Petition!!

KB has certainly lost personality plus without the karma button.

Quite so. And its amazing how many complain about Christianity when thwey’re drinking.

I have to admit I sit in a Catholic pew from time to time for solitude, reflection and prayer.

But if there was ever a solid case against Cathlocism for modern man it has to be from ‘Angela’s Ashes’ by Frank McCourt.

Gobsmacked I was.

“Boys, what was I?”

“Gobsmacked sir.”

nail the fuckers in the general thread who constantly bait the christians. like pete george.
and seeing as though its a religious thread, id just like to say … im not a fan of muslims
________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15491292&source=hptextfeature

Seems the feeling is mutual DIME

Omigod, I’m off! Bye…

@Ryan Sproull: I’ll just grab a definition which fits with the theory as I am familiar with it: “all events are inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes”.

Jive,

In that case, no, I’m not necessarily a determinist. There may be events that are not the inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes, for all I know. But “free will” is still a contradiction in terms.

All I am asking is why does god exist ?

a simple question

A simple answer – because humans developed advanced language skills and became able to share and therefore to think about advanced ideas and concepts.

So you would sacrifice your free will to rid the world of child rape

reid, what about the free will of the cild to not be raped? Why does every justification for god have to be at the expense of someone else’s sufferring?

If I can be considered to adhere to any school it would be post-positivism. Post-modernism is the dark-side.

-

Dirty Rat,

My statistics are not intended to prove anything, merely show that in time one strain which has a reproductive advantage over another strain is able to become far more prominent than the original strain simply through statistical processes. Where resources are limited the growth is not exponential as I have demonstrated here but it is the same principle. This is the basic mechanism of evolution.

You are confusing statistical processes with the use of statistical data. Totally different.

all your statistics prove is that there is Chinese whispers

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBABBBBBBBBBBBBBABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

geddit ?

I took the data from the same same source and argued otherwise.

Lies, damn lies etc etc etc

I tell you what, lets all agree not to kill anyone different to ourselves for 1 week, then at least this conversation has achieved a measurable goal.
After that we can all go back to our murderous ways in the name of religion, atheism, socialism, shortlandstreetism, post modernism and beer drinkinism.
Wadaya reckon?
And on that note I bid you good night.

(remember, no killing for a week)

Good night chaps

@Reid: I should have noted that my explanation is not intended to be some objective statement inferring objective universal values. It is “evil” as I see it, which obviously perhaps comes from my own personal metanarrative, as the idea of which I think somebody put it (in relation to something else) earlier in this thread. Evil as I see it doesn’t really exist, and ideas of “good” and “bad” (morality) are determined by which environment and society you come from.

I don’t know if Ryan does, but on the level of the human brain and the environment with which we regularly come in to contact; most certainly.

Ryan,

Quick and dirty explanation; cause and effect.

@Ryan Sproull: you advocate determinism?

JiveKitty,

I advocate clear thinking. You’d have to tell me what you mean by “determinism” before I could answer your question.