In the article, Scott Atran wonders what the use of religion was from an evolutionary perspective.
A few days back I saw a comic strip of a caveman worshipping a rock. A fellow caveman remarked that it was just a stupid rock. The first caveman promply bashed the second caveman's head in (using the rock), saying it was necessary, because he was an 'infidel'.
Now think about it for a second. If we look at the course of history, a lot of wars have been waged in the name of religion. This has been going on over the course of decennia, millennia even.
What if there really is a genetic trait that 'hardwires' us to be religious? What if the holy wars have caused the lesser (read: non) religious genes to be weakened in numbers, or even erradicated? If you look at it like that, religion could have caused a significant change in human evolution.
That would put the whole Evolution vs. Creationism discussion in a whole new perspective, right?
Funny that the creationists think that the evolutionists are defending evolution. They're not. They're constantly trying to find more evidence. If it proves or disproves (part of) the theory is irellevant. What most evolutionists get upset about is that the creationists keep changing the rules (we want more proof, it's not fact, it's theory, you weren't there, so you can't be 100% certain), while they give no form of proof for their own claims (other than that it's written in a very old book, like age counts or something). And they're in the funny situation that giving proof only disproves their own religion, any religion for that matter. Since a religion is based on a BELIEF and not on FACT. So the wisest thing they can do (and don't do, for that matter) is keep their assumptions to themselves.
Sometimes they try to be smart and think they've disproved the whole Evolution theory simply by asking a question that can't be answered yet. Like that proves something. Evolution theory is far from complete and it won't be any time soon. It's constantly expanding, whereas Creationism is still at exactly the same point it was when it was written down.
I've heard one funny Creationism explanation trying to incorporate some of the facts that are presented by Evolution theory and it goes like this:
God created man as a perfect being. All offspring of Adam and Eve are a little imperfect each generation, because of genetic mutation. The first men lived hundres of years, so that explains why Kain could find a wife (effectively his sister) and have offspring. I stopped listening right there.
Now you've gotta give it to them, that's pretty creative thinking, right?:)
The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.
There you go. Case closed.:)
I know it's offtopic, but does anyone here know if it's possible to build a wireless network bridge with two Access Points? So that it's possible to connect two networks to eachother?
What about the Sony Ericsson P900? It's a nice phone with camera, sd slot and a relatively big screen. The only problem would be the software to read the files. Anyone?
Agent Smith: Never send a human to do a machine's job.
Ofcourse I'm all for manned space exploration. I'm simply against stupid kostly pet projects that only cost money and lives.
Perhaps they should do the same thing with email as they do with animals that come into the country. Quarantine it for a specified ammount of time. say, 2 hours. And then run it through a virus scanner.
I know 2 hours is a 'long' wait for email, and a short time for virus scanner software vendors to react, but it's a start, right?
With this license, other companies have the opportunity to standardize the FAT file system implementation in their products, and to improve file system compatibility across a range of computing and consumer electronics devices.
Funny that noone noticed that this is an offering to get M$ docs/specs on FAT, instead of forcing every company to cough up money for using it.
Don't get me wrong, the thought crossed my mind, but they're not doing something like that... yet. I don't think (hope) they're that stupid.
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In the article, Scott Atran wonders what the use of religion was from an evolutionary perspective.
A few days back I saw a comic strip of a caveman worshipping a rock. A fellow caveman remarked that it was just a stupid rock. The first caveman promply bashed the second caveman's head in (using the rock), saying it was necessary, because he was an 'infidel'.
Now think about it for a second. If we look at the course of history, a lot of wars have been waged in the name of religion. This has been going on over the course of decennia, millennia even.
What if there really is a genetic trait that 'hardwires' us to be religious? What if the holy wars have caused the lesser (read: non) religious genes to be weakened in numbers, or even erradicated? If you look at it like that, religion could have caused a significant change in human evolution.
That would put the whole Evolution vs. Creationism discussion in a whole new perspective, right?
Bah,
It'll probably all taste like chicken anyway...
w00t!
Funny that the creationists think that the evolutionists are defending evolution. They're not. They're constantly trying to find more evidence. If it proves or disproves (part of) the theory is irellevant. What most evolutionists get upset about is that the creationists keep changing the rules (we want more proof, it's not fact, it's theory, you weren't there, so you can't be 100% certain), while they give no form of proof for their own claims (other than that it's written in a very old book, like age counts or something). And they're in the funny situation that giving proof only disproves their own religion, any religion for that matter. Since a religion is based on a BELIEF and not on FACT. So the wisest thing they can do (and don't do, for that matter) is keep their assumptions to themselves.
:)
Sometimes they try to be smart and think they've disproved the whole Evolution theory simply by asking a question that can't be answered yet. Like that proves something. Evolution theory is far from complete and it won't be any time soon. It's constantly expanding, whereas Creationism is still at exactly the same point it was when it was written down.
I've heard one funny Creationism explanation trying to incorporate some of the facts that are presented by Evolution theory and it goes like this:
God created man as a perfect being. All offspring of Adam and Eve are a little imperfect each generation, because of genetic mutation. The first men lived hundres of years, so that explains why Kain could find a wife (effectively his sister) and have offspring. I stopped listening right there.
Now you've gotta give it to them, that's pretty creative thinking, right?
The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus. There you go. Case closed. :)
Then you can expect various life size body parts of famous porn actors. :) ...shudder...
I know it's offtopic, but does anyone here know if it's possible to build a wireless network bridge with two Access Points? So that it's possible to connect two networks to eachother?
I have one and it's sweet! :)
The gestures are the real win with this baby.
But you'll make a lot of typo's.
Window navigation is also a blast! Just 'grab' a window and resize/move it with one hand!
So what's stopping you from creating something 'better'?
Yes, but I'm searching for something that supports .lit files (I have about 3000 of those).
What about the Sony Ericsson P900? It's a nice phone with camera, sd slot and a relatively big screen. The only problem would be the software to read the files. Anyone?
Advanced math? You call linear algebra advanced math? Hmm... Maybe I overrated math. :)
Agent Smith: Never send a human to do a machine's job. Ofcourse I'm all for manned space exploration. I'm simply against stupid kostly pet projects that only cost money and lives.
If they lose against IBM, will there be anything left for Red Hat to kick around, though? When is more appropriate. :)
Perhaps they should do the same thing with email as they do with animals that come into the country. Quarantine it for a specified ammount of time. say, 2 hours. And then run it through a virus scanner. I know 2 hours is a 'long' wait for email, and a short time for virus scanner software vendors to react, but it's a start, right?
To sum it up:
1. Write Open Source Software
2. ????
3. PROFIT!
Nah, a video demo won't impress them.
... sweet ...
Instead, case mod the equipment,throw in a lot of leds and stuff and go on the mystical tour.
customer: So, how fast is it?
you: This is state of the art equipment
you: (pause)
you: no demo would do it justice....
customer: (looking at all the lights)
No it isn't. With a permit and a safe it's perfectly legal. Just explain that Glock 22 in my safe, sitting nicely beside my permit.