernatural is by definition beyond our understanding or comprehension, therefore a matter of pure speculation at best. Which is why it blows my mind when people are absolutely certain of things they can have no possible knowledge or comprehension of.
Illogical to the extreme. Clearly we're not unconscious and unfeeling, otherwise we wouldn't be here. I don't see why a "materialist" view is seen as being so bleak. The godless are as capable of awe, love, inspiration, art, selflessness as any religious person. Just because I don't worship anything it doesn't mean I'm without care or appreciation or love for life. In fact, the reason I try and get what I can out of life is because I'm living for the present, not banking on an eternally blissful afterlife. I'm starting to get over this notion that the non-religious are joyless nihilists, fatalistic doomsayers who just sit around waiting for oblivion.
That's a very simplistic view of the big bang theory you have there (why do people think "random" = "bad" anyway? I think it's lucky
) - but when you think about it, it's no more far-fetched than the story of an immortal omnipotent being, who has always existed, watching us all, caring whether we worship it, answering our prayers and threatening us with hell for not worshipping it correctly. I have absolutely no problem with people believing what they choose to. I won't mock it because I know religion gives great comfort to people (like me, a while ago), but I don't see why the claims of religious people aren't permitted to face the same reasonable scrutiny as the claims of anyone else. I also won't stand for people assuming atheists don't care about anything because there's no point and we're all just stacks of molecules hurtling around a massive spherical nuclear explosion through cold, heartless space on a tiny rock in some unremarkable corner of a galaxy. If I really felt like that I wouldn't even bother writing these enormous, boring posts. What would be the point?Well, I do it because I like it. It exercises my brain. It lets me blather on, self-indulgently for ages and focus my thoughts so that I know what I really think and am able to (hopefully) express it to others. I like this little rock of ours and I like being on it. Regardless of its origins and what lies beneath it's very interesting.
american indios in particular and the rest of the world in general has a much less diverse immune system than africans
so considering all of africa was (re)populated by one single guy he must have had one hell of an immune system... in fact he should still be alive
from what ive read by tracking back genetic markers you get that the rest of the world was populated by a group of about 100.000 africans who spread across arabia at some point... point is genetically we europeans and other non blacks almost as effed as if the whole adam and eve thing was true
I think that the basic idea is that African populations have more accumulated mutations, generally, indicating that they are the oldest. The principle is that mutations occur at a predictable rate.
I didn't know that it pertained to the immune system, specifically, but I guess it kind of makes sense. There seems to be a built-in tendency for random varieties of lymphocytes to be produced, by random mutation, and then the new varieties may be effective for "recognizing" any new infectious agents. The older the population -> the more mutations -> the greater the variety of lymphocytes.
I didn't know that it pertained to the immune system, specifically, but I guess it kind of makes sense. There seems to be a built-in tendency for random varieties of lymphocytes to be produced, by random mutation, and then the new varieties may be effective for "recognizing" any new infectious agents. The older the population -> the more mutations -> the greater the variety of lymphocytes.
Nothing has been found (yet?) that indicates otherwise. Mathematician Sir Roger Penrose has written some popular books about how he hopes to find room for non material beings to influence physics in the realm of quantum probability but neuro scientists tend to disagree.
Worth reading, it's a great summary of modern physics, computer technology and mathematics and how they relate to philosophy.
My view on the thread topic: the main reason for war is the greed of certain people but religion is a more powerful tool to get things moving than modern mass media can ever be.
If it was full of holes then the flood wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad.
Shotty, didn't you know all Asians have gills and can breath underwater.
Same as Orientals
And Eskimos
And Native North American Indians
And Native South American Indians
And Australian Aboriginals
And Mauri's,
And the Welsh.
Yes...because Orientals and Asians are not the same thing :ices_rofl
People HAVE questioned it back when the Enlightenment first appeared. It's the ideal that no one in authority has a divine right to be there and that (fortunately and unfortunately) includes the Church. In fact, our American constitution is heavily influenced by those of the Enlightenment era (Locke is an exception because he was 17th century, but Locke influenced the writers of the Enlightenment such as Voltaire and Rousseau.)
The Darwin theory has never always been widely accepted. It has come under great criticism before but with the transition from authority figure to collective individual objectivity can you blame people for starting to believe science more than religion?
I find this statement appalling. If God is like us, then would you concur that God will have certain sadistic tendencies as well?
Not necessarily, the church holds this belief as well. Keep in mind of Ash Wednesday: Dust we are and to dust we shall return. But logically, human beings exist because material and beings "unlike us" have changed and grown more complex. To simplify things we are just bags of fluid and flesh with a larger noggin than other more simple creatures. Is this the result of intelligent design? I dont think so. Look at the Neanderthals and Cro Magnons and u'll see that we were not always "better" than other creatures we tend to look down on
Only have to read the first paragraph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental
In the UK an Oriental is someone from Japan, China etc, an Asian is someone from India, Pakistan etc
Apparently in the US the word Asian is used for all the above, which i'll admit is not something i knew until i read that wiki page.
Just another one of those difference's in a common language things.
Yes. It's a depressing notion, don't you think? Unfortunately, the alternative offered by religion isn't any better: to be created by some supernatural being who knows everything you do and think, has even foreseen it all, and who will judge you afterwards. We're all puppets in the hands, -- or tentacles -- of the Supreme Being (who, despite being a Being, was not created by anything else). Even this sentence that I write has been foreseen and foreordained by it/him/her.
Because it would be a very cruel god to create a huge flood and let all his swimming creatures enjoy its glory, only to let all that precious water leak away after a few weeks, leaving behind a few miserly oceans.
Ya...sorry mate didn't realize that
You know...the same could be said about Dinosaurs and Reptiles in our current situation
(lizardfolk)
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by lizardfolk
A few considerations:
1) The Bible is almost certainly the most influential literature in human history. It is certainly a profound influence upon western culture.
2) It derives from the cultural tradition of a small population, living in the Middle East. Great empires have come and gone, but the Hebrew cultural tradition persists.
3) Christianity, derived from this cultural tradition, was horrifically persecuted by what was the most powerful empire for centuries. Nevertheless, Christianity persisted, and became EVEN MORE popular and influential (and this was accomplished, without any violent conquest, and even with great and violent efforts to suppress it, simply by the power of its ideas) - eventually becoming the cultural tradition of virtually all of Europe, and beyond.
Why?
1) The Bible is almost certainly the most influential literature in human history. It is certainly a profound influence upon western culture.
2) It derives from the cultural tradition of a small population, living in the Middle East. Great empires have come and gone, but the Hebrew cultural tradition persists.
3) Christianity, derived from this cultural tradition, was horrifically persecuted by what was the most powerful empire for centuries. Nevertheless, Christianity persisted, and became EVEN MORE popular and influential (and this was accomplished, without any violent conquest, and even with great and violent efforts to suppress it, simply by the power of its ideas) - eventually becoming the cultural tradition of virtually all of Europe, and beyond.
Why?
My Moment Of Clarity - Religious Debate
(295 posts, started )
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