Using Linux with a bloated window manager is as easy or easier than a Windows machine. The difference is that they will click on a "K" rather than "start" and they won't be able to mess with the core system or install their own software.
I'm way ahead of the game, my transistors are -30nm. I had to do some funny things with space time, but they work. Until you observe them anyways. Next up, I'm going for inm chips.
Good question. I've noticed that the military has no problems getting approval from the FCC, but I don't know if a locally controlled police department would get the same benefits. On one hand they are locally controlled, but on the other hand, they are capable of purchasing military hardware that us local saps are unable to.
If I had to guess, I would guess that the police would have no problem using UAV's on the "restricted" signals.
Dare I suggest that the PS3 is more deserving of the "miserable failure" moniker than George W. Bush?
I'd hardly call a product that can't remain on the shelves a failure! Actually, I think Sony should have raised the price! Anytime that a product can not be produced fast enough to meet demand, the price should be raised. The goal is to have the last person willing to pay the price buy the very last unit from the shelves. When more units are produced, they should lower the price to whatever point it needs to be to achieve the same goal.
Don't flame me, it's economics!
Speaking of a booming economy... don't bring GWB into this. This is not meant to be a political discussion. Go to Daily KOS or DU or whatever.
My point was that this is a tool to help parents, not take their job over. If parents don't mind their kids playing these games, great! They can go buy them for their kids or at least go to the store with them.
Personally, me and my daughter are going to be taking on parent-child teams throughout my family in no holds barred deathmatch competitions. "Great head-shot honey! Next time, try a frag-grenade, it's cooler to seem turn to jibs." I have nothing against violent games, I just don't want my daughter being able to buy them without me being there, just like I don't want her buying R-rated movies, cigarettes, liquor, dirty magazines or much of anything else. I can't be with her all the time. She will spend time at Grandma's and her Uncle Howard who will gladly give her that last $10 she needs to by that copy of GTA, not knowing what GTA is. The idea is that if they go to the store with her and see the "you must be 18 or over to buy this game" sign, maybe they'll stop and ask questions that they otherwise would not have considered. Now I'm a geek, I know what GTA is, but very few parents and grandparents do. Most parents won't think twice about giving their money for their kids to buy that "racin' game GTA".
hen don't make retarded posts. Buddhism and Christianity are both, in my opinion, silly mumbo-jumbo, but I don't care. Beleive whatever you want. However, some people think their beleifs, for which they have no evidence, deserve to be respected by others just because they beleive it, and they push these beleifs at others, and try to get them taken seriously in public schools, etc. These people deserve ridicule. It's not unprovoked. They put forth blatantly false ideas, and attack good science with nonsense that has already been debunked many times over. The mocking carries over into the next relevant story, because they are just so mock-worthy. If you're not one of them, then don't be offended; it's not Christianity as a whole we criticise, but idiocy, Christian or otherwise.
This is a fucking article about dinosaurs!!! It has nothing to do with religion being taught in public schools. No one posted anything about religion being taught in public schools or about pushing religion on you or anyone else. So yeah, it is unprovoked. Yes, some people believe things that you disagree with, but that doesn't mean you have to insult them and their core beliefs any time something they disagree with is brought up. There is an article about Apple Hardware on slashdot right now, why don't we go over there and bash religion for hating gays?
Finally, you say here: However, some people think their beleifs, for which they have no evidence, deserve to be respected by others just because they beleive it, and they push these beleifs at others, and try to get them taken seriously in public schools, etc. Isn't that kind of what is goes on here? Let's ridicule those that believe differently than we do.
Am I the only one who thinks it odd that children can enjoy all the murder and mayhem that the entertainment industry can dump on them, but god forbid they should see a bare breast!
Is this part of a military conspiracy that wants them for cannon fodder, and fears that a healthy sex drive might make children avoid the latest Republican adventures overseas?
I agree with you, but as a Republican, I can tell you that this is not a Republican thing. Don't be a troll and blame everything you don't like on Republicans.
Wasn't it Tipper Gore that started this whole thing in the 80's. I had no idea she was a Republican.
Did your parents know everything you were doing at 13? Didn't you have a hiding spot your 'rents didn't know about? Hell, I was smoking pot at 13, you think I couldn't sneak out a buy a video game without their knowledge?
You say it the parent's responsibility, and you are correct. Why not make the parents decide if their kids can have this game or not?
How does requiring kids to have their parent's buy a video game limit their expression? It may limit the purchasing power of the minors, but the freedom to buy is not the freedom of speech. There is no law forbidding these kids from dressing up in women's clothes and protesting on the steps of their capitol building.
Remember, this didn't ban the game. It banned 10 year olds from buying Postal2 or GTA. If they could talk their parents (or any other adult for that matter) into buying the game, no problem. It gave parents just a bit more control over what kids do. It is their responsibility, after all
Actually, you would need to be 18 to buy the game or have your parent's permission (they buy it for you), just as you have to be 18 to join the army without your parents permission.
Its the parents responsibility, first and foremost. Right! This law would require that parents (or some other adult) purchase the game if they think their kid should be allowed to play it. With this law, the parents had just a little bit more control of what kind of sludge gets fed into their kid's mind. Now that control has been handed over to a minimum wage, zit-faced 18-yr old at EB Games who could not care less about you or your children.
Thank you for proving my point. All I stated is that Creationists have reasons for believing what they do that go beyond blind faith, whether you agree with them or not. And because I even brought it up, I am immediately insulted and accused of either not understand life or you not understand thermodynamics... perhaps both. I understand that ordered systems (such as life) do not spring from chaos and evolve. I understand that energy is never created or destroyed, yet it is here. (How can something exist if was never created?) Fact is, I personally don't know and neither do you. We were not there. I personally see no reason why God could not create life through evolution and the universe through a big bang. Who am I to tell God what to do with his dice? Still, you assume that I because I believe in a higher being, I must some fundamentalist, Bible-thumping, ignorant redneck who thinks science is an abomination of God's law.
Regardless of what I believe, I didn't bring it up on slash. No one disputing dinosaurs did. Still, the posts sprang up calling Christians retards and sarcastic posts claiming that they were 64,993,000 years off because the earth is only 6,000 years old and so on. That is what started it, not me. I just responded asking bigots like yourself who assume that all Christians keeps you from examining the scientific and pragmatic realities of dinosaurs, evolution, stem cells, genetic engineering/cloning, abortion, women's rights, etc. As I have already stated, you have no idea what I believe. Assuming that about me because I am a Christian is no different than assuming that all Muslims are terrorists, all Jews are cheap, all Catholics sleep with little boys and all Wickens smoke pot. What is the difference between your prejudices about me and any other bigot that assumes that Mexicans are lazy, black people steal and so on?
The point I was trying to make is that every time an article is posted on slashdot that may be even the slightest bit counter to some Christian (and all religions for that matter) beliefs, posts break out claiming how wrong Christians are for their beliefs when no one challenged the article here in the first place. I guess I should thank you for proving my point by attacking me when I never challenged the premise of the article either.
Would say the same to Einstein because he said, "God does not play dice with the Universe", "When the solution is simple, God is answering.", "Before God we are equally wise and equally foolish.", "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.", and the relevant one for you here, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." Maybe Einstein should have his religion stuffed down his throat too.
My post was not to defend Creationism or try to debate it. I'm just tired of/.'ers calling Christians retards because of their beliefs. I find that extremely rude and not to mention politically incorrect. No one here would stand for someone saying that believing in Budha is rediculous, why should Christianity be any different? Besides, the article was about how a single even wiped out the dino's 65 million years ago. No one on slashdot mentioned Creationism except for those ridiculing it right out of the gate. That was not the point of the article nor any post before the attacks started. I'm just asking for a single dinosaur or darwin story to be posted here without someone calling my religion, or any other, retarded because it might be counter to their belief system.
BTW, I don't necessarily side with the most Creationists, but I do believe that God created the Universe. I see no reason why He could not have done it 14 billion years ago in a big bang and let life evolve throug evolution. That's a bigger miracle to me anyesy thsn just saying "LET IT BE!"
Finally, even in mentioning this, I have been modded down three times because my views were a bit different (as my sig states). The moderation guidelines state that "you are moderating to promote thoughtful discussion, not to make your opinions heard", but because I don't follow the/. group think, I'm modded down. You could say I'm literally modded down because of my religion, even though I did not force it on anyone. All I did was ask that it not be attacked when unprovoked. I think that alone proves my point.
Maybe if you read TFA, you'd recognize that the reason there's such a hubbub on Slashdot regarding this article is that a large percentage of the comments on the article were left by ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians who all pretty much say the same thing (e.g., it was the biblical flood that extinguished the dinosaurs, and much more recently than the scientifically-agreed-upon period of the asteroid impact that TFA refers to).
Then/.'ers should post their ridicule of all faiths on that site, not this one.
Maybe if evangelicals stopped trying to cram their religion down our throats, we wouldn't react so vehemently. I don't see much of that by/.'ers. I do see many posts literally calling Christians retards (some of which are modded down appropriately). As a Christian, I get offended by that. There is not a single article posted on slashdot concerning evolution, big-bang or anything else that could be seen as counter religion as an excuse to slap religions in the face. If someone posts an honest thread on/. calling this article bogus because the Bible says so, then have at them, but to attack religion here without cause is getting tiresome and a bit worn out.
I guess my point is, practice what you preach, and encourage your evangelical fundamentalist comrades to follow your example. If you want non-believers to cut you some slack, then kindly get the believers to stop behaving badly by vandalizing the comment sections on science-oriented web sites, for a start. I do what I can. Still, comments against these people should be posted on the site that they are reading, not here. They are kinda preaching to the choir here (pun not intended).
And while you're at it, stop being so self-centered: this isn't a reaction against you... When a group that I belong to is insulted (not fundamentalists, but anyone who believes in a higher being), I get offended, and as a person with some religion, yes, it is directed at me.
Oh, and incidentally, since you toss off a list of supposed "evidence" against evolution and modern cosmology... It was not my intention to debate the "evidence" of creationism, only to point out that it does exist. I never said I agreed with it, but most people here have not taken the time to even consider that there may be other view points with valid, logical and scientifically backed reasoning. I've heard both sides of the argument and you have to agree that both sides have valid points as well as theories that don't make sense. While you and others have done a pretty good job of "debunking" most of the creationist view, I have yet to hear anyone debunk the first law of thermodynamics. If energy (and matter) is never created nor destroyed, nothing can exist without that law at any scale being broken at some point. I'm not saying I know who, how or why, but I am saying that not all Creationist theories have been "debunked endlessly". And saying that these "laws" don't apply because they break down at extreme scales is as much as a cop out as saying God did it.
If you believe that the universe was created 13-20 billion years ago, then that is not Creationism. Creationists believe that God created them in his image, literally, not as in "God created a universe in which mutation and natural selection resulted in us". I am a Christian myself and I think that Creationists are a disgrace to the faith. It is right to point out how and why they are wrong.
I've actually done some studies on Creationism, and Creationists are like all religions, they don't agree amongst themselves. I've heard theories like you described where in six 24-hr periods, God created the light, heavens and the earth, the seas parted to create land and so on. I've heard others that take a slightly more scientific approach and state that in the beginning, there was no universe, and therefore no time so a day != 24 hrs, or any other measure of literal time. I've even heard theories where God created several different classes of creatures at or around the genus level, like a bird, a man, a horse, a cow, and so on, that evolved over time (yes, through evolution) into the variety of creatures we see today. So while I will agree that the strict creationists are a bit whacked out (I see them screaming "nah-nah-nah-nah" with their hands over their ears with their eyes closed every time scientific evidence is presented), I'm not going to ridicule their intelligence because of their faith.
Read through the comments at the bottom. Seriously. These people really believe this stuff, and I've personally met people who, if you try to talk to them about almost anything scientific (like, oh say, 80,000-year-old human remains) will absolutely tell you "No, way! The Earth is only 6,000 years ago. It says so in the Bible!"
And there are even more people that think 9-11 was an inside job, yet they are seen as the smart ones here on/.
I'm not at all suggesting that people give up their religious convictions, but I am saying that some people need to stop confusing religion with science. They are separate disciplines and need to be separate. If you absolutely must believe that the choice is eaither A) God loves me and the Earth is only 6,000 years or B) there was a mass extinction event on the Earth 65 million years ago, so there can't be a God, then you are either seriously depraved or downright stupid.
Very well said. As a Christian myself, I do not try limit an infinite God to what can fit into my finite brain. I guess you could say that I take an agnostic approach to creation.
65 million years is crazy-talk, that's 64,994,000 years before God made the Earth!
So a lot of people believe in Creationism. What's really sad is that even MORE people believe that 9-11 was an inside job, even though there is actually more evidence of creationism! Some examples include: lack of lunar dust, the Big Bang theory breaks the first law of thermodynamics, life breaks the second law of thermodynamics, descriptions of dinosaurs living and walking around in The Bible and so on.
Personally, I do believe the universe was created some 13-20 billion years ago but neither me nor anyone else can prove by who or how. I just suggest that you and the rest of the slashdotters take a little time to actually read the arguments of Creationism before you immediately dismiss it and ridicule those that believe it as a matter of faith and/or science. I've met good Christians with multiple doctorates in scientific disciplines such as physics, nanotechnology and quantum mechanics. I think it is safe to assume that these people are smarter than the vast majority of slashdotters who frequently mock their intelligence because of their religion.
Finally, as a Christian myself, I humbly ask that slashdotters stop seeing every article that deals with dinosaurs, evolution/Darwin, stem cells or genetics as an excuse to slap me in the face with it. The only thing worse that pushing your religion on others is trying to take other's religion away.
That's something that's always struck me. An omnipotent god could trivially create a zillion photons all the way up to every star in the iniverse. And in fact could create 15 billion years of fake history which would be completely indistinguishable from "real" history.
Uh, that is what omnipotent means. I'm not agreeing with it, but by definition, an omnipotent God could do literally anything.
I'm one! I was both born in America (thus making me native) and I have ancestors who were the "American Indians" you speak of. (Caddo tribe, East Texas.) It was the French that killed most of them btw. That said, I can proudly say, STFU! When the US invades Mexico and Canada and tortures anyone who does not submit by publicly cutting off their family's members heads, I'll agree with you. Until then, this Native is proud to be an American and proud to tell people like you that you have no friggin idea of what you are talking about! Freedom of speech is a right. Freedom of ignorance is not!
Yeah, these guys may be the top of their field, but being on top of a bunch of people who don't know crap doesn't say muchWell, that's a pretty uncharitable remark, considering that these are thousands of pretty smart people who spend their professional careers researching this field, and you don't. I'd think you were *really* smart if there wasn't evidence to the contrary!
I meant no disrespect to our fine climatologists worldwide. I'm sure they are brilliant, extremely well educated men and women. However, the same could be said for computer scientists in the 1950's, or geneticists of today. While these are certainly brilliant people, we are merely beginning to gain an understanding of what is going on and what is possible. Fact is, computer scientists of the 50's didn't know crap about computers compared to what we know today, geneticists don't know crap compared to what we will know in 20 years from now, and climatologists are just beginning to understand what we don't know about climate changes. In other words, quite frankly, they don't know crap, but I will admit that they know much more crap than I do!
Natural variability allowed excessive dust from Africa and the el niño effect to kill the ability of hurricanes to grow this year. Both the dust and the el niño effect were likely caused by global warming. If they could not predict the dust and el niño effects over a period of less than a year, why should I respect their predictions 10 years out?
What about the 2005 hurricane season? It was also global warming that caused that. Oh was it? You mean that global warming snuck up on us all last year? Why wasn't 2004 worse than 2003 which was worse than 2002 and so on? So I guess next year, if we don't have el niño and African dust, is it going to be another bumper year for hurricanes, increasing every year until we have hurricanes in Idaho? If we are talking about "Global Warming" here, why was 2005 an average year for hurricane's globally? (yes, it was a bad year in N. America, but average world-wide).
You telling me you know what caused last year's hurricane season is about as ridiculous as some preacher saying that it was caused because God was mad at the US policy toward homosexuals.
Slashdot Mirror
Using Linux with a bloated window manager is as easy or easier than a Windows machine. The difference is that they will click on a "K" rather than "start" and they won't be able to mess with the core system or install their own software.
I'm way ahead of the game, my transistors are -30nm. I had to do some funny things with space time, but they work. Until you observe them anyways. Next up, I'm going for inm chips.
Great! This guy has Schroeder's Notebook!
I really hate to make this a political discussion, but it kinda puts that whole "Bush is the biggest terrorist in the world" thing into perspective.
Umm... Aren't the cops part of "civil" ??
Good question. I've noticed that the military has no problems getting approval from the FCC, but I don't know if a locally controlled police department would get the same benefits. On one hand they are locally controlled, but on the other hand, they are capable of purchasing military hardware that us local saps are unable to.
If I had to guess, I would guess that the police would have no problem using UAV's on the "restricted" signals.
We are talking about civil, not government. These would be beneficial for jobs like traffic reports, aerial photography, land surveying and so on.
In other words, don't put your hoodie up just yet!
I work for a relatively small banking software company and our datacenter is down. It may just be a coincidence, who knows.
Dare I suggest that the PS3 is more deserving of the "miserable failure" moniker than George W. Bush?
I'd hardly call a product that can't remain on the shelves a failure! Actually, I think Sony should have raised the price! Anytime that a product can not be produced fast enough to meet demand, the price should be raised. The goal is to have the last person willing to pay the price buy the very last unit from the shelves. When more units are produced, they should lower the price to whatever point it needs to be to achieve the same goal.
Don't flame me, it's economics!
Speaking of a booming economy... don't bring GWB into this. This is not meant to be a political discussion. Go to Daily KOS or DU or whatever.
My point was that this is a tool to help parents, not take their job over. If parents don't mind their kids playing these games, great! They can go buy them for their kids or at least go to the store with them.
Personally, me and my daughter are going to be taking on parent-child teams throughout my family in no holds barred deathmatch competitions. "Great head-shot honey! Next time, try a frag-grenade, it's cooler to seem turn to jibs." I have nothing against violent games, I just don't want my daughter being able to buy them without me being there, just like I don't want her buying R-rated movies, cigarettes, liquor, dirty magazines or much of anything else. I can't be with her all the time. She will spend time at Grandma's and her Uncle Howard who will gladly give her that last $10 she needs to by that copy of GTA, not knowing what GTA is. The idea is that if they go to the store with her and see the "you must be 18 or over to buy this game" sign, maybe they'll stop and ask questions that they otherwise would not have considered. Now I'm a geek, I know what GTA is, but very few parents and grandparents do. Most parents won't think twice about giving their money for their kids to buy that "racin' game GTA".
hen don't make retarded posts. Buddhism and Christianity are both, in my opinion, silly mumbo-jumbo, but I don't care. Beleive whatever you want. However, some people think their beleifs, for which they have no evidence, deserve to be respected by others just because they beleive it, and they push these beleifs at others, and try to get them taken seriously in public schools, etc. These people deserve ridicule. It's not unprovoked. They put forth blatantly false ideas, and attack good science with nonsense that has already been debunked many times over. The mocking carries over into the next relevant story, because they are just so mock-worthy. If you're not one of them, then don't be offended; it's not Christianity as a whole we criticise, but idiocy, Christian or otherwise.
This is a fucking article about dinosaurs!!! It has nothing to do with religion being taught in public schools. No one posted anything about religion being taught in public schools or about pushing religion on you or anyone else. So yeah, it is unprovoked. Yes, some people believe things that you disagree with, but that doesn't mean you have to insult them and their core beliefs any time something they disagree with is brought up. There is an article about Apple Hardware on slashdot right now, why don't we go over there and bash religion for hating gays?
Finally, you say here:
However, some people think their beleifs, for which they have no evidence, deserve to be respected by others just because they beleive it, and they push these beleifs at others, and try to get them taken seriously in public schools, etc.
Isn't that kind of what is goes on here? Let's ridicule those that believe differently than we do.
Am I the only one who thinks it odd that children can enjoy all the murder and mayhem that the entertainment industry can dump on them, but god forbid they should see a bare breast!
Is this part of a military conspiracy that wants them for cannon fodder, and fears that a healthy sex drive might make children avoid the latest Republican adventures overseas?
I agree with you, but as a Republican, I can tell you that this is not a Republican thing. Don't be a troll and blame everything you don't like on Republicans.
Wasn't it Tipper Gore that started this whole thing in the 80's. I had no idea she was a Republican.
Did your parents know everything you were doing at 13? Didn't you have a hiding spot your 'rents didn't know about? Hell, I was smoking pot at 13, you think I couldn't sneak out a buy a video game without their knowledge?
You say it the parent's responsibility, and you are correct. Why not make the parents decide if their kids can have this game or not?
How does requiring kids to have their parent's buy a video game limit their expression? It may limit the purchasing power of the minors, but the freedom to buy is not the freedom of speech. There is no law forbidding these kids from dressing up in women's clothes and protesting on the steps of their capitol building.
Remember, this didn't ban the game. It banned 10 year olds from buying Postal2 or GTA. If they could talk their parents (or any other adult for that matter) into buying the game, no problem. It gave parents just a bit more control over what kids do. It is their responsibility, after all
Actually, you would need to be 18 to buy the game or have your parent's permission (they buy it for you), just as you have to be 18 to join the army without your parents permission.
Its the parents responsibility, first and foremost.
Right! This law would require that parents (or some other adult) purchase the game if they think their kid should be allowed to play it. With this law, the parents had just a little bit more control of what kind of sludge gets fed into their kid's mind. Now that control has been handed over to a minimum wage, zit-faced 18-yr old at EB Games who could not care less about you or your children.
Exit Stage Left myself.
With the extra space I carry:
The latest Sabayon DVD (because it looks cool and I can show off XGL/AIGLX to all the people that think Vista is cool and/or unique)
A Gentoo CD because I never took it out when I moved to Sabayon.
WHAX for when I'm going to be close to some kind of restricted hot-spot.
A bootable CD with Ghost on it.
And of course a Knoppix/Ubuntu/Mepis or whatever the cool live CD is for the week.
(not to mention a bootable USB thumb drive. It goes a bit faster and allows me to save the data back to it)
Thank you for proving my point. All I stated is that Creationists have reasons for believing what they do that go beyond blind faith, whether you agree with them or not. And because I even brought it up, I am immediately insulted and accused of either not understand life or you not understand thermodynamics... perhaps both. I understand that ordered systems (such as life) do not spring from chaos and evolve. I understand that energy is never created or destroyed, yet it is here. (How can something exist if was never created?) Fact is, I personally don't know and neither do you. We were not there. I personally see no reason why God could not create life through evolution and the universe through a big bang. Who am I to tell God what to do with his dice? Still, you assume that I because I believe in a higher being, I must some fundamentalist, Bible-thumping, ignorant redneck who thinks science is an abomination of God's law.
Regardless of what I believe, I didn't bring it up on slash. No one disputing dinosaurs did. Still, the posts sprang up calling Christians retards and sarcastic posts claiming that they were 64,993,000 years off because the earth is only 6,000 years old and so on. That is what started it, not me. I just responded asking bigots like yourself who assume that all Christians keeps you from examining the scientific and pragmatic realities of dinosaurs, evolution, stem cells, genetic engineering/cloning, abortion, women's rights, etc. As I have already stated, you have no idea what I believe. Assuming that about me because I am a Christian is no different than assuming that all Muslims are terrorists, all Jews are cheap, all Catholics sleep with little boys and all Wickens smoke pot. What is the difference between your prejudices about me and any other bigot that assumes that Mexicans are lazy, black people steal and so on?
The point I was trying to make is that every time an article is posted on slashdot that may be even the slightest bit counter to some Christian (and all religions for that matter) beliefs, posts break out claiming how wrong Christians are for their beliefs when no one challenged the article here in the first place. I guess I should thank you for proving my point by attacking me when I never challenged the premise of the article either.
Would say the same to Einstein because he said, "God does not play dice with the Universe", "When the solution is simple, God is answering.", "Before God we are equally wise and equally foolish.", "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.", and the relevant one for you here, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." Maybe Einstein should have his religion stuffed down his throat too.
My post was not to defend Creationism or try to debate it. I'm just tired of /.'ers calling Christians retards because of their beliefs. I find that extremely rude and not to mention politically incorrect. No one here would stand for someone saying that believing in Budha is rediculous, why should Christianity be any different? Besides, the article was about how a single even wiped out the dino's 65 million years ago. No one on slashdot mentioned Creationism except for those ridiculing it right out of the gate. That was not the point of the article nor any post before the attacks started. I'm just asking for a single dinosaur or darwin story to be posted here without someone calling my religion, or any other, retarded because it might be counter to their belief system.
/. group think, I'm modded down. You could say I'm literally modded down because of my religion, even though I did not force it on anyone. All I did was ask that it not be attacked when unprovoked. I think that alone proves my point.
BTW, I don't necessarily side with the most Creationists, but I do believe that God created the Universe. I see no reason why He could not have done it 14 billion years ago in a big bang and let life evolve throug evolution. That's a bigger miracle to me anyesy thsn just saying "LET IT BE!"
Finally, even in mentioning this, I have been modded down three times because my views were a bit different (as my sig states). The moderation guidelines state that "you are moderating to promote thoughtful discussion, not to make your opinions heard", but because I don't follow the
Maybe if you read TFA, you'd recognize that the reason there's such a hubbub on Slashdot regarding this article is that a large percentage of the comments on the article were left by ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians who all pretty much say the same thing (e.g., it was the biblical flood that extinguished the dinosaurs, and much more recently than the scientifically-agreed-upon period of the asteroid impact that TFA refers to).
/.'ers should post their ridicule of all faiths on that site, not this one.
/.'ers. I do see many posts literally calling Christians retards (some of which are modded down appropriately). As a Christian, I get offended by that. There is not a single article posted on slashdot concerning evolution, big-bang or anything else that could be seen as counter religion as an excuse to slap religions in the face. If someone posts an honest thread on /. calling this article bogus because the Bible says so, then have at them, but to attack religion here without cause is getting tiresome and a bit worn out.
Then
Maybe if evangelicals stopped trying to cram their religion down our throats, we wouldn't react so vehemently.
I don't see much of that by
I guess my point is, practice what you preach, and encourage your evangelical fundamentalist comrades to follow your example. If you want non-believers to cut you some slack, then kindly get the believers to stop behaving badly by vandalizing the comment sections on science-oriented web sites, for a start.
I do what I can. Still, comments against these people should be posted on the site that they are reading, not here. They are kinda preaching to the choir here (pun not intended).
And while you're at it, stop being so self-centered: this isn't a reaction against you...
When a group that I belong to is insulted (not fundamentalists, but anyone who believes in a higher being), I get offended, and as a person with some religion, yes, it is directed at me.
Oh, and incidentally, since you toss off a list of supposed "evidence" against evolution and modern cosmology...
It was not my intention to debate the "evidence" of creationism, only to point out that it does exist. I never said I agreed with it, but most people here have not taken the time to even consider that there may be other view points with valid, logical and scientifically backed reasoning. I've heard both sides of the argument and you have to agree that both sides have valid points as well as theories that don't make sense. While you and others have done a pretty good job of "debunking" most of the creationist view, I have yet to hear anyone debunk the first law of thermodynamics. If energy (and matter) is never created nor destroyed, nothing can exist without that law at any scale being broken at some point. I'm not saying I know who, how or why, but I am saying that not all Creationist theories have been "debunked endlessly". And saying that these "laws" don't apply because they break down at extreme scales is as much as a cop out as saying God did it.
If you believe that the universe was created 13-20 billion years ago, then that is not Creationism. Creationists believe that God created them in his image, literally, not as in "God created a universe in which mutation and natural selection resulted in us". I am a Christian myself and I think that Creationists are a disgrace to the faith. It is right to point out how and why they are wrong.
I've actually done some studies on Creationism, and Creationists are like all religions, they don't agree amongst themselves. I've heard theories like you described where in six 24-hr periods, God created the light, heavens and the earth, the seas parted to create land and so on. I've heard others that take a slightly more scientific approach and state that in the beginning, there was no universe, and therefore no time so a day != 24 hrs, or any other measure of literal time. I've even heard theories where God created several different classes of creatures at or around the genus level, like a bird, a man, a horse, a cow, and so on, that evolved over time (yes, through evolution) into the variety of creatures we see today. So while I will agree that the strict creationists are a bit whacked out (I see them screaming "nah-nah-nah-nah" with their hands over their ears with their eyes closed every time scientific evidence is presented), I'm not going to ridicule their intelligence because of their faith.
Read through the comments at the bottom. Seriously. These people really believe this stuff, and I've personally met people who, if you try to talk to them about almost anything scientific (like, oh say, 80,000-year-old human remains) will absolutely tell you "No, way! The Earth is only 6,000 years ago. It says so in the Bible!"
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And there are even more people that think 9-11 was an inside job, yet they are seen as the smart ones here on
I'm not at all suggesting that people give up their religious convictions, but I am saying that some people need to stop confusing religion with science. They are separate disciplines and need to be separate. If you absolutely must believe that the choice is eaither A) God loves me and the Earth is only 6,000 years or B) there was a mass extinction event on the Earth 65 million years ago, so there can't be a God, then you are either seriously depraved or downright stupid.
Very well said. As a Christian myself, I do not try limit an infinite God to what can fit into my finite brain. I guess you could say that I take an agnostic approach to creation.
65 million years is crazy-talk, that's 64,994,000 years before God made the Earth!
So a lot of people believe in Creationism. What's really sad is that even MORE people believe that 9-11 was an inside job, even though there is actually more evidence of creationism! Some examples include: lack of lunar dust, the Big Bang theory breaks the first law of thermodynamics, life breaks the second law of thermodynamics, descriptions of dinosaurs living and walking around in The Bible and so on.
Personally, I do believe the universe was created some 13-20 billion years ago but neither me nor anyone else can prove by who or how. I just suggest that you and the rest of the slashdotters take a little time to actually read the arguments of Creationism before you immediately dismiss it and ridicule those that believe it as a matter of faith and/or science. I've met good Christians with multiple doctorates in scientific disciplines such as physics, nanotechnology and quantum mechanics. I think it is safe to assume that these people are smarter than the vast majority of slashdotters who frequently mock their intelligence because of their religion.
Finally, as a Christian myself, I humbly ask that slashdotters stop seeing every article that deals with dinosaurs, evolution/Darwin, stem cells or genetics as an excuse to slap me in the face with it. The only thing worse that pushing your religion on others is trying to take other's religion away.
That's something that's always struck me. An omnipotent god could trivially create a zillion photons all the way up to every star in the iniverse. And in fact could create 15 billion years of fake history which would be completely indistinguishable from "real" history.
Uh, that is what omnipotent means. I'm not agreeing with it, but by definition, an omnipotent God could do literally anything.
I'm one! I was both born in America (thus making me native) and I have ancestors who were the "American Indians" you speak of. (Caddo tribe, East Texas.) It was the French that killed most of them btw. That said, I can proudly say, STFU! When the US invades Mexico and Canada and tortures anyone who does not submit by publicly cutting off their family's members heads, I'll agree with you. Until then, this Native is proud to be an American and proud to tell people like you that you have no friggin idea of what you are talking about! Freedom of speech is a right. Freedom of ignorance is not!
Yeah, these guys may be the top of their field, but being on top of a bunch of people who don't know crap doesn't say muchWell, that's a pretty uncharitable remark, considering that these are thousands of pretty smart people who spend their professional careers researching this field, and you don't. I'd think you were *really* smart if there wasn't evidence to the contrary!
I meant no disrespect to our fine climatologists worldwide. I'm sure they are brilliant, extremely well educated men and women. However, the same could be said for computer scientists in the 1950's, or geneticists of today. While these are certainly brilliant people, we are merely beginning to gain an understanding of what is going on and what is possible. Fact is, computer scientists of the 50's didn't know crap about computers compared to what we know today, geneticists don't know crap compared to what we will know in 20 years from now, and climatologists are just beginning to understand what we don't know about climate changes. In other words, quite frankly, they don't know crap, but I will admit that they know much more crap than I do!
Here is the link btw:
Accuweather
Natural variability allowed excessive dust from Africa and the el niño effect to kill the ability of hurricanes to grow this year. Both the dust and the el niño effect were likely caused by global warming.
If they could not predict the dust and el niño effects over a period of less than a year, why should I respect their predictions 10 years out?
What about the 2005 hurricane season? It was also global warming that caused that.
Oh was it? You mean that global warming snuck up on us all last year? Why wasn't 2004 worse than 2003 which was worse than 2002 and so on? So I guess next year, if we don't have el niño and African dust, is it going to be another bumper year for hurricanes, increasing every year until we have hurricanes in Idaho? If we are talking about "Global Warming" here, why was 2005 an average year for hurricane's globally? (yes, it was a bad year in N. America, but average world-wide).
You telling me you know what caused last year's hurricane season is about as ridiculous as some preacher saying that it was caused because God was mad at the US policy toward homosexuals.