Respecting the beliefs of others

well I can agree with opposing climate change... anthropomorphic climate change is a joke, the "proof" that is offered is either doctored or in fact proves that the theory is complete BS...

C02 is good for the planet, the ice core samples prove that the warmer it got, the more CO2 there was, not the more c02 there was, the warmer it got.

not to mention the various scams that have been uncovered concerning carbon tax, scientific cover up etc..

now, anti-evolutionary teaching would be acceptable if there was a logical alternative, currently there are no other THEORIES that can stand up to the evolutionary THEORY.

...ahem...please explain how plants "evolved", using a coconut palm as an example...your thesis should explain how the prototype coconut palm, several billions years ago, received the first spark of intelligence that allowed it to proceed to develop a method of protecting its seeds.

While you're at it, please explain how plants developed the smarts to do photosynthesis...what caused that first spark of awareness? The prototype plant somehow figured out a lot of things, like how to get water up to its leaves and how to develop a root system.

Sorry, but believing in evolution is as ridiculous as believing in the tooth fairy.

Oh Native Son, you are one of those "a banana proves God exists"...

Oh Native Son, you are one of those "a banana proves God exists"...

Let's not leap to huge conclusione here....

Instead, let's do an experiment, and collect measurable, empirical evidence using scientific methods.

All you need is the roof of your house, or some other suitable height, your evolving body, and a leap.

Mankind has always wanted to fly like the birds...so...

1. Climb to the roof of your house, or the Empire State Building, or whatever is available.
2. Jump off, and flap your arms wildly, while thinking "I want to evolve into a flying human".
3. Repeat for one billion years, give or take a few million

Are you soaring with the birds yet?

Answering my questions with insults does not prove anything...I asked for a statement that explains how a simple blade of grass developed, through evolution, the ability to create nourishment from sunlight using a process we call photosynthesis...look at how much trouble we humans have to go through to produce electricity, when an electric eel does it naturally.

When did the lemon realize "geee...if I make my fruit really acidic, they won't get eaten. hmmmm, what's that formula for citric acid again? gotta crank up the lab, every lemon must taste the same..."

You'd think that, after all these years, dogs and cats would have evolved enough to not run in front of speeding cars...guess they need a few million more years.

All I ask is an explanation, via evolutionary theory, of how these processes received the first spark of inspiration to cause them to start changing.

If you want to call that spark "God", then suit yourself...don't be afraid.

There are many great examples of the evidence to support evolution. If you are looking for a detailed explanation in 25 words or less then you are being ridiculous. Why not hold faith in the supernatural to the same standard. Where is the evidence to support Intelligent Design?

"Mankind has always wanted to fly like the birds...so...

Are you soaring with the birds yet?"

This shows that you have no concept of evolutionary theory.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_01

Religion can do really amazing things...

For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw9EhjyU3JU

But besides that, it doesn't explain earths origins very well

Jumping off of a roof and trying to fly will not make a person evolve into a flying creature but it will through survival of the fittest get rid of those that are dumb enough to try.(see Darwin Awards)
but more important....no tooth fairy?

Respecting others beliefs. Death is disrespectful.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/12/11/atheists_and_capital_punishment_iheu_report_documents_criminalization_discrimination.html

Which is more disrespectful, saying that god is just pretend or putting someone in jail or worse executing them for saying it?

"When 21st century technology collides with medieval blasphemy laws, it seems to be atheists who are getting hurt, as more of them go to prison for sharing their personal beliefs via social media,” said Matt Cherry, the report's editor. “Across the world the reactionary impulse to punish new ideas, or in some cases the merest expression of disbelief, recurs again and again. We even have a case in Tunisia of a journalist arrested for daring to criticize a proposed blasphemy law!”
http://iheu.org/article-categories/human-rights

And in the United States, the report describes a "range of laws [that] limit the role of atheists in regards to public duties, or else entangle the government with religion to the degree that being religious is equated with being an American, and vice versa." Seven states—Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas—have constitutional provisions banning atheists from holding public office.

Fight delusion, Speak out, Spread sanity!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Boring boring boring.

@ Isle Tell Ya - then don't read it!

Seven states—Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas—have constitutional provisions banning atheists from holding public office.

Wow - it's so sad that laws like this exist in this day and age. Especially considering that most of the Founding Father's were atheist. What happened to the separation of church and state?

There are many great examples of the evidence to support evolution. If you are looking for a detailed explanation in 25 words or less then you are being ridiculous. Why not hold faith in the supernatural to the same standard. Where is the evidence to support Intelligent Design?

"Mankind has always wanted to fly like the birds...so...

1. Climb to the roof of your house, or the Empire State Building, or whatever is available.
2. Jump off, and flap your arms wildly, while thinking "I want to evolve into a flying human".
3. Repeat for one billion years, give or take a few million

Are you soaring with the birds yet?"

This shows that you have no concept of evolutionary theory.

You make broad assumptions while having no idea what my background is.

Well, you have no concept of GOD, so I guess we're equal. Evolutionary theory cannot explain what gives a supposedly inanimate glob of matter enough awareness of its environment to be able to supposedly make incremental changes.

Operative word...THEORY...yet you have a religious belief in it....proving that you are just as deluded as the people you like to ridicule. You post a bunch of garbage, trying to convince rational people that there is no meaning to their existence...deep inside our DNA we all know better. Trying to ignore that deep down "something" doesn't make it go away. There is no spiritual vacuum, much as you keep trying to create one. You'll find GOD, eventually...we all do.

Next you'll be trying to convince us that we descended from monkeys, and that the monkeys currently in existence will become humans in a few billion years.

Maybe we can teach them to flap their arms, and they'll become flying monkey-humans.
ROFLMFAO

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_01

Here is a good run down of evolution vs creationism:

Creationism - Penn & Teller Bullsh!t

I hope the Puerto Rico Police Dept learns a lesson.
http://www.theolympian.com/2013/03/08/2453192/atheist-puerto-rico-cop-files.html

Atheism isn't a "belief" that nothing is there, it's just not thinking that something is.

Religion is like looking for a black cat that isn't in a pitch black room, yet believing you've seen him.

Christians just don't get it!
http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/complaint_0.pdf

Trying yet again to get proselytizing off of our money.
http://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/IGWTComplaint.pdf

OUR MONEY? Or your/friends/atheists money. I'm fine with it on my money,

Don't ever tell someone from the middle east while in the middle east you don't believe. Nearly cost me my life.

At best it should say "In god some of us trust". Because between atheists, Buddhists, Hindus and other multi-theists the current motto which was only added in 1956 doesn't cut it.

Change it back to the more inclusive "E Pluribus Unum" which was adopted in 1782 by our founding fathers.

Don't ever tell someone from the middle east while in the middle east you don't believe. Nearly cost me my life.

Yes, but we are not a theocracy in the US. Although I am sure some fundamentalist would like that. Almost all of the religious overtones in our government were added in the 1950's.

From the very first treaty that the US ever signed with a foreign country:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Yes, but we are not a theocracy in the US. Although I am sure some fundamentalist would like that. Almost all of the religious overtones in our government were added in the 1950's.

Precisely. Our first inhabitants to this grand experiment we now call America came here to avoid religious persecution. They may not at the time have meant Atheists. But that principle was carried forward so that all Americans would be free to practice, or not practice what religion they choose. Wouldn't that make us a poly theocracy?

"one nation indivisible with LIBERTY and justice for all"

I grew up in the church until my mid teens. And the one thing more than any other that turned me off to religion was the unwillingness to accept other peoples beliefs.
People seem to forget that Ibrahim (Abraham) borrowed the one true God from his homeland of Babylon. Yaway or Jehovah etc. was just one of many gods in that time. He just chose the one he liked and ran with it.
Christians also forget that they borrowed their religion from the Hebrews, and Muslims Borrowed theirs from the Hebrews and the Christians. They all three are the same with some variations. Even Muslims I worked with knew this and accepted it.
When I was in An Najaf Iraq, we used to patrol the cemetery there. Our interpreter would tell us that this was Adams (Adums) final resting place. But because Eve had disgraced Adam she was not permitted to be buried there and was lost to time.

I love to study religion, it has done great things for many individuals. But as a whole has been one of the most destructive forces known to man. Unfortunate, because there are many good things in religion to live by and set your moral compass to. But people tend to pick and choose what parts should be followed or enforced.

 

"one nation indivisible with LIBERTY and justice for all"

Ahh, a bit of the pledge of ALLEGIANCE (wait, aren't we suppose to be sovereign? since when does a sovereign EVER pledge allegiance (give up sovereignship to that which you give allegiance to) to anything?) even that little line has an interesting history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

What does this image remind you of? National Socialist Party (NAZI) maybe?
This is the original salute for the "pledge"

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xipJGXUWjTU

And of course, the 1950's rears it's head again...

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.
Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

Funny how the socialist preacher would have even objected to "under god"
http://www.oldtimeislands.org/pledge/pledge.htm

But i digress...

continue with the thread

You're right Liquid. Not sure how we ended up pledging our allegiance?
and yes the original salute is scarily Nazi-ish. Probably why we dropped that part and went with the hand over the heart. I would hope anyways.

Yep, they tossed it in the 40's due to it's similarity to the Nazi salute; which isn't a suprising thing (or shouldn't be) as it was written by a socialist...

Swearing of the Pledge is accompanied by a salute. An early version of the salute, adopted in 1892, was known as the Bellamy salute. It started with the hand outstretched toward the flag, palm down, and ended with the palm up. Because of the similarity between the Bellamy salute and the Nazi salute, developed later, the United States Congress instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute. Removal of the Bellamy salute occurred on December 22, 1942, when Congress amended the Flag Code language first passed into law on June 22, 1942.[18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance#Salute

the political manuvering in this country started about the time it was formed, I think the "pledge" was just one of those moves to undermine (even if just slightly) the idiology of the republic & it's individual sovereignty concept (which is inherantly anti-socialist/communist).

Pastafarians Unite!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/9940397/Church-of-the-Flying-Spaghetti-Monster-vow-to-take-Poland-to-European-court.html

It's all about indoctrinating the children at an early age.