.....a scientist posting a comment on a Christian website, expressing himself with equal passion, would be villified, taunted and attacked.......
Not if they were truly Christian, following the teachings of Jesus. He said "If any man WILL...." he didn't say you MUST. I posted these things in response, not as the initiator.
......I sincerely hope that you find your way through them and start living for joy in this life.......
I have found exactly that joy in this life and the eternal hope by direct contact with the risen Lord Jesus. It is not just some philosophically theorized existential joy, but the very real joy of having fellowship right NOW with the eternal God of all. It is the joy of knowing that my sins are ALL forgiven.
(.....Some other examples of mythological gods that die and return.....)
Only Jesus has ever come back in a real, physical, touchable body, not some mythical, mystical, spiritual or virtual form. He has made some real lasting positive changes in my life and in many others I personally know.
(......I've always thought that particular assertion to be very troubling.....)
Yes indeed, the assertions Jesus makes are VERY troubling and exclusive. He claimed to be God and it was that claim which the religious leaders of His day condemned Him for. When Jesus was about to demonstrate His power over death He spoke these words:
Jesus said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life! He who believes in Me, though he die, yet he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)
He made at least 18 "I am" statements of similar exclusive nature. There are three choices about Jesus.
1) Jesus was the worst and most dangerous liar the world has ever seen. 2) He was a crazy, self deluded lunatic. 3) He spoke the truth.
He did not leave the option "Jesus was a good moral teacher, just as many others" open to us. Because He is both divine and fully human he could say things like that and be telling the truth. Just as today, some believed Him and others disbelieved and hated him.
You may reject or accept the written record of the Bible just as you can any other historical writings.
(.....Your deity is unwilling to accept an apology for the occasional mistake.....)
Human rebellion against the rightful Government of the Universe is deep, pervasive and long standing. If you have ever told a lie you are guilty and condemned. Because of many sins, not just for an occasional mistake, we are all on death row, quarantined here on earth in space-time. One by one, the executioner, death, comes for us. One day he will come for you. There is a way out though.
It is called forgiveness through grace, accomplished by Jesus taking the punishment you and I deserve. There is a pardon waiting for you, signed in blood IF you fulfill the conditions thereof. That's where the apology comes in. This apology involves more than an "I am sorry" but a heartfelt change of attitude toward God. It is the faith response of your inner person in agreeing with God's just sentence and accepting the free gift of the forgiveness for your sins.
You are given the opportunity to choose life by believing Jesus or rejecting Him and thereby remaining condemned, in the prison of your own sin. Once the executioner comes to carry out the just sentence, it will be over for you, forever. Give the claims of Jesus more serious thought and consideration than anything you've ever done in your life. Jesus is asking you, just as he asked Martha about 20 centuries ago: "Do you believe this?"
Read the Gospel of John first. If you still have questions read Matthew, Mark and Luke. If you REALLY believe what Jesus said, you will act upon it and ask Him the rest of the details. He WILL show you the truth.
(.....Are mutation tonics, spells, or spawn chambers involved?.....)
No magic, only the demonstrated power of God, which is perfect. You are an eternal spirit being, made in the image of God. God is eternal. Your (and mine) present body is like a house you live in for a while and is subject to time. In time that body will die, but you, the real, conscious, eternal person will continue forever just as God continues forever. The question to be resolved while you are here in time is: WHERE will you spend your forever? With God or cast away from His presence?
The new kind of body God gives to those who believe is timeless, yet can also operate in time as we do today. Jesus was not subject to the limitations of space-time after He rose from the dead. He could eat, drink, communicate, be touched, in short, do all the ordinary things humans do. However, He could also appear and disappear out of this time-space dimension, much to the fright and incredulous surprise of His disciples. He left this earth, not in the roar of a rocket, but in what appeared like a cloud, he gently rose, defying gravity and entered the eternal realm which invisibly enfolds all of what we consider to be "real" and true today.
He claimed to have come from another world He called heaven and clearly told us that in God's house are many dwelling places. So no, we are not the only intelligent beings God has made. Science can only explore within the dimensions of time-space. Yet even this exploration is giving scientists some puzzling hints that defy explanation purely in terms of the physical world and its laws. Only faith, at least for now, can take us beyond where science can go.
It's also a story of HOPE. Suicide is the final action of a person who has lost all hope. The resurrection of Jesus gives hope by faith, that death is not the end of a person's life. More effort is made to stave off death, than any other human activity. Despite all advances of modern medicine, death rate is still exactly what it has always been, 100%. Yet the promise in Jesus is that of an entirely new KIND of life, not just a continuation of the present version of life we now have. Founders of all other major faiths or philosophies lie in their graves. ONLY Jesus rose from the dead and gives that hope of a new life to those who believe in Him. The promise is not for some ethereal, spiritual, nebulous existence, but real physical life, in a real place in a real, new re-created, transcendent, fully human body. This promise and hope is ONLY for those who BELIEVE in Jesus.
....I choose to see what the evidence shows me.......
When was the last time you crossed a bridge? Did you first check for evidence that the bridge was safe to cross? The people who were on that bridge in Minneapolis recently BELIEVED it was safe. Most bridges are, but nobody checked for evidence that the bridge was safe on the day it collapsed. When was the last time you checked whether the brakes on your car hadn't been tampered with and would stop the car when applied? Your life mostly revolves around faith, not evidence. I'll bet you don't check any bridges either for evidence of their safety. You BELIEVE that the bridge is safe for various reasons, but you cannot KNOW if it won't collapse just when you drive across it.
God has left evidence of His being, but you are unwilling to accept such evidence. Evolutionists never address the origin of the laws of nature. We humans make laws, using our mind. The only evidence we have for the origination of laws and other information is that of a mind. It has never been demonstrated that laws or information can arise by anything OTHER than a mind. That is therefore very good evidence that there is a mind that formulated the laws of nature. I wonder what sort of evidence God would have to present to you in order for you to accept even the possibility of His existence?
......since there was no original sale of a copyrighted work.......
Whenever anybody BUYS for real money a copyrighted work, they own the right to re-sell THAT copy, no matter WHAT the EULA states. The SUPREME court ruled on that long ago. That is called the first sale doctrine and it STILL in effect. When I buy a CD with music, a DVD with a movie, a disk with software, a book, an automobile or a toilet seat cover, in short anything at all, I have the right to resell that article. The **AA's of this world have NOT yet succeeded in taking that right away from consumers.
When a customer goes into a store, they BUY and therefore OWN that copy. When I go into a car dealer and BUY a car, I own that car. I can drive that car on any road upon which it is legal to drive a car. The car dealer nor the manufacturer can make me enter into any kind of "agreement" that in any way limits that right. In the same way no copyright owner can make me enter into a so called "agreement" that limits in any way what I am legally able to do under the law. Any such supposed agreements are null and void.
In the case you cited, if Mr. Zeidenberg had bought that computer with whatever software installed thereon, then he would have never clicked anything. He could have said he bought that computer at a flea market and never "agreed" do a thing. Nobody would have been able to prove otherwise. It could even have been true. To be convicted of violating copyright, the accused has to actually make a copy. If the person simply buys a computer with a huge amount of copyrighted software on it, that person has not violated any law. There is no law that I know of that says a buyer has to re-format the HD of any computer they buy. That's why a click through or shrink wrap license in practice cannot be enforced.
I have as a matter of fact bought used computers. I ask for and often get the disks that came with it and sometimes a whole pile of original software disks extra. Some of that software had been installed on the computer and some not. I'm sure that thousands of used computers are bought and sold every year. I doubt that most sellers erase the HD and re-install whatever OS came with it.
......your argument assumes that these places exist....
Of course any assumption is faith. You have faith that Jesus was wrong and I have faith that He was right. He claimed to be God come to earth and conquered death by resurrection. Jesus made some rather outrageous and exclusive claims. Either he was the worst kind of liar, was himself terribly deceived, or He is the life, the truth and the way to God, just as He said. The Greek language specifically uses the definite article, English equivalent is "the" not "a" as in one of many ways. If Jesus really is God, as He claimed, then saying that you don't believe His testimony is tantamount to calling God a liar. That is not something I would dare to do.
Both of our positions are based on faith. Only after we both die, will each of us KNOW. But by then there will not be any change possible for either one of us. My bet is that Jesus is right and *any* other bet is wrong. If I lose my bet, I'd be no worse for the wear. However if you lose your bet, namely that Jesus was wrong, but he is right after all, you WILL be much worse off.
(.......It could be that both of us were wrong.........)
True, it could be, but in the end, either of us can only believe right now. If your belief is right, we'll both simply go out of existence. That btw. is unscientific. In nature NOTHING goes out of existence. The small matter of conservation laws precludes this. If Jesus was right, I will be in a place where only good dwells, because I have placed my faith in Him, but you will be in a place where nothing but evil exists. The difference between you and me is not what we KNOW, but only in what, or more importantly in WHOM we believe.
.....since the original owner licensed the software, he may not have had the right to transfer it to you......
That would be his/her problem, not mine. The copyright owner would have to prove that the person selling the computer did not transfer the originals with the computer. First sale doctrine is still in effect AFAIK, despite the wished of certain **AA people and maybe even some software vendors. Anyone STILL has the right to sell *any* software to anybody, as long as there are no illegal COPIES made. Whatever the EULA says about that is less than irrelevant.
Of course justice in the US has essentially disappeared for people without means or a backer with means. So yes, it is likely that a billion dollar software company with a zillion highly paid lawyers is likely to prevail in a court of law against most individuals. Whether they have a case is only peripherally relevant.
(.....Dude, somebody broke into my house and installed it on my computer while I wasn't home.....)
Probably something like:
"Somebody sent a virus installed it on my computer and I didn't even know it" is more likely to work. It might be hard to find a juror that ever used or owned a computer that did not get a virus or one of their friends did.
Maybe not you, but your car. Most such tickets give instructions to place the receipt on the dash where it can be seen from the outside. When you exit the garage you put the little card into the machine which then opens the gate to let you drive out.
The **AA sues John/Jane Doe, but eventually has to find out and prove in court who they really are. The same is true if you are accused of anything. It has to be determined that it was really the accused and not possibly someone else. That is why some are seeking to make having an unsecured WI-FI illegal. It would cut down a large excuse area of "It must have been someone with a laptop that downloaded that porn or copyrighted stuff."
(....."I'll mow your lawn for $20,".......)
If push comes to shove though, unless there are witnesses, it would be your word against that of the kid. A signature, more than anything else serves as a witness to an agreement. ALL contracts need to be witnessed somehow. Before people learned how to write, an "X" and witnesses was binding. A mouse click, by its very nature doesn't witness as to WHO clicked that mouse. The presence of a computer file says nothing about how the file got on that computer.
If I buy a used computer, it may have all sorts of files thereon for which I am not responsible and may not even know they are there. Some malware may have put all sorts of crap on a computer and there is no way to prove how it got there. The fundamental problem is that there is no intrinsic way to tell one bit from another. People try to get around that problem with encryption and digital signatures, but that has been and still is too complicated for general use. Someone can steal your computer and possibly use your digital signature, just as someone can forge your written signature. Identity theft was not much of a problem before the ubiquity of electronic processing and networks.
......The only way we know is if I'm wrong.........
The terrible part will be that if you are wrong, you will suffer the consequences forever, without the slightest possibility to change anything about your situation. It is either you are wrong, or Jesus Christ is wrong. He had a lot to say about the continuation of the soul. One of these was:
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Pascal's wager is real. If you lose that gamble, it will be a terrible loss for you. If I lose by simply no longer being a conscious entity, that is no loss at all.
Jesus had a lot to say about hell and it was all terrible. Right now, here on Earth, both good and evil are inextricably intertwined. That, we are told in scripture, was not always so and will not always be the case. There will be again, one place where there is NOTHING good and another place where there is nothing bad. Right now, while still here, you can decide by FAITH, to accept forgiveness or reject by unbelief. That decision will determine in which of the two places you will spend your eternity. Do you KNOW and are you SURE of your position? Are you willing to take the gamble? The odds are against you.
.....When you click "I Agree" and next, you are making yourself liable.....
When you click a mouse you are NOT agreeing to anything, no matter how many lawyers of these companies are trying to make you believe that. First of all, there is NO way to prove who clicked what or how the program got on any particular computer. If someone wanted to break the law, they could make an entire virtualized file of Windows available on the net with all programs.
To enter into a binding contract or agreement, both parties actually have to agree to something, be of legal age (not a minor) and be identifiable. That's why for REAL agreements, there is at least a signature of BOTH parties and the date. Without those, there is no agreement or contract. The age old law has not been erased, just because of the computer age.
If the agreement is an important one, there is also a NOTARY who attests to the identities of the parties and that they did indeed agree to whatever is on the papers they BOTH signed. Not being able to enter into binding agreements that cannot be repudiated or easily challenged is one of the big hang-ups of the digital age. Try to get a loan entirely over the Internet, without some sort of old-fashioned paperwork with signatures and date.
.....Had he only deleted registry entries, no one would know or care.....
If you have a Mac, you save anything to be printed to file as a PDF document. After that you can do whatever, print it as often as wanted, e-mail it etc. Is that illegal now? Will some enterprising lawyer sue Apple for making that possible?
.......the weak nuclear force that covers nuclear decay does indeed require that 50% of atoms will be decayed in the span of a half-time.......
True enough, but the mount of TIME this takes for any given type of atoms to decay is not necessarily constant. The LAWS of physics and the so called "constants" are not the same. The laws of physics do indeed appear invariant. There is mounting evidence from cosmological observations, that the speed of light c and its inverse h have changed dramatically from their values near the beginning of time.
Equations governing radioactivity and other atomic processes contain either h (Planck's constant) or c, the speed of light. Careful measurements have shown that h*c (product) is definitely constant, but the two terms are not. As c decreases, h increases. Both are based on the fact that the ZPE (Zero Point Energy) of space as well as entropy is increasing over time. When the universe was young, the ZPE was very small, as was h. Correspondingly, c was very high. What all this boils down to is that the radioactive clock was running much faster in the past than we observe today. This calls into question the vast amounts of time that evolution requires in order to do its thing.
(....when self-ascribed atheists say they are not....)
The very work atheist means the opposite of theist. Any self-described anything, including atheists can be wrong. As for "good reason", you'd have to define that. I can give you "good reason" why I believe in the existence of God.
(.....You know nothning about about either biology or physics.....)
There is a high probability that I know a lot more than you about both, especially physics, since I worked in the physics department of one of the major Universities of the US. For over 30 years, I was associated with and interacted with Nobel Prize winning physicists there. We worked on and discussed science topics not generally discussed in high school or even most college courses. Getting personal or emotional in a discussion or debate is always a sign from the ones who realizes they are losing it.
......because religion requires the belief in the supernatural......
The supernatural part is only a partial aspect of religion. According to my Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary, belief in the supernatural can be and usually is an aspect of religion, but it s not a requirement. It can be simply: "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith". So as an atheist you are religious, but your religion specifically excludes the supernatural.
(.....Humans do a lot of things that apes don't do other than religion. I have yet to see an ape play basketball for example.....)
Indeed they do, but all those other differences are only in degree, not kind. Apes, kitten and most other animals, especially the young, love to play. The fact that they don't play the same kinds of games is immaterial. They do however play games. However none of them exhibit signs of religious activity, such as for example anything that might fit the definition of worship. Animals make tools. Again they difference is in degree of complexity not in the tools as such.
(....Also evolutionary dogma is an oxymoron....)
No it isn't. There are a number of fundamental assumptions (beliefs) in evolution. Hard data, for example, such as the DNA system commonality to all life forms is fact. Evolutionists believe in the mechanism of descent from generation to generation. ID/creationists believe in the principle of re-useable design by the designer. Either INTERPRETATION can explain the hard data. Evolutionists assume (believe) that the run rate of the clocks such as used in radiometric dating has been constants over vast amounts of time, when we have data on radioactivity scarcely a 100 years or so. Extrapolation from a 100 years of observations to millions of years or even billions, requires a large leap of faith. There is no law of physics that requires "constants" controlling radioactive decay rates to be invariant. There is mounting evidence from astrophysics that some foundational changes have happened to all space that affects c and h and thus every atom in the universe. The product hc seems to be invariant. If a measurement cannot be relied on to remain stable over the duration of the measurements, then all measurements are put in doubt. Evolution has good logic based on certain assumptions (beliefs) that cannot be checked scientifically today. ID has its own set of assumptions (beliefs) which cannot be checked either. Therefore, both are systems of good logic based on assumptions (faith).
That is exactly my point. Apes have many physical and even arguable cultural traits in common with man including possibly tool making. We have OBSERVED that sort of thing to some degree in Apes. The ONLY thing which we have NEVER observed in their or any other animal's behavior is the kinds of activity defined as religious.
The fact is that ALL humans are religious, even atheists. They BELIEVE in the religious opposite of theism. They can't prove their religion any more than the Christians or Moslems.
Religion is an activity that goes against the very foundations of evolution. Anyone who "wastes their time and energy" on religion will always be at an evolutionary disadvantage compared to an otherwise alike organism that doesn't carry such religious baggage. According to evolutionary dogma, religion in humans should have evolved out of the human race by now. The existence and even the increase of religion in our modern times, is evidence against evolution.
They are answers alright. I know that for myself, the Christian answers are much more comforting. Your answers are basically the same as the proposed answers any evolutionist might give. I suppose that in a 100 years from now or less we'll both know who had the correct answers.
Don't you know yet that putting someone down and name calling is the sure sign that the name caller knows that he has lost the debate? Profanity is the last refuge of an emotional loser. You have made some very good points. Thank you.
......take any piece of data you can present and show how that data supports evolution, so-called "ID", 7 day creation......
The DNA-RNA system is common to all life. Evolution attributes this to descent from one life form to the next. ID contends that this is an example of a reusable design that the Creator used over and over, because it works. We do that in our own designs all the time.
DNA is a carrier of code, complex instruction how to build proteins and all sorts of other things. Code or information in our experience doesn't come from any source other than a mind, that of a programmer. Evolutionists will have us believe that in the case of the codes of life that is an exception to that rule. They try to convince themselves and others that the programs of life had no programmer.
....and a grandchild that's two billionths of the way, and so on, for a billion generations?......
That is a belief that requires the magic of time. It cannot be verified experimentally today, whether there isn't a boundary that stops that process at some point.
The Biblical "kind" is not the same as our scientific term "species". A reptile and a bird are different kinds. Evolution claims that birds came from reptiles. There is no way to verify such a claim. Never has there been a fossil that is part bird and part reptile.
There are lots of different dogs, but no natter what has been done to them, they are still always only dogs. The same kind of experiments have been done with fruit flies, many generations of them. All sorts of weird fruit flies, with missing or extra parts, have come from these experiments, but all of them were still nothing other than fruit flies. The same sort of experiments show this with e-coli or other kinds of single cell organisms. Experimental science refutes the idea that organisms can evolve across certain barriers.
......The two most common examples are bacteria developing drug resistance and peppered moth populations changing colour in polluted areas to blend in with darker trees.......
That is only one aspect of evolution, which many creationists call adaptation. It is certainly an observed fact. Extrapolating from that to the entire chain from a single cell (or even a rock) to a human being is faith, not science. This adaptability of living organisms is the ONLY aspect of what is commonly given the label "evolution" that has actually been experimentally and observationally verified and can be demonstrated TODAY.
(.....Gravity is also still a theory.....)
True, but I can do experiments and observations TODAY to test the theory of gravity. Nobody has to depend on time, the magic by which evolution does its thing. Real science is about the present, not conjecturing about how life might have evolved in the distant past.
Our measurements of time, both present and past depends on clocks governed by certain "constants" which we assume (believe) to be invariant throughout the great ages past. There is an increasing body of evidence that this is not the case. Some of these "constants" are not all that constant throughout time. Therefore all the supposed age of things is not really known, but assumed.
.....for example, no multicellular organism has wheels.......
That statement shows that you know very little about science. A creature with wheels would be at a huge evolutionary disadvantage over its predecessor. In a roadless world wheels are about as useless as tits on a boar hog.
(.....the remarkable similarity of all the life we see, that we evolved.....)
How about the idea that a designer came up with something that worked and simply used that designs over and over? Microsoft still uses some of the DOS code because all PCs (except Macs) still use the same old BIOS they did for over 20 years now. If it isn't broken, don't attempt to fix it.
Airplanes have wings, and so do birds. We know that birds were around long before planes. Therefore, planes are the descendants of birds. Preposterous? Of course! We know that airplanes were designed and the idea of wings works for birds and planes. Planes and birds were designed and have the commonality of wings.
.....Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are just as stupid......
Well, since government is selected by majority, you are stuck to be ruled by the bunch of stupid people they elect. Maybe you can find a nice dictatorship somewhere that is run by an enlightened dictator at least as bright and articulate as you are. Tell me if you know of such a place. I promise however to not move there and mess it up for you.
I suggest you first look up the definition "religion" and then tell me how anyone has ever observed any such evidence in an animal. Ceremony is not the essence of religion. The essence is in the worship of a power or entity greater than and outside of our own human-ness.
(......and the population is ever increasing......)
The rise of religion even in our "modern, enlightened age" is faster than the ride of population of earth.
(......at the end of the day, you still breed, reproduce.....)
These activities take resources which are then no longer available to those animals of a given species who practice religion. Therefore animals of that same species who DON'T do religion have more resources left over for survival endeavors. They should, in the long term, by Darwinian mechanisms, prevail and eventually displace the religious members of that species.
Since a human can change religions or profess to be an atheist, ostensibly having no religion, shows that religion is not a genetic trait, but something learned or environmental.
.....Everything has been knocked down into the natural world by science except for some religious holdouts.......
Everything, you sure? What are the scientific answers to any of these questions?
1, Where did I come from? 2, Who am I, really? 3, What, if any, is the purpose of my existence? 4, What will happen to me after I die
These can only be answered by some sort of belief system, not science. If you say science can and does answer these you don't know much about science nor the scientific method.
Every thinking person eventually grapples with these important questions at some point and comes to some sort of answer.
If you believe in Evolution your answers might be:
1. You evolved from minerals in rocks, after relentless rains into the primordial seas. 2. You are only a collection of chemical elements that somehow developed consciousness. 3. You must remain fit enough to survive and reproduce to maintain your species. 4. You will be recycled back to the elements of the earth from which you, like all life forms, originally evolved.
If you are a Bible believing Christian you answers would be:
1. You are a special creation of God, made in His image. 2. You are an eternal Spirit, living for a short time in a physical body. 3. You were designed to have fellowship with the transcendent God of the Universe. 4. You will meet your Creator and either be with Him or be cast away from Him forever, depending how you responded to His Grace while here on Earth.
You see, your answer to four of the most important questions in life depend on what you BELIEVE, not what can be demonstrated scientifically.
.....What is the qualitative difference between the mind of a human and that of one of the Great Apes?........
There is at least one. No activity which could be described as "religious" has ever been observed in any other creature besides humans. No one has ever observed an ape or any other animal to pray, set up an idol to worship, build or go to a special place to worship. No activity which we humans normally associate with religion has ever been shown to be exhibited by other animals. There is no evidence that any animal has ever exhibited any anxiety or the least concern about what happens to it after death.
Man is incurably religious. No culture is known that did not or does not have some sort of religious activities. Evolution has no completely satisfactory explanation for this fact. If anything, religious activity implies the expenditure of resources that might be better applied toward "survival" of the fittest. Wasting resources and energy on things that don't contribute towards survival of the organism, to ultimately reproduce, goes against a very fundamental precept of evolutionary dogma. If evolution, or at least it's central dogma of "survival of the fittest", applied to humans, then religion should have been bred out of the human race a long time ago. The fact that religion, if anything, instead of getting less in humankind, is increasing. The number of Muslims, and certain Christian groups is increasing the total religiosity of humankind. Evolution doesn't address this innate drive of humans to worship something or someone. In spite of years of evolutionary indoctrination from Kindergarten upwards, over 90% of the American people still believe in God. Not only in the US, but world wide, atheists, and even agnostics, are a rather small minority.
The Biblical idea, from Genesis, that man is a special, eternal creature, made in the image of God provides a much better explanation for the incessant religious fervor of most humans. It is this "image" of God, which is indelibly stamped onto each human being, that drives man's religious bent.
Slashdot Mirror
.....a scientist posting a comment on a Christian website, expressing himself with equal passion, would be villified, taunted and attacked.......
Not if they were truly Christian, following the teachings of Jesus. He said "If any man WILL...." he didn't say you MUST. I posted these things in response, not as the initiator.
......I sincerely hope that you find your way through them and start living for joy in this life.......
.....)
I have found exactly that joy in this life and the eternal hope by direct contact with the risen Lord Jesus. It is not just some philosophically theorized existential joy, but the very real joy of having fellowship right NOW with the eternal God of all. It is the joy of knowing that my sins are ALL forgiven.
(.....Some other examples of mythological gods that die and return
Only Jesus has ever come back in a real, physical, touchable body, not some mythical, mystical, spiritual or virtual form. He has made some real lasting positive changes in my life and in many others I personally know.
(......I've always thought that particular assertion to be very troubling.....)
Yes indeed, the assertions Jesus makes are VERY troubling and exclusive. He claimed to be God and it was that claim which the religious leaders of His day condemned Him for. When Jesus was about to demonstrate His power over death He spoke these words:
Jesus said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life! He who believes in Me, though he die, yet he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)
He made at least 18 "I am" statements of similar exclusive nature. There are three choices about Jesus.
1) Jesus was the worst and most dangerous liar the world has ever seen.
2) He was a crazy, self deluded lunatic.
3) He spoke the truth.
He did not leave the option "Jesus was a good moral teacher, just as many others" open to us. Because He is both divine and fully human he could say things like that and be telling the truth. Just as today, some believed Him and others disbelieved and hated him.
You may reject or accept the written record of the Bible just as you can any other historical writings.
(.....Your deity is unwilling to accept an apology for the occasional mistake.....)
Human rebellion against the rightful Government of the Universe is deep, pervasive and long standing. If you have ever told a lie you are guilty and condemned. Because of many sins, not just for an occasional mistake, we are all on death row, quarantined here on earth in space-time. One by one, the executioner, death, comes for us. One day he will come for you. There is a way out though.
It is called forgiveness through grace, accomplished by Jesus taking the punishment you and I deserve. There is a pardon waiting for you, signed in blood IF you fulfill the conditions thereof. That's where the apology comes in. This apology involves more than an "I am sorry" but a heartfelt change of attitude toward God. It is the faith response of your inner person in agreeing with God's just sentence and accepting the free gift of the forgiveness for your sins.
You are given the opportunity to choose life by believing Jesus or rejecting Him and thereby remaining condemned, in the prison of your own sin. Once the executioner comes to carry out the just sentence, it will be over for you, forever. Give the claims of Jesus more serious thought and consideration than anything you've ever done in your life. Jesus is asking you, just as he asked Martha about 20 centuries ago: "Do you believe this?"
.....Great where do I sign up?......
Read the Gospel of John first. If you still have questions read Matthew, Mark and Luke. If you REALLY believe what Jesus said, you will act upon it and ask Him the rest of the details. He WILL show you the truth.
(.....Are mutation tonics, spells, or spawn chambers involved?.....)
No magic, only the demonstrated power of God, which is perfect. You are an eternal spirit being, made in the image of God. God is eternal. Your (and mine) present body is like a house you live in for a while and is subject to time. In time that body will die, but you, the real, conscious, eternal person will continue forever just as God continues forever. The question to be resolved while you are here in time is: WHERE will you spend your forever? With God or cast away from His presence?
The new kind of body God gives to those who believe is timeless, yet can also operate in time as we do today. Jesus was not subject to the limitations of space-time after He rose from the dead. He could eat, drink, communicate, be touched, in short, do all the ordinary things humans do. However, He could also appear and disappear out of this time-space dimension, much to the fright and incredulous surprise of His disciples. He left this earth, not in the roar of a rocket, but in what appeared like a cloud, he gently rose, defying gravity and entered the eternal realm which invisibly enfolds all of what we consider to be "real" and true today.
He claimed to have come from another world He called heaven and clearly told us that in God's house are many dwelling places. So no, we are not the only intelligent beings God has made. Science can only explore within the dimensions of time-space. Yet even this exploration is giving scientists some puzzling hints that defy explanation purely in terms of the physical world and its laws. Only faith, at least for now, can take us beyond where science can go.
.....it's a love story......
It's also a story of HOPE. Suicide is the final action of a person who has lost all hope. The resurrection of Jesus gives hope by faith, that death is not the end of a person's life. More effort is made to stave off death, than any other human activity. Despite all advances of modern medicine, death rate is still exactly what it has always been, 100%. Yet the promise in Jesus is that of an entirely new KIND of life, not just a continuation of the present version of life we now have. Founders of all other major faiths or philosophies lie in their graves. ONLY Jesus rose from the dead and gives that hope of a new life to those who believe in Him. The promise is not for some ethereal, spiritual, nebulous existence, but real physical life, in a real place in a real, new re-created, transcendent, fully human body. This promise and hope is ONLY for those who BELIEVE in Jesus.
....I choose to see what the evidence shows me.......
When was the last time you crossed a bridge? Did you first check for evidence that the bridge was safe to cross? The people who were on that bridge in Minneapolis recently BELIEVED it was safe. Most bridges are, but nobody checked for evidence that the bridge was safe on the day it collapsed. When was the last time you checked whether the brakes on your car hadn't been tampered with and would stop the car when applied? Your life mostly revolves around faith, not evidence. I'll bet you don't check any bridges either for evidence of their safety. You BELIEVE that the bridge is safe for various reasons, but you cannot KNOW if it won't collapse just when you drive across it.
God has left evidence of His being, but you are unwilling to accept such evidence. Evolutionists never address the origin of the laws of nature. We humans make laws, using our mind. The only evidence we have for the origination of laws and other information is that of a mind. It has never been demonstrated that laws or information can arise by anything OTHER than a mind. That is therefore very good evidence that there is a mind that formulated the laws of nature. I wonder what sort of evidence God would have to present to you in order for you to accept even the possibility of His existence?
......since there was no original sale of a copyrighted work.......
Whenever anybody BUYS for real money a copyrighted work, they own the right to re-sell THAT copy, no matter WHAT the EULA states. The SUPREME court ruled on that long ago. That is called the first sale doctrine and it STILL in effect. When I buy a CD with music, a DVD with a movie, a disk with software, a book, an automobile or a toilet seat cover, in short anything at all, I have the right to resell that article. The **AA's of this world have NOT yet succeeded in taking that right away from consumers.
When a customer goes into a store, they BUY and therefore OWN that copy. When I go into a car dealer and BUY a car, I own that car. I can drive that car on any road upon which it is legal to drive a car. The car dealer nor the manufacturer can make me enter into any kind of "agreement" that in any way limits that right. In the same way no copyright owner can make me enter into a so called "agreement" that limits in any way what I am legally able to do under the law. Any such supposed agreements are null and void.
In the case you cited, if Mr. Zeidenberg had bought that computer with whatever software installed thereon, then he would have never clicked anything. He could have said he bought that computer at a flea market and never "agreed" do a thing. Nobody would have been able to prove otherwise. It could even have been true. To be convicted of violating copyright, the accused has to actually make a copy. If the person simply buys a computer with a huge amount of copyrighted software on it, that person has not violated any law. There is no law that I know of that says a buyer has to re-format the HD of any computer they buy. That's why a click through or shrink wrap license in practice cannot be enforced.
I have as a matter of fact bought used computers. I ask for and often get the disks that came with it and sometimes a whole pile of original software disks extra. Some of that software had been installed on the computer and some not. I'm sure that thousands of used computers are bought and sold every year. I doubt that most sellers erase the HD and re-install whatever OS came with it.
......your argument assumes that these places exist....
Of course any assumption is faith. You have faith that Jesus was wrong and I have faith that He was right. He claimed to be God come to earth and conquered death by resurrection. Jesus made some rather outrageous and exclusive claims. Either he was the worst kind of liar, was himself terribly deceived, or He is the life, the truth and the way to God, just as He said. The Greek language specifically uses the definite article, English equivalent is "the" not "a" as in one of many ways. If Jesus really is God, as He claimed, then saying that you don't believe His testimony is tantamount to calling God a liar. That is not something I would dare to do.
Both of our positions are based on faith. Only after we both die, will each of us KNOW. But by then there will not be any change possible for either one of us. My bet is that Jesus is right and *any* other bet is wrong. If I lose my bet, I'd be no worse for the wear. However if you lose your bet, namely that Jesus was wrong, but he is right after all, you WILL be much worse off.
(.......It could be that both of us were wrong.........)
True, it could be, but in the end, either of us can only believe right now. If your belief is right, we'll both simply go out of existence. That btw. is unscientific. In nature NOTHING goes out of existence. The small matter of conservation laws precludes this. If Jesus was right, I will be in a place where only good dwells, because I have placed my faith in Him, but you will be in a place where nothing but evil exists. The difference between you and me is not what we KNOW, but only in what, or more importantly in WHOM we believe.
.....since the original owner licensed the software, he may not have had the right to transfer it to you......
That would be his/her problem, not mine. The copyright owner would have to prove that the person selling the computer did not transfer the originals with the computer. First sale doctrine is still in effect AFAIK, despite the wished of certain **AA people and maybe even some software vendors. Anyone STILL has the right to sell *any* software to anybody, as long as there are no illegal COPIES made. Whatever the EULA says about that is less than irrelevant.
Of course justice in the US has essentially disappeared for people without means or a backer with means. So yes, it is likely that a billion dollar software company with a zillion highly paid lawyers is likely to prevail in a court of law against most individuals. Whether they have a case is only peripherally relevant.
(.....Dude, somebody broke into my house and installed it on my computer while I wasn't home.....)
Probably something like:
"Somebody sent a virus installed it on my computer and I didn't even know it" is more likely to work. It might be hard to find a juror that ever used or owned a computer that did not get a virus or one of their friends did.
.....Was I "identifiable".....
.......)
Maybe not you, but your car. Most such tickets give instructions to place the receipt on the dash where it can be seen from the outside. When you exit the garage you put the little card into the machine which then opens the gate to let you drive out.
The **AA sues John/Jane Doe, but eventually has to find out and prove in court who they really are. The same is true if you are accused of anything. It has to be determined that it was really the accused and not possibly someone else. That is why some are seeking to make having an unsecured WI-FI illegal. It would cut down a large excuse area of "It must have been someone with a laptop that downloaded that porn or copyrighted stuff."
(....."I'll mow your lawn for $20,"
If push comes to shove though, unless there are witnesses, it would be your word against that of the kid. A signature, more than anything else serves as a witness to an agreement. ALL contracts need to be witnessed somehow. Before people learned how to write, an "X" and witnesses was binding. A mouse click, by its very nature doesn't witness as to WHO clicked that mouse. The presence of a computer file says nothing about how the file got on that computer.
If I buy a used computer, it may have all sorts of files thereon for which I am not responsible and may not even know they are there. Some malware may have put all sorts of crap on a computer and there is no way to prove how it got there. The fundamental problem is that there is no intrinsic way to tell one bit from another. People try to get around that problem with encryption and digital signatures, but that has been and still is too complicated for general use. Someone can steal your computer and possibly use your digital signature, just as someone can forge your written signature. Identity theft was not much of a problem before the ubiquity of electronic processing and networks.
......The only way we know is if I'm wrong.........
The terrible part will be that if you are wrong, you will suffer the consequences forever, without the slightest possibility to change anything about your situation. It is either you are wrong, or Jesus Christ is wrong. He had a lot to say about the continuation of the soul. One of these was:
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Pascal's wager is real. If you lose that gamble, it will be a terrible loss for you. If I lose by simply no longer being a conscious entity, that is no loss at all.
Jesus had a lot to say about hell and it was all terrible. Right now, here on Earth, both good and evil are inextricably intertwined. That, we are told in scripture, was not always so and will not always be the case. There will be again, one place where there is NOTHING good and another place where there is nothing bad. Right now, while still here, you can decide by FAITH, to accept forgiveness or reject by unbelief. That decision will determine in which of the two places you will spend your eternity. Do you KNOW and are you SURE of your position? Are you willing to take the gamble? The odds are against you.
.....When you click "I Agree" and next, you are making yourself liable.....
When you click a mouse you are NOT agreeing to anything, no matter how many lawyers of these companies are trying to make you believe that. First of all, there is NO way to prove who clicked what or how the program got on any particular computer. If someone wanted to break the law, they could make an entire virtualized file of Windows available on the net with all programs.
To enter into a binding contract or agreement, both parties actually have to agree to something, be of legal age (not a minor) and be identifiable. That's why for REAL agreements, there is at least a signature of BOTH parties and the date. Without those, there is no agreement or contract. The age old law has not been erased, just because of the computer age.
If the agreement is an important one, there is also a NOTARY who attests to the identities of the parties and that they did indeed agree to whatever is on the papers they BOTH signed. Not being able to enter into binding agreements that cannot be repudiated or easily challenged is one of the big hang-ups of the digital age. Try to get a loan entirely over the Internet, without some sort of old-fashioned paperwork with signatures and date.
.....Had he only deleted registry entries, no one would know or care.....
If you have a Mac, you save anything to be printed to file as a PDF document. After that you can do whatever, print it as often as wanted, e-mail it etc. Is that illegal now? Will some enterprising lawyer sue Apple for making that possible?
.......the weak nuclear force that covers nuclear decay does indeed require that 50% of atoms will be decayed in the span of a half-time.......
True enough, but the mount of TIME this takes for any given type of atoms to decay is not necessarily constant. The LAWS of physics and the so called "constants" are not the same. The laws of physics do indeed appear invariant. There is mounting evidence from cosmological observations, that the speed of light c and its inverse h have changed dramatically from their values near the beginning of time.
Equations governing radioactivity and other atomic processes contain either h (Planck's constant) or c, the speed of light. Careful measurements have shown that h*c (product) is definitely constant, but the two terms are not. As c decreases, h increases. Both are based on the fact that the ZPE (Zero Point Energy) of space as well as entropy is increasing over time. When the universe was young, the ZPE was very small, as was h. Correspondingly, c was very high. What all this boils down to is that the radioactive clock was running much faster in the past than we observe today. This calls into question the vast amounts of time that evolution requires in order to do its thing.
(....when self-ascribed atheists say they are not....)
The very work atheist means the opposite of theist. Any self-described anything, including atheists can be wrong. As for "good reason", you'd have to define that. I can give you "good reason" why I believe in the existence of God.
(.....You know nothning about about either biology or physics.....)
There is a high probability that I know a lot more than you about both, especially physics, since I worked in the physics department of one of the major Universities of the US. For over 30 years, I was associated with and interacted with Nobel Prize winning physicists there. We worked on and discussed science topics not generally discussed in high school or even most college courses. Getting personal or emotional in a discussion or debate is always a sign from the ones who realizes they are losing it.
......because religion requires the belief in the supernatural......
The supernatural part is only a partial aspect of religion. According to my Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary, belief in the supernatural can be and usually is an aspect of religion, but it s not a requirement. It can be simply: "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith". So as an atheist you are religious, but your religion specifically excludes the supernatural.
(.....Humans do a lot of things that apes don't do other than religion. I have yet to see an ape play basketball for example.....)
Indeed they do, but all those other differences are only in degree, not kind. Apes, kitten and most other animals, especially the young, love to play. The fact that they don't play the same kinds of games is immaterial. They do however play games. However none of them exhibit signs of religious activity, such as for example anything that might fit the definition of worship. Animals make tools. Again they difference is in degree of complexity not in the tools as such.
(....Also evolutionary dogma is an oxymoron....)
No it isn't. There are a number of fundamental assumptions (beliefs) in evolution. Hard data, for example, such as the DNA system commonality to all life forms is fact. Evolutionists believe in the mechanism of descent from generation to generation. ID/creationists believe in the principle of re-useable design by the designer. Either INTERPRETATION can explain the hard data. Evolutionists assume (believe) that the run rate of the clocks such as used in radiometric dating has been constants over vast amounts of time, when we have data on radioactivity scarcely a 100 years or so. Extrapolation from a 100 years of observations to millions of years or even billions, requires a large leap of faith. There is no law of physics that requires "constants" controlling radioactive decay rates to be invariant. There is mounting evidence from astrophysics that some foundational changes have happened to all space that affects c and h and thus every atom in the universe. The product hc seems to be invariant. If a measurement cannot be relied on to remain stable over the duration of the measurements, then all measurements are put in doubt. Evolution has good logic based on certain assumptions (beliefs) that cannot be checked scientifically today. ID has its own set of assumptions (beliefs) which cannot be checked either. Therefore, both are systems of good logic based on assumptions (faith).
......at least we've never seen it in apes......
That is exactly my point. Apes have many physical and even arguable cultural traits in common with man including possibly tool making. We have OBSERVED that sort of thing to some degree in Apes. The ONLY thing which we have NEVER observed in their or any other animal's behavior is the kinds of activity defined as religious.
The fact is that ALL humans are religious, even atheists. They BELIEVE in the religious opposite of theism. They can't prove their religion any more than the Christians or Moslems.
Religion is an activity that goes against the very foundations of evolution. Anyone who "wastes their time and energy" on religion will always be at an evolutionary disadvantage compared to an otherwise alike organism that doesn't carry such religious baggage. According to evolutionary dogma, religion in humans should have evolved out of the human race by now. The existence and even the increase of religion in our modern times, is evidence against evolution.
......There you go, science has the answers.....
They are answers alright. I know that for myself, the Christian answers are much more comforting. Your answers are basically the same as the proposed answers any evolutionist might give. I suppose that in a 100 years from now or less we'll both know who had the correct answers.
.....You simply tried to put me down......
Don't you know yet that putting someone down and name calling is the sure sign that the name caller knows that he has lost the debate? Profanity is the last refuge of an emotional loser. You have made some very good points. Thank you.
......take any piece of data you can present and show how that data supports evolution, so-called "ID", 7 day creation......
The DNA-RNA system is common to all life. Evolution attributes this to descent from one life form to the next. ID contends that this is an example of a reusable design that the Creator used over and over, because it works. We do that in our own designs all the time.
DNA is a carrier of code, complex instruction how to build proteins and all sorts of other things. Code or information in our experience doesn't come from any source other than a mind, that of a programmer. Evolutionists will have us believe that in the case of the codes of life that is an exception to that rule. They try to convince themselves and others that the programs of life had no programmer.
....and a grandchild that's two billionths of the way, and so on, for a billion generations?......
That is a belief that requires the magic of time. It cannot be verified experimentally today, whether there isn't a boundary that stops that process at some point.
The Biblical "kind" is not the same as our scientific term "species". A reptile and a bird are different kinds. Evolution claims that birds came from reptiles. There is no way to verify such a claim. Never has there been a fossil that is part bird and part reptile.
There are lots of different dogs, but no natter what has been done to them, they are still always only dogs. The same kind of experiments have been done with fruit flies, many generations of them. All sorts of weird fruit flies, with missing or extra parts, have come from these experiments, but all of them were still nothing other than fruit flies. The same sort of experiments show this with e-coli or other kinds of single cell organisms. Experimental science refutes the idea that organisms can evolve across certain barriers.
......The two most common examples are bacteria developing drug resistance and peppered moth populations changing colour in polluted areas to blend in with darker trees.......
That is only one aspect of evolution, which many creationists call adaptation. It is certainly an observed fact. Extrapolating from that to the entire chain from a single cell (or even a rock) to a human being is faith, not science. This adaptability of living organisms is the ONLY aspect of what is commonly given the label "evolution" that has actually been experimentally and observationally verified and can be demonstrated TODAY.
(.....Gravity is also still a theory.....)
True, but I can do experiments and observations TODAY to test the theory of gravity. Nobody has to depend on time, the magic by which evolution does its thing. Real science is about the present, not conjecturing about how life might have evolved in the distant past.
Our measurements of time, both present and past depends on clocks governed by certain "constants" which we assume (believe) to be invariant throughout the great ages past. There is an increasing body of evidence that this is not the case. Some of these "constants" are not all that constant throughout time. Therefore all the supposed age of things is not really known, but assumed.
.....for example, no multicellular organism has wheels.......
That statement shows that you know very little about science. A creature with wheels would be at a huge evolutionary disadvantage over its predecessor. In a roadless world wheels are about as useless as tits on a boar hog.
(.....the remarkable similarity of all the life we see, that we evolved.....)
How about the idea that a designer came up with something that worked and simply used that designs over and over? Microsoft still uses some of the DOS code because all PCs (except Macs) still use the same old BIOS they did for over 20 years now. If it isn't broken, don't attempt to fix it.
Airplanes have wings, and so do birds. We know that birds were around long before planes. Therefore, planes are the descendants of birds. Preposterous? Of course! We know that airplanes were designed and the idea of wings works for birds and planes. Planes and birds were designed and have the commonality of wings.
.....Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are just as stupid......
Well, since government is selected by majority, you are stuck to be ruled by the bunch of stupid people they elect. Maybe you can find a nice dictatorship somewhere that is run by an enlightened dictator at least as bright and articulate as you are. Tell me if you know of such a place. I promise however to not move there and mess it up for you.
......you have no idea what to look for......
I suggest you first look up the definition "religion" and then tell me how anyone has ever observed any such evidence in an animal. Ceremony is not the essence of religion. The essence is in the worship of a power or entity greater than and outside of our own human-ness.
(......and the population is ever increasing......)
The rise of religion even in our "modern, enlightened age" is faster than the ride of population of earth.
(......at the end of the day, you still breed, reproduce.....)
These activities take resources which are then no longer available to those animals of a given species who practice religion. Therefore animals of that same species who DON'T do religion have more resources left over for survival endeavors. They should, in the long term, by Darwinian mechanisms, prevail and eventually displace the religious members of that species.
Since a human can change religions or profess to be an atheist, ostensibly having no religion, shows that religion is not a genetic trait, but something learned or environmental.
.....Everything has been knocked down into the natural world by science except for some religious holdouts.......
Everything, you sure? What are the scientific answers to any of these questions?
1, Where did I come from?
2, Who am I, really?
3, What, if any, is the purpose of my existence?
4, What will happen to me after I die
These can only be answered by some sort of belief system, not science. If you say science can and does answer these you don't know much about science nor the scientific method.
Every thinking person eventually grapples with these important questions at some point and comes to some sort of answer.
If you believe in Evolution your answers might be:
1. You evolved from minerals in rocks, after relentless rains into the primordial seas.
2. You are only a collection of chemical elements that somehow developed consciousness.
3. You must remain fit enough to survive and reproduce to maintain your species.
4. You will be recycled back to the elements of the earth from which you, like all life forms, originally evolved.
If you are a Bible believing Christian you answers would be:
1. You are a special creation of God, made in His image.
2. You are an eternal Spirit, living for a short time in a physical body.
3. You were designed to have fellowship with the transcendent God of the Universe.
4. You will meet your Creator and either be with Him or be cast away from Him forever, depending how you responded to His Grace while here on Earth.
You see, your answer to four of the most important questions in life depend on what you BELIEVE, not what can be demonstrated scientifically.
.....What is the qualitative difference between the mind of a human and that of one of the Great Apes?........
There is at least one. No activity which could be described as "religious" has ever been observed in any other creature besides humans. No one has ever observed an ape or any other animal to pray, set up an idol to worship, build or go to a special place to worship. No activity which we humans normally associate with religion has ever been shown to be exhibited by other animals. There is no evidence that any animal has ever exhibited any anxiety or the least concern about what happens to it after death.
Man is incurably religious. No culture is known that did not or does not have some sort of religious activities. Evolution has no completely satisfactory explanation for this fact. If anything, religious activity implies the expenditure of resources that might be better applied toward "survival" of the fittest. Wasting resources and energy on things that don't contribute towards survival of the organism, to ultimately reproduce, goes against a very fundamental precept of evolutionary dogma. If evolution, or at least it's central dogma of "survival of the fittest", applied to humans, then religion should have been bred out of the human race a long time ago. The fact that religion, if anything, instead of getting less in humankind, is increasing. The number of Muslims, and certain Christian groups is increasing the total religiosity of humankind. Evolution doesn't address this innate drive of humans to worship something or someone. In spite of years of evolutionary indoctrination from Kindergarten upwards, over 90% of the American people still believe in God. Not only in the US, but world wide, atheists, and even agnostics, are a rather small minority.
The Biblical idea, from Genesis, that man is a special, eternal creature, made in the image of God provides a much better explanation for the incessant religious fervor of most humans. It is this "image" of God, which is indelibly stamped onto each human being, that drives man's religious bent.