Search results

  1. Zoot

    The universe at the end of this sentence.

    A lot of experimentation on animals could be considered atrocious, for a start.
  2. Zoot

    The universe at the end of this sentence.

    I SAID HI NATHAN. And with metaphor, religion is frighteningly variable in its interpretation. (Frightening to literalists, anyway.)
  3. Zoot

    The universe at the end of this sentence.

    Hi, Nathan.
  4. Zoot

    What is Religion?

    Religion is a belief in an unseen or transcendent order of the world, and a way of living based on that belief.
  5. Zoot

    What would you do in this situation?

    Shoot the hostage.
  6. Zoot

    Are there any religions that do not promise an afterlife?

    From perspective, Buddhism and Vedanta promise the absence of an afterlife.
  7. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    What about Aquinas' idea of first motion?
  8. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    Up there with, "If you don't know why I'm angry with you, then I'm certainly not going to tell you!"
  9. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    Yes, that's true. It just means that "where did the universe come from?" may be as meaningless as asking "what's outside of the universe?" or "how wide is width?"
  10. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    Works fine, Durang, so long as you're aware that you're just defining the universe the same way theists define God: "That which breaks the rules."
  11. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    I haven't really been following the thread. Can you summarise it?
  12. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    I tutored on the Kalam cosmological argument once. Good for getting people's brains going.
  13. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    Well, at least you've thought about it. :)
  14. Zoot

    There must be uncaused cause even in an infinite chain.

    If time doesn't apply to God, God can't act, because to act is to change -to change from not having acted to having acted.
  15. Zoot

    Proof of design and impossibility of evolution.

    We didn't spend as much time falling out of trees as other animals have. Interestingly, when large birds settle in islands with no ground predators, they often evolve to become flightless, because flying costs so much energy, and there's no point if nothing's going to eat you.
  16. Zoot

    Proof of design and impossibility of evolution.

    The video is here: http://www.canopyants.com/Bristletail.mov Perhaps it was a feeler, off to the sides. And if you ask where that came from, you're getting down to the point where there was just randomly a small change that gave a small advantage - microevolution. No, I'm not. It's simple...
  17. Zoot

    Proof of design and impossibility of evolution.

    ks777, That video's a good example of what someone I know called the "Just Look At It!" argument. The argument goes a bit like this. 1. Here is a fish. 2. Just look at it! 3. Would you look at it?! 4. Just look at that thing. 5. Yep, gotta be God's doing! There are variations, sometimes with...
  18. Zoot

    Proof of design and impossibility of evolution.

    No, it's not. Would you like to see a video of it happening? If you're jumping from branch to branch in a tree, even a little extra skin between the forelimbs and rear limbs will slow your descent a little and give you a bit more control. Nope, but the same things that make controlled...
  19. Zoot

    Proof of design and impossibility of evolution.

    Exactly! The advantages are different, but the direction is towards the same thing. Do you agree that a glide is basically an extended jump? Bird wings would have evolved differently. Again, the question we would have to ask is: Before this chain of mutations made flight possible, what...
  20. Zoot

    Ground Zero Mosque...

    I like the idea of the authorities banning a mosque from being built. That's what Saudi Arabia does for Christian churches, and who doesn't want to be like Saudi Arabia?