You own wisdom thread --- say something quotable about whatever you want.

[rickymooston]

[Angelina Jolie] doesn't float your boat, that's fine. Most people find her extremely attractive, though. Popularity is the crudest form of democracy, numbers count. :)

I imagine there's plenty of people who find her hot for whom she isn't precisely their type, either, but she sure poses in a lot more well lighted, under dressed shots than most women they meet. It has an effect.

[rickymooston]

Jesus founded a loose 'system' of voluntary communal pacifism that opposed using wealth or power for private gain - essentially an anti-capitalist.

[rickymooston]

If you aren't a Child of God through faith now, you never were one. Once you are born-again you can't be "un-born" again.

[rickymooston]

When someone advocates making it illegal to teach an idea (like YEC), then it is incumbent on the person advocating making it illegal to show why that is appropriate and get people to back him up.  If a nontheist wants other people to adopt evolution, then it is incumbent on the nontheist to begin considering how this can be done.

[rickymooston]

If you play Black Sabbath backwards, it comes out of the speakers as Barry Manilow.

[rickymooston]

I certainly have few disagreements with self-identified atheists, but to me the good thing about atheism isn't about believing in nothing so much as getting to decide for yourself if you do indeed believe in anything.  There are still lots of things I believe in, and I find them more interesting than the things I don't believe in. 

[rickymooston]

In real life we work to tolerances, in language as in engineering.  If it is as certain that gods do not exist as it is that Woolly Mammoths are extinct, then it is an objective fact.  If someone wants to try to calculate the actual probability then I am afraid that we simplty don't have the relevant statistics.

If I say that I have a full tank of petrol I mean that it is full to the nearest 50 ml, not to the last molecule.

[rickymooston]

It's the whole choice thing, FB.  If God made it all obvious, we'd have no choice but believe in him.  For whatever reason (I think I know the reason) God wants us to believe him on faith.  This seems to be why there is always another more or less plausible explanation for everything that we attribute to God.

Another theory, which seems to have some merit, is that God's glory is so overwhelmingly powerful that if we were ever to really 'see' it we would be instantly fried to a crisp.  Accordingly, God must remain partially or mostly 'hidden' for our own survival.  (Maybe that explains spontaneous combustion?)

[rickymooston]

That you think atheists do not learn from their experiences just makes me wonder all the more how many atheists you have known well. 

The thing YOU learn from your bad experiences is that god hates you. Things go well, god loves you. Very deep.

[rickymooston]

In the US, you have the right to free speech, except to cause a riot, or to engage in defamation.  But employers may fire people for making certain kinds of jokes.  If they allow it, they can be sued for tolerating hate speech that contributes to a hostile work environment.  This happened where I used to work.  Some sales counselors were receiving training in sales and videotaped themselves telling racist jokes.  They went home that day without their jobs.

[rickymooston]

It's not surprising that they [aliens] haven't visited us, if they exist.  Barring some sort of warp drive, it just takes too long to travel through space.

[rickymooston]

But teaching kids that New York is 7.8 yards from San Francisco wouldn't do them any material harm, in fact it could save them some money if they think they've arrived after a 7.8 yard journey!

[rickymooston]

I think that people should be allowed to believe stuff that isn't benign too.  If someone wishes to believe that smoking is not harmful, for example, then I would not do anything to restrict their freedom to believe that.

I wouldn't allow that person to teach it to small children, though.

And I would still argue with them.

[rickymooston]

God created the world.  God created science.  God created the patterns by which the world works.  It is perfectly reasonable to accept evolutionary theory as part of God's work.  Darwin credited God with creating evolution... so do I.  So do millions of Roman Catholics.  So do millions of other Christians.

[rickymooston]

He what are you talking about? singing is ABSOLOUTLY allowed in Islam, and everyone has their own opinions on hadith, it has been clearly studied that the Quran doesn't say anything about music, and not all hadith are true.
Tamer is an awesome singer!

[rickymooston]

I couldn't watch it past the talking part. Where is the vomit emoticon? One of the reasons I ended up here, on this forum, was that I have a Christian friend that also vocally advocates this, and graphically worse. I was so appalled...  I had hoped to gain insight into that mindset. It still eludes me.

[rickymooston]

quote author=Kerlyssa link=topic=1209.msg180452#msg180452 date=1248075343]
I AM NOT AN ESKIMO!
[/quote]

[rickymooston]

Ra is still needed you blasphemous moose! 

[rickymooston]

Atheism also allows rum raisin ice cream, which is evil in frozen dessert form.

Atheism IS NOT A THING. It is an empty set. It is a non-position. It cannot "dictate" anything. The people who deny the existence of Zeus and Mithra (Christians, for example) are not communists.

[rickymooston]

Yeah.  Tell that to Michael Servetus.  Talk about a reason to be "ashamed of the Gospel".

[rickymooston]

He said specifically that atheism dictates communism. Communism is not a de facto source of atrocities, and atheism is not a de facto source of communism. Look at all the Christians who justified their atrocities with biblical or other religious sources. Does that mean Christianity is  de facto source of atrocity? Certainly not.

[catwixen]

Beer is definitely an acquired taste.  Only rarely will anyone ever give it to you.

[SkunkButt]

"The more things change the older you get"

From Assey

[rickymooston]

I don't make that claim, therefore why would I support it? I claim that some atheists held the position that atheism dictated marxist-leninism, not that it actually does dictate such.

[rickymooston]

The dumbest username/password combo I ever found was when I worked in the billing dept at The Good Guys (an electronics chain).  All usernames were employee numbers, which were either 4 or 6 digits in length depending on when you were hired. But I stumbled onto a username/password combo that was simply 1/1.  Not only did this allow me to log in, I was not restricted in what I could do in the system.  Most employee numbers only allowed access to certain functions depending on what their job required.

It became a timesaver for me when I just needed to check on info that required a password to access.  This was too funny, so I showed people at work.  Eventually, employees wanting to save time or cover their tracks started using the 1/1 combo.  About a month or so later, the IT people caught on and changed the password.  I guessed it within seconds.  The new combo was 2/2.  : )  Soon, employee number two started showing up all over the place, so the IT people killed him.  On the chance that they were stupid, i tried 3/3, and it worked!

[rickymooston]

It's not a matter of what is "allowed"

It is a matter of what is.

The rules you go by leave more questions unanswered than answered.

Where on the planet earth is there any life shown to come from non-life?
No place, even that "chemistry" example had to have an intelligent person orchestrate it.

[rickymooston]

I live in a very nice, white suburban neighborhood, and if the cops came to my house in a similar situation and I pulled that loud, arrogant do-you-know-who-I-am crap, I would end up spending the night in cell number four, just like Professor Gates.

Not everything that happens to a black guy happens because he's black. Sometimes it's because he's acting like a dick.

[rickymooston]

I haven't left yet. When I do I'll be able to tell you why.

But I'll have left, so probably won't bother.

[rickymooston]

Would you fight to defend freedom of belief?

Yes, I have not voted in the poll though. This is tough, as it is no longer clear what actually is freedom of belief. Advertisements storm through every window of my psyche, I no longer know what is my belief and what isn't. I am trying to peel back the onion!

[Goobatron]

I just had an awesome idea! But i forgot what it was.

-Goobatron