your infantile response is lacking in intellectual fortitude. God does exist the formulation of the question is the proof in and of itself. Ask yourself what are your true intentions? Is it merely self gratification in your own inflated ego? Trust not what your ID dispels you to ask but ask rather that I must be subservient to the Master that granted me the intellect in the first place.

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God wouldn't prove his own existence

I see that as a stupid excuse. This way, when someone says 'why doesn't god show himself?' a christian can say 'it says in the bible he isn't supposed to.' How convenient for Christians.

Seriously, I'm sick of all the bs excuses.

Intelligent design has nothing to do with science. It's another gd excuse, which is why it isn't taught.

No really, evolution doesn't point to the origin of life. The most accepted theory for the origin of life is that the chemicals that formed amino acids came from a comet that collided with Earth. How can you knock a theory when you don't even know what the hell it is???? Evolution is a fact. We know for a fact that things evolve. The theory part is how/why, which is where natural selection comes into play.

You should read this.
http://www.livescience.com/str...1-creating-life.html

Maybe this is a cultural thing, but when I hear professors, I think of college professors, not high school... so with that in mind

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Largely because intelligent design lacks academic rigour, which is a quality that academics are supposed to uphold. It is bad science, and a case of religion overstepping its magesterium.

This is an unacceptable answer to me. Professors all the time go off and talk about their own ideas about a lot of topics, most of their ideas don't have much or any academic evidence behind them. If a professor can express his ideas on how an enzyme functions, why not on origin of life? By the time someone gets to college, they should know better than to accept every idea given to them (even on mechanics of an enzyme).

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Because the US Constitution says that you can't do those things (meaning prayer and carry a bible), and since the Constitution represents America's greatest contribution to the history of the world, I think it is probably quite important to follow it.

Where does the constitution say you cannot pray in school or carry Bibles around?? When drafting the constitution, it was common for the founding fathers to start with prayer. The freedom of religion (granted in the 1st amendment) states ... and i quote: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; While I agree schools should not FORCE people to pray, but isn't preventing prayer against this amendment?? It should probably be mentioned that the context of this law is more about not supporting catholics or protestants, rather than atheists vs christians. With that in mind, it makes no sense that they would ever want this document to be interpreted as a law against prayer in schools.

And actually, while on the topic of origin of life (as minor of a topic as that is), I wonder how many people realize evolution does not provide an answer for the origin of life, it only points out a phenomenon that could lead to the various species... i.e. it describes a characteristic of life, but does not explain how it began. And last I checked (couple years ago), no one had a really great idea on how life began (Last I heard the idea was in the highly reductive atmosphere, lightning could, in theory (never really shown experimentally), strike the right kind of ground in the perfect conditions and may form RNA... problem of course being that RNA would be degraded quickly, and even if it wasn't, RNA by itself doesn't do anything, it needs specific proteins to translate it... and there's a few other issues that as far as I know, no one has really proposed a good explanation for, much less prove.

Ok, done with that...

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Atheists don't believe in god because of the lack of evidence for his existence.

This idea has always seemed weird to me. Lack of evidence isn't evidence. Considering that many christian beliefs state that God wouldn't prove his own existence, lack of evidence is consistent with this belief. Why rule one theology out, but not the other? Certainly there would be more to it than that. Of course, along with that, many ideas are publicly believed (by atheists and Christians) that are far from proven.

Once again, your point isn't one I think is misinformed, or is even bad, but I just am pointing out why I personally don't embrace it.

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why are professors all over the country and some parts of the world getting fired and black listed for just briefly mentioning intelligent design?


Largely because intelligent design lacks academic rigour, which is a quality that academics are supposed to uphold. It is bad science, and a case of religion overstepping its magesterium.

Intelligent design in the classroom would be like Brehon giving a lesson on evolution in a Catholic church. ^-^

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why are professors all over the country and some parts of the world getting fired and black listed for just briefly mentioning intelligent design?

Largely because intelligent design lacks academic rigour, which is a quality that academics are supposed to uphold. It is bad science, and a case of religion overstepping its magesterium.

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Why are US schools persecuting anyone who prays or carries a bible to school?

Because the US Constitution says that you can't do those thing, and since the Constitution represents America's greatest contribution to the history of the world, I think it is probably quite important to follow it.

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Courts are trying people unjustly for example a court heiring n i think arkansas was over turned because of a ten commandment statue on the wall and one of the commandments being "thou shalt not kill".

I'm not entirely sure what this is even about. The whole idea about the court is that it is separated from the Church, the difference between the control of public behaviour and private behaviour being of key significance here. The only laws that apply in a court of law are the laws of the land, and to put up the Ten Commandments is both distracting and unnecessary.

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ts also been said for a long time that u might be able to change an agnostic's mind if u had physical evidence like god slapping them on top of the head but an athiest wouldnt even accept god slapping him on the head as proof.

This is just simply wrong. Atheists don't believe in god because of the lack of evidence for his existence. Agnostics cannot decide if he exists or not based on current evidence. If you showed either of these groups incontrovertible evidence that god existed, they would accept his existence.

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I dont do it cause i dont like it frankly i can tolerate it ut really its distracting from any good points tht could be made. plus she angeres me and an angry mind is clouded.

But this is a debate - you have to learn to control your sense of outrage, anger and so on and engage on a purely intellectual level. That's kind of the whole point.

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I dont do it cause i dont like it frankly i can tolerate it ut really its distracting from any good points tht could be made. plus she angeres me and an angry mind is clouded.

You lack of sense disappoints me. It's very infuriating when you're trying to understand someone's position and you can't because their posts don't make sense grammatically or even logically. Half the time I have absolutely no idea what your point is or even what a sentence is supposed to mean. It's like you leave out predicates and subjects or else make a respose that in no way relates to the post you've quoted. I have little tolerance for such nonsense, as I am sure you can tell.

I am sorry if I offended you, but seriously, you really shouldn't get mad. This is the internet. You do not know me, you will never know me or even meet me, so who cares what I have to say?

An atheist would accept proof of God if he came down and did something that was clearly divine. I was discussing this with my fiance (he is an atheist) and he and I both agreed that if God came and said "Look I am God" and then performed some physically impossible act, we'd be like "Praise Jesus, the rapture is upon us."

Unfortunately no such thing has ever happened for any religion.

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Quite honestly, I think that shielding yourself from views you dislike or even disapprove of is not really in the spirit of debate.

I dont do it cause i dont like it frankly i can tolerate it ut really its distracting from any good points tht could be made. plus she angeres me and an angry mind is clouded.

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No matter your religion and no matter what you believe, we are all the same humans with blood running through our veins so we should see each other as one and work for the common good of all, i guess thats what our different religion teaches us all.

For the good of all really then why are professors all over the country and some parts of the world getting fired and black listed for just briefly mentioning intelligent design? Why are US schools persecuting anyone who prays or carries a bible to school? Courts are trying people unjustly for example a court heiring n i think arkansas was over turned because of a ten commandment statue on the wall and one of the commandments being "thou shalt not kill". Like it or not christians and athiests as well as agnostics will never get along its always been said that the only thing that christians and athiests can agree on is that we both dont like scientologists.

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what if there is a God after all, what would you say to yourself and come to think of it, what does it take for you to obey God?

its also been said for a long time that u might be able to change an agnostic's mind if u had physical evidence like god slapping them on top of the head but an athiest wouldnt even accept god slapping him on the head as proof.

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If God created us, all he did was make a bunch of whores.

We, as humans, whore everything. The planet, its resources, money, etc. I do not mean whores in the sense of prostitutes, but whores as in the modern day definition. EX: Oh my gosh, I totally whored YN today, I was on for like 10 hours.

Ooh middle english.

What exactly do you plan to do with your life? For a career I mean.

Tell your rents that if you don't get the rosetta stone for christmas you'll fail at life.

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I don't know if you know about it in Europe, but for 500 us dollars, it will teach you a language. It's supposed to be the best. I'm saving up for the Japanese one.

I have heard of it - it's advertised in all the British Airways magazines to try and lure frightened travellers into buying a copy on the understanding that they can then be fluent by the time the plane touches down.

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they're doing a back-to-school special ($100 off)

But it's also incredibly expensive, even with this reduction (thanks for the notification gilliebean). Another problem is that I want to try and take up several languages, and if I got one and it worked it would take me forever to save up for the next one.

In theory, then, I'd like the German, Italian and Mandarin ones. But I'd never master all three - I'd just like to try. And maybe the Japanese one too. And maybe the Spanish one. And maybe I'd like to try and resurrect the French I learnt when I was nine. Hmm. See what I mean...

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If God created us, all he did was make a bunch of whores.

I take it that some emotional blow has landed recently? I like to think, with some degree of justification I hope, that I am not a whore.

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See, religion has two sides. One is all peace and love and simplicity. The other is war, torture and damnation.

I second this.

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Oohh, rosetta stone special.

But, to return to the main point, this is much more interesting. Languages are so hard, so useful and so fascinating. Maybe I should wait until after finishing my Middle English studies before I branch out into other languages...

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There is a Supreme Being that created us and we should all take note of that.

How do you know? Please give me scientific proof of this. Now.

If God created us, all he did was make a bunch of whores.

See, I never understood this whole concept of obeying others... I obey myself and that the only person someone should have to answer to. You can choose to listen and fit in with society, but that is your choice.

See, religion has two sides. One is all peace and love and simplicity. The other is war, torture and damnation.

If God came to me and said 'Look at me, I'm real, woot' than obviously I would believe in him. However, there is absolutely no sign of him anywhere except in old-ass books written by people who had no idea of how the world/universe works.

Oohh, rosetta stone special.

Just to add to the language/Rosetta Stone comment, they're doing a back-to-school special ($100 off) if you're interested:

http://www.rosettastone.com/pe...buynow?promo=rsbts09

I'm saving up for the Spanish one

Hello Everyone, How are you all doing, hope all is well with everyone in here.

Please I do want to say a few things to people in this forum. There is a Supreme Being that created us and we should all take note of that.

Everything in this world that we see around us are testimonies of that fact that something is controlling the universe that we all live in.

God created everyone with the right to choose what you want to do with your life, but I guess we all know what will follow after our different lives.

No matter your religion and no matter what you believe, we are all the same humans with blood running through our veins so we should see each other as one and work for the common good of all, i guess thats what our different religion teaches us all.

And to those who do not believe in God, I just want to ask questions, what if there is a God after all, what would you say to yourself and come to think of it, what does it take for you to obey God? simple, living a simple life of love, peace, care for one another, respect to people around as you would love them to do to you, I dont see these are something we can not work with.

Cheers to us all

Yeah, I think it would be near impossible to become fluent in mandarin unless it was spoken to you as a child.

Am I interested in China? lol, I love Asia. It's the best.

I love all things Japanese, but China is still amazing. There's so much history there that's never taught to Americans. I must learn it all. ^.^

Get the rosetta stone language program. I don't know if you know about it in Europe, but for 500 us dollars, it will teach you a language. It's supposed to be the best. I'm saving up for the Japanese one.

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So you must know some mandarin then....

Virtually none - it's an English only classroom. I was going to get lessons, but its proving a bit of a hassle out here. I did try to learn for two years at my secondary school, but it was incredibly difficult and subordinate to my other studies, so I didn't focus all that hard on it.

But I might take it up again when I get back to university...

Are you interested in China then?

So you must know some mandarin then....

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I really want to go to Xian someday or Beijing, heck I'd like to tour all of Asia.

Before coming to Dalian I did a brief whistlestop tour of China, and went to both these places! Xian, in particular, was amazing. An incredible amount of history, and so much to see.

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Why are you there? For fun? For school?

I'm actually doing a holiday internship at the moment, teaching office workers here to speak better English. It's not a bad life, actually. But, in contrast to wet and rainy England, it is very hot here - and to a certain extent I find myself lamenting the lack of rain....

I really want to go to Xian someday or Beijing, heck I'd like to tour all of Asia.

Why are you there? For fun? For school?

I'm so jealous, you can't even begin to know.

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ooh what part?

Dalian -it's in the Northeast, just across the bay from Pyonyang, North Korea. But it's a really nice city, I'd recommend visiting except that there isn't really that much to visit per se.

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Ya if she did i didnt know it i cant read her posts without clicking on another option of sorts.

Quite honestly, I think that shielding yourself from views you dislike or even disapprove of is not really in the spirit of debate.

Why do you have such a strong dislike for differences?

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By underworld I suspect, and again I can't be certain because I'm in China at the moment and Youtube isn't working, he means hell. And I still don't buy this whole Hades realm thing - I remain completely convinced that any borrowing of Greek mythological terms is not Christianity in any way that I have hiterto come across it, in either Catholicism or Protestantism, or indeed Orthodox Christianity.

ill see if i ca put this into picture for u as how my teacher does.


Heaven
------------
Hades---->
------------
Hell

Srry thts the best i can do on this system anything else would be too much hastle.

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Wolfie answered many of these concerns. Sorry for reposting, but always good to double check, supposedly at least.

Ya if she did i didnt know it i cant read her posts without clicking on another option of sorts.

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i think that theres two differnt gods theres gods from the kingdoms back then and have alot of history behind and then there is are god the one who brought us life the one that died for us...

so you believe in false gods as well as ours but you dont actually agnollige them as a god needed to be worshipped?.