You'd have to do some pretty liberal stretching of Genesis to make it fit what we know about evolution.
Not really. The creation account in Genesis has been understood by knowledgeable Bible followers as not literal since at least the 1st century BC by reading into it a mythic description of Platonic archetypes. These can, in turn, be easily made compatible with modern hard sciences, either directly or via some of its derivative versions, such as Aritotle's. So much so, in fact, that any Christian who follows some version of Aristotle's philosophy, meaning most Catholics and a ton of historic Protestants, don't mind evolution at all, ditto most branches of Judaism, the older Islamic ones etc. What doesn't necessarily mean they profess belief in it, only that they don't mind either way, as it just isn't an important subject.
The problem you guys have there in the USA with your Bible Belt Christian fundamentalists and related nutjobs is that most of its pastors, priests, reverends or whatever the favored term is nowadays are philosophically illiterate.
I had a boss who became a born-again Christian (this is in the U.S., for reference) and afterwards he would always spout on and on about how every single word in the Bible was true and there were no contradictions. I suspect a lot of what he said and what he believed was sort of passed-on to him. He would always talk about Bible groups and people who showed him movies, and it was they, for instance, who taught him that the ACLU is trying to legalize child pornography.
It's also kind of funny. Before he was "saved," he once told me that as long as people let him do his own thing, it didn't matter what they believed or did. I later expressed that view to him and he told me that was Satan's viewpoint.
Ask him if he really speaks in tongues, or started babbling when he didn't want to feel left out?
But who on earth is silly enough to take the bible literally? I was brought up a Christian, and not once did anyone tell me that the bible is a literal documentary on events, but rather a collection of stories written after they happened (especially the old testament, which is basically cobbled together from bits of the torah, and some other things). I've also not met a single Christian who takes the bible literally (and I even went to Sunday school).
Allow me to introduce you, then.
Here it is from the official website of the Southern Baptist Convention(in the context of the discussion of a book outlining creation):
That's the 2nd largest denomination in the USA. Most of the so called Evangelical churches have also embraced it. If I were to write up a list of the churches in my town alone, I would feel completely comfortable laying money on the fact that a random selection from that list will believe in the literal interpretation of the bible.
And that is just one, albeit large, Protestant group. The Eastern Orthodox and Catholics also have sections of the bible which they believe MUST be interpreted literally, including pieces of the Old Testament. Indeed, the majority of Christians(I'd say 100%, but I'm sure there is some sect out there that says, "yeah, we're christian but we think it's all a metaphor") uphold a literal interpretation in some form. Tenets of the faith like Original Sin and the entire point of the blood sacrifice of Jesus are based on such interpretations.
In other words, it isn't a scientific text, and shouldn't be read as one. It isn't even trying to describe science, and it's a serious misreading of it to think it is.
That's all well and good, now how do we get my fellow citizens to stop voting for idiots that believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, that the US is a Christian nation, and that Satan (or God) created the earth with fossils in place to confuse (or test) people's faith?
You can't fix stupid. Or so they say. Honestly, a bullet to the head will fix anyone's belief.
In my experience, discussion with a handful of atheist on and off led me to believe that they are only topped by extremists when it comes to discussion on existence of God. Majority of the believers are busy living a life and thanking God once in a while.
I prefer agnostics to atheist. Atheists, IMO follow a religion that does not believe in God.
I do not believe in any Gods and I firmly believe that all religions are man made. But I do not like to lump myself as atheist nor agnostic. Why? Because they do seem like religions. I googled agnostic to make sure i knew it's meaning, and what do i get in my results?
Seriously? Why the fuck do i need to meet up with others like i'm in some fucking religion?
Fuck that.
I do not need to reconfirm with anyone about my beliefs, nor do I need to waste my time sitting around, and probably asked to give money/donation/tithe to the fucking place.
I am not opposed to gathering up all the organic waste that we can, fermenting it and making alcohol. Nor am I against flushing all toilet and livestock waste into giant fermentation tanks to capture the methane energy.
However, I don't think this is a "solution" to the problem of energy in the future. It will produce some, but not all of our needs, and there will be significant energy inputs required to make it work.
I am more interested in throwing all of our spare money, time and energy into long-term solutions, like cleaner nuclear reactors, better fuel cells, solar sails and even personal methane harvesters.
so the 100,000 tons, times 2000 pounds per ton, divided by 13 (as per article only half the yield of dry corns 26 lbs. per gallon ethanol), gives 15 million gallons of ethanol. the USA uses 380 million gallons of gasoline per day.
Ya? and that means 15 Million less gallons of gas that would be used.
It's a start, combined with other things, would help make a dent in the usage of gas/oil.
I guess you want to wait till gas is $20 a gallon before we start using other fuels? Maybe you do. I don't drive, so I don't buy gas, so really, I don't care much, but it's this attitude that everything has to be big to be effective that is annoying.
Much like no one is going to make a WoW beater, no on is going to come up with a solution that can totally get rid of the use of gas/oil. But we can find a bunch of renewable resources that together can help a lot.
When you can buy 1080p monitors for as little as $100, is it worth it? I paid $360ish for my 120hz 3D Vision monitor. I could of bought 3 monitors instead with that price. Sometimes I wonder if I should of.
Sounds like a gimmick to me, sort of like 3D movies. Yet they keep beating that dead horse.
Right, and because they know about it - they can give their phone to a schoolmate who plans on going to school, while they head off to the local crack den.
If the kid was doing crack, he's trade the phone for some. Love it when people try to use the "crack" argument but don't actually understand the nature of crack.
When i skipped school, which was all the time, it was rarely about drugs. Sure, there was a few times I was on acid that I left school early, but all the other times I skipped it was because I had something better to do. Go eat, hang with friends who were skipping also, overslept, whatever. And for the record, my senior year in high school, I had 45% absentee in every class, and still pulled of a 3.5 that year.
What does that prove? That school doesn't teach you much, and if you have half a brain, you can figure out how to get around the rules. 9th grade year, I skipped classes all the time. I had a shop class that I went to for a week. Yet at the end of the year, I got a reward for perfect attendance. (should point out that our whole class busted out laughing when I got the reward). What did school teach me? That rules are meant to be broken and people in charge are really fucking stupid.
I'd never put tracking on a kid, mainly a teenager, unless I was in a country were kidnapping was a big deal, or if the kid had brain damage from all the drugs I took, and can't seem to find it's way home. Kids are supposed to get in trouble, go places they shouldn't, and do things parents don't approve of. It's a part of growing up and becoming your own person. Not trusting your kid and having to know where they are at all times is going to bring up trust issues between you and your kid later.
Oh, and for the record, I left home at 16, had my own apartment during high school, was emancipated by the state, was my own legal guardian, so I could write my own excuses for school. =) While I didn't turn out perfect (never was a chance of that), I didn't have parental units looking over me, and I turned out just fine. Well, I don't have any felonies, and have my own apartment and a legal source of income.
Kids turn out all right, unless they have really fucked up parents that don't trust them and have to keep tabs on them everywhere.
Just buy them an iPhone, with Locate on, long distance off, and Find My Phone on.
And a case with a strap that connects it to their belt.
Problem solved.
iPhone is crap.
Why not buy a fucking cheap ass phone that has GPS? You don't need to spend $300 on a fucking smart phone, when you can spend $50 on a cheap phone with GPS.
Fucking apple fans. To fucking enamored by Apple to actually think.
No, things are not more dangerous. Today, kids are statistically safer than they were in the 60's.. But, we now have 24-hour news that needs to fill time... Lookup the book "Free Range Kids".. You are 20 times more likely to kill your own child while driving, than to have a stranger take off with them. Yet parents still, every day, pile little junior into the SUV to drive 1 mile to school.. (placing a child in a car is the single worst thing you can ever do for their safety, apparently)
I heard the other day, about a lady who's kids were riding scooters in a neighborhood cul-de-sac, in front of their house, with fucking HELMETS on...the Mom got arrested because she was reported by neighbors (who had an ax to grind) that she had them out there unsupervised.
I'd do the same and hope that the Mom went to jail. Motorized scooter (not mopeds, but the push scooters with little motors on them), are not legal to ride anywhere but on your own property. They are not street legal (not safe), and not legal on sidewalks (motor-vehcle). They are loud, and zipping up and down the street for 10 hours a day, I'd call and complain.
Yep, and every Halloween and other bored nights you'll find your house egged, TP'd, probably not get your paper everyday, and oh ya, your pets will go missing. I'm sure you sign, "Get off my lawn" will be removed, and you'll go hoarse yelling it.
Actually violence against children has been going down for a long time now. But the 24-hour news cycle has made abductions and other horrors seem like a common thing. You're a helluva lot safer as a kid alone in the mall today that you were 20-40 years ago.
I don't know where you are from, but in Seattle, you were safe 20-40 years ago. Sure, there are some pervs out there, that will do bad things to kids they get their hands on. (Priest come to mind), but honestly, the biggest fear you should have is someone already close to the kid, like a family member or a friend of the family.
I live in Seattle. 20-40 years ago there wasn't as many people here as there is now. I and friend used to take acid and trip all night, walking around Seattle (downtown, u-district, shit, we'd walk miles while tripping). Wouldn't hardly see anyone. Now? Fuck, there are people around all times of night, I personally hate it. And honestly, I don't think it's safer now then it was then, because there is way more people, which means there is a bigger chance some perv/freak/loser will do something stupid.
but that being said, fucking watch your kids. You go to a park, don't spend your times hitting on the other moms/dads there, pay fucking attention to your child!!!!
crime isn't any different now, except for 2 things. We have the internet, which makes new crime, but also delivers news, fears, lies, and everything else instantly. So while it seems like crime may be up, it's only seems like that because because now we can get the news from everywhere, instead of just local and national.
The perverts you need to watch out from, are probably in your family or friends. It's already someone close to you and your child, not a stranger.
For me it's a non starter because you can't run existing Windows applications on it. Microsoft delivers a scaled down version of Office on it but it doesn't include Outlook...
The one who came before Kirk in the original series pilot. Last I saw he was either cavorting with a lady in his imagination or in a bad wheelchair, going "beep beep" (no) over and over.
I heard he got hired for the Davros role in Doctor Who...
I don't see how it can be called critical updates if they only do them twice a year. That doesn't sound like the patches they put out on those days are very critical. Unless this is another word we are changing the meaning of...
Slashdot Mirror
Is a dead one.
nice, really nice. Do you hit babies for an encore?
Good question. The answer is both yes and no.
Was Hitler a Christian? on The Straight Dope
Nope, he was a Jew.
You'd have to do some pretty liberal stretching of Genesis to make it fit what we know about evolution.
Not really. The creation account in Genesis has been understood by knowledgeable Bible followers as not literal since at least the 1st century BC by reading into it a mythic description of Platonic archetypes. These can, in turn, be easily made compatible with modern hard sciences, either directly or via some of its derivative versions, such as Aritotle's. So much so, in fact, that any Christian who follows some version of Aristotle's philosophy, meaning most Catholics and a ton of historic Protestants, don't mind evolution at all, ditto most branches of Judaism, the older Islamic ones etc. What doesn't necessarily mean they profess belief in it, only that they don't mind either way, as it just isn't an important subject.
The problem you guys have there in the USA with your Bible Belt Christian fundamentalists and related nutjobs is that most of its pastors, priests, reverends or whatever the favored term is nowadays are philosophically illiterate.
Yep, and are making their brains smaller.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=religious-experiences-shrink-part-of-brain
I had a boss who became a born-again Christian (this is in the U.S., for reference) and afterwards he would always spout on and on about how every single word in the Bible was true and there were no contradictions. I suspect a lot of what he said and what he believed was sort of passed-on to him. He would always talk about Bible groups and people who showed him movies, and it was they, for instance, who taught him that the ACLU is trying to legalize child pornography.
It's also kind of funny. Before he was "saved," he once told me that as long as people let him do his own thing, it didn't matter what they believed or did. I later expressed that view to him and he told me that was Satan's viewpoint.
Ask him if he really speaks in tongues, or started babbling when he didn't want to feel left out?
But who on earth is silly enough to take the bible literally? I was brought up a Christian, and not once did anyone tell me that the bible is a literal documentary on events, but rather a collection of stories written after they happened (especially the old testament, which is basically cobbled together from bits of the torah, and some other things). I've also not met a single Christian who takes the bible literally (and I even went to Sunday school).
Allow me to introduce you, then.
Here it is from the official website of the Southern Baptist Convention(in the context of the discussion of a book outlining creation):
Therefore be it RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, June 10-12, 1980 reaffirm our belief in a literal biblical creation and a literal heaven and hell
That's the 2nd largest denomination in the USA. Most of the so called Evangelical churches have also embraced it. If I were to write up a list of the churches in my town alone, I would feel completely comfortable laying money on the fact that a random selection from that list will believe in the literal interpretation of the bible.
And that is just one, albeit large, Protestant group. The Eastern Orthodox and Catholics also have sections of the bible which they believe MUST be interpreted literally, including pieces of the Old Testament. Indeed, the majority of Christians(I'd say 100%, but I'm sure there is some sect out there that says, "yeah, we're christian but we think it's all a metaphor") uphold a literal interpretation in some form. Tenets of the faith like Original Sin and the entire point of the blood sacrifice of Jesus are based on such interpretations.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=religious-experiences-shrink-part-of-brain
Stupid people with small brains. oh ya.
In other words, it isn't a scientific text, and shouldn't be read as one. It isn't even trying to describe science, and it's a serious misreading of it to think it is.
That's all well and good, now how do we get my fellow citizens to stop voting for idiots that believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, that the US is a Christian nation, and that Satan (or God) created the earth with fossils in place to confuse (or test) people's faith?
You can't fix stupid. Or so they say. Honestly, a bullet to the head will fix anyone's belief.
Though you did succeed in creating deep existential angst in me that I may be unable to read, I'll provide the same link to you as I did previously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Soviet_Union
Yes, in fact, people -do- kill "in the name of atheism", provably, as a matter of simple historical fact, and do so by the millions.
I love who you quote the wiki as "facts" when everyone knows it's done by volunteers with agendas.
In my experience, discussion with a handful of atheist on and off led me to believe that they are only topped by extremists when it comes to discussion on existence of God. Majority of the believers are busy living a life and thanking God once in a while.
I prefer agnostics to atheist. Atheists, IMO follow a religion that does not believe in God.
I do not believe in any Gods and I firmly believe that all religions are man made. But I do not like to lump myself as atheist nor agnostic. Why? Because they do seem like religions. I googled agnostic to make sure i knew it's meaning, and what do i get in my results?
Seattle Atheists/Agnostics Meetup Group (Seattle, WA) - Meetup
Eastside Atheist/Agnostic Meetup (Redmond, WA) - Meetup
Seattle Atheists & Agnostics - tribe.net
Seriously? Why the fuck do i need to meet up with others like i'm in some fucking religion?
Fuck that.
I do not need to reconfirm with anyone about my beliefs, nor do I need to waste my time sitting around, and probably asked to give money/donation/tithe to the fucking place.
Seriously, please.
Wonder how long till John Butler gets arrested for sharing this info. National security and all that.
I am not opposed to gathering up all the organic waste that we can, fermenting it and making alcohol. Nor am I against flushing all toilet and livestock waste into giant fermentation tanks to capture the methane energy.
However, I don't think this is a "solution" to the problem of energy in the future. It will produce some, but not all of our needs, and there will be significant energy inputs required to make it work.
I am more interested in throwing all of our spare money, time and energy into long-term solutions, like cleaner nuclear reactors, better fuel cells, solar sails and even personal methane harvesters.
Too bad the "spare" money is going to military...
so the 100,000 tons, times 2000 pounds per ton, divided by 13 (as per article only half the yield of dry corns 26 lbs. per gallon ethanol), gives 15 million gallons of ethanol. the USA uses 380 million gallons of gasoline per day.
Ya? and that means 15 Million less gallons of gas that would be used.
It's a start, combined with other things, would help make a dent in the usage of gas/oil.
I guess you want to wait till gas is $20 a gallon before we start using other fuels? Maybe you do. I don't drive, so I don't buy gas, so really, I don't care much, but it's this attitude that everything has to be big to be effective that is annoying.
Much like no one is going to make a WoW beater, no on is going to come up with a solution that can totally get rid of the use of gas/oil. But we can find a bunch of renewable resources that together can help a lot.
When you can buy 1080p monitors for as little as $100, is it worth it? I paid $360ish for my 120hz 3D Vision monitor. I could of bought 3 monitors instead with that price. Sometimes I wonder if I should of.
Sounds like a gimmick to me, sort of like 3D movies. Yet they keep beating that dead horse.
Once they get the $99 10-12 inch pad, so I can read comic books off it, I'll be down.
Right, and because they know about it - they can give their phone to a schoolmate who plans on going to school, while they head off to the local crack den.
If the kid was doing crack, he's trade the phone for some. Love it when people try to use the "crack" argument but don't actually understand the nature of crack.
When i skipped school, which was all the time, it was rarely about drugs. Sure, there was a few times I was on acid that I left school early, but all the other times I skipped it was because I had something better to do. Go eat, hang with friends who were skipping also, overslept, whatever. And for the record, my senior year in high school, I had 45% absentee in every class, and still pulled of a 3.5 that year.
What does that prove? That school doesn't teach you much, and if you have half a brain, you can figure out how to get around the rules. 9th grade year, I skipped classes all the time. I had a shop class that I went to for a week. Yet at the end of the year, I got a reward for perfect attendance. (should point out that our whole class busted out laughing when I got the reward). What did school teach me? That rules are meant to be broken and people in charge are really fucking stupid.
I'd never put tracking on a kid, mainly a teenager, unless I was in a country were kidnapping was a big deal, or if the kid had brain damage from all the drugs I took, and can't seem to find it's way home. Kids are supposed to get in trouble, go places they shouldn't, and do things parents don't approve of. It's a part of growing up and becoming your own person. Not trusting your kid and having to know where they are at all times is going to bring up trust issues between you and your kid later.
Oh, and for the record, I left home at 16, had my own apartment during high school, was emancipated by the state, was my own legal guardian, so I could write my own excuses for school. =) While I didn't turn out perfect (never was a chance of that), I didn't have parental units looking over me, and I turned out just fine. Well, I don't have any felonies, and have my own apartment and a legal source of income.
Kids turn out all right, unless they have really fucked up parents that don't trust them and have to keep tabs on them everywhere.
Just buy them an iPhone, with Locate on, long distance off, and Find My Phone on.
And a case with a strap that connects it to their belt.
Problem solved.
iPhone is crap.
Why not buy a fucking cheap ass phone that has GPS? You don't need to spend $300 on a fucking smart phone, when you can spend $50 on a cheap phone with GPS.
Fucking apple fans. To fucking enamored by Apple to actually think.
No, things are not more dangerous. Today, kids are statistically safer than they were in the 60's.. But, we now have 24-hour news that needs to fill time... Lookup the book "Free Range Kids".. You are 20 times more likely to kill your own child while driving, than to have a stranger take off with them. Yet parents still, every day, pile little junior into the SUV to drive 1 mile to school.. (placing a child in a car is the single worst thing you can ever do for their safety, apparently)
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children flat out says "stranger danger" is wrong, and very dangerous to teach kids: http://us.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2034
My parents would NEVER drive me to school. 1 mile? walk it. or take a school bus. And gas was cheap back then.
I heard the other day, about a lady who's kids were riding scooters in a neighborhood cul-de-sac, in front of their house, with fucking HELMETS on...the Mom got arrested because she was reported by neighbors (who had an ax to grind) that she had them out there unsupervised.
I'd do the same and hope that the Mom went to jail. Motorized scooter (not mopeds, but the push scooters with little motors on them), are not legal to ride anywhere but on your own property. They are not street legal (not safe), and not legal on sidewalks (motor-vehcle). They are loud, and zipping up and down the street for 10 hours a day, I'd call and complain.
Yep, and every Halloween and other bored nights you'll find your house egged, TP'd, probably not get your paper everyday, and oh ya, your pets will go missing. I'm sure you sign, "Get off my lawn" will be removed, and you'll go hoarse yelling it.
Actually violence against children has been going down for a long time now. But the 24-hour news cycle has made abductions and other horrors seem like a common thing. You're a helluva lot safer as a kid alone in the mall today that you were 20-40 years ago.
I don't know where you are from, but in Seattle, you were safe 20-40 years ago. Sure, there are some pervs out there, that will do bad things to kids they get their hands on. (Priest come to mind), but honestly, the biggest fear you should have is someone already close to the kid, like a family member or a friend of the family.
I live in Seattle. 20-40 years ago there wasn't as many people here as there is now. I and friend used to take acid and trip all night, walking around Seattle (downtown, u-district, shit, we'd walk miles while tripping). Wouldn't hardly see anyone. Now? Fuck, there are people around all times of night, I personally hate it. And honestly, I don't think it's safer now then it was then, because there is way more people, which means there is a bigger chance some perv/freak/loser will do something stupid.
but that being said, fucking watch your kids. You go to a park, don't spend your times hitting on the other moms/dads there, pay fucking attention to your child!!!!
crime isn't any different now, except for 2 things. We have the internet, which makes new crime, but also delivers news, fears, lies, and everything else instantly.
So while it seems like crime may be up, it's only seems like that because because now we can get the news from everywhere, instead of just local and national.
The perverts you need to watch out from, are probably in your family or friends. It's already someone close to you and your child, not a stranger.
I'd love to be put in the same sentence as any serial killer. Mainly that Ed Gein guy, dude had fashion sense.
What is that childhood saying? Sticks (hockey) and stones may break my bones, but names will cause me to cry and sue? Wait, that isn't it. Damn it.
but seriously, when someone compares you to a serial killer, you just say, "Thank you." and "I'll be seeing you later.". Nothing else is needed.
For me it's a non starter because you can't run existing Windows applications on it. Microsoft delivers a scaled down version of Office on it but it doesn't include Outlook...
Outlook blows, sounds like a good thing then...
The one who came before Kirk in the original series pilot. Last I saw he was either cavorting with a lady in his imagination or in a bad wheelchair, going "beep beep" (no) over and over.
I heard he got hired for the Davros role in Doctor Who...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davros
I'm pretty sure some executives at Oracle saw the 30 Rock season 7 premier and decided to tank it.
Okay, this is weird. I happen to be watching the 30 Rock Season 7 premier right now.
I don't see how it can be called critical updates if they only do them twice a year. That doesn't sound like the patches they put out on those days are very critical. Unless this is another word we are changing the meaning of...
...but I think I will pass this round, thanks anyway. Marketing department appealing to peoples egos to make a sale, now?
Only when the product can't stand on any other merits.