quote:

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Hm. In the USA, at least, church attendance is up in recent years. And the media seem, to my eye, to treat faith (just about any faith) as a de facto good. Our VP candidate Lieberman was heard to say that a person could not be moral without being religious. Bush Sr. said atheists were not Americans because this is "One Nation Under God." (No outcry except from one atheist and one progressive magazine.) Bush Jr. wants to give tax money to religious groups. A candidate is considered unelectable unless he makes a big show of his faith. We've got shows like "Touched by an Angel" and movies like Michael. Polls show that a stunning number of Americans believe Creationism over evolution (I forget the number, can look it up).

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You know, the guys who start everything with a "Hmmmm".

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

Well, I'll have to go smack around my smirky colleagues. I have no problem with christianity itself. It has a generally decent message and those who follow it tend to be harmless, helpful people. It's just too bad that there are so few people who follow the precepts of christianity. There is certainly no shortage of those who proclaim themselves christians while distorting christ's message, though...

Oh yeah - :o)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

quote:

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Another minor blip and backlash in a world where trends that used to take years to develop, -be brought to the attention of the common man, reacted to and sent off for another cycle- now take about a week thanks to almost instantaneous transmission of information....

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Amen, wirthling. Amen. And now, folks, much to your great relief: I am done clogging this thread. It's played itself out to all of the ends that these discussions usually play out to when they go well. It's nice to have my sneaking suspicions confirmed, though: That people who try to make other people laugh really DO care about the state of mankind in general, and are much more interested in exchanging intelligent viewpoints and arguing their own views skillfully and earnestly, than they are ripping things down and shredding other's opinions. (Seriously, could you imagine the clusterfuck this thread would have been on almost any other board?) Hell, I'm probably more guilty here of shredding than anybody. Of course, I'm old and cranky, and anything anybody over 40 says should be, and probably is, widely discounted. I mean, come on.... what could anybody my age REALLY know about ANYTHING?

(Smirk, smirk)

Thanks for listening.

Love,

bunner

Over here,
In the faceless beige condos,
Turning 44 on Wednesday
Sucking in his gut a lot

Rock on, then....

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

quote:

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There is certainly no shortage of those who proclaim themselves christians while distorting christ's message, though...

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Apparently, I have utterly failed to communicate my true intentions! RIP RIP SHRED SHRED.

...

boing boing

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What others say about boorite!

I knew you'd eventually come to like fundamentalists.

(Any reply can please be sent to: I am a collosal geek, care of gabe_billings, chancellor of geekdom.)

Also, One-Eye Ed says, "Stop with the emotions!" .)

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I ate a hooker half a bottle of knife.

to: I am a collosal geek, care of gabe_billings, chancellor of geekdom

I don't think the so-called "fundamentalists" follow christ's message any better than others. It's appalling how often they forget the "God is love" and "God forgives" thing.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

5 pages! Woohoo!

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Oops. Now it's 5 pages. woohoo.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

No, it's not appaling. Try to follow Christ's teachings sometime. It's not easy. I bet you couldn't do it for a day. Neither could I, granted, but I don't think it's appaling when people don't. It's human nature to be selfish, to stand up for yourself, to be judgemental, (you're doing the latter now as you read this post)but the gospels teach just the opposite in important ways.

There are people who do follow Christ's message of kindness, forgiveness, and non-judgement, though. Not too many, granted, but the reason for that is strongly societal. When you try to apply the golden rule to its best, and to truly live the life that Christ speaks of, you're taken advantage of, mocked, and generally looked upon as weak. Of course, at first it doesn't bother you, since it's generally viewed as sharing in part of the martydom of Christ. But, after awhile, we're all human and eventually rebel. So,I'd say, don't be appaled at the christians that don't do as Jesus says. For few do. Instead, be sorry for those who do since they get shit on by the rest of us.

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I ate a hooker half a bottle of knife.

Malarkey.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Well, my vote just changed from British. But, if you've got nothing to add, don't say anything, I guess. Smirky, definitely smirky.

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I ate a hooker half a bottle of knife.

Balderdash.

(I have decided to limit my responses from now on to one word or less.)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

(Make that "one word or fewer." Beat ya to it, Dr. Pedantic.)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

(OK, I've decided to either give responses of one word or fewer or ramble on in parenthetical statements that are of even less interest to everyone than my usual contributions here.)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

(OK, I'll shut up now.)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Well, the english would have used "Poppycock" as their one word answer, so I guess they still have the lead.

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I ate a hooker half a bottle of knife.

(Dang. I was going to use "poppycock" next.)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Suuuure you were, kid. And I'm sure the Tobor idea was bouncing around in your head right before boorite posted it, and that inventing Butter Spray was on your To-Do list a couple of years back.

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I ate a hooker half a bottle of knife.

Bollocks.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Poppycock.

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MatthewEastaugh | He wanders.

Arguing for a new scientific idea is never really 100% certain. There are two types of logic in philosophy: deductive and inductive. Deductive is pure, mathematical, black-and-white, true-or-false kind of logic, with no in-betweens or grey areas. Scientific theory falls into the second category. Inductive logic is never right or wrong, but only strong or weak. Scientific theory is generally a type of inductive logic called, with a rather self-explanatory title, "argument to the best explanation".

A research scientist's job is to come up with crazy theories and then try to disprove them, as my year eight science teacher told me. They see something, and think, "Why did that happen?" They come up with an explanation, then try to prove themselves wrong (or rather, collect evidence to show their explanation is the product of a weak argument). If they can't prove it wrong, they then see if they can find evidence to support it.

The idea that all matter was made from a combination of four basic elements - earth, air, fire, and water - is a very old one, and it seemed like a strong explanation for a very long time. It was less than two hundred years ago that the precursors of modern atomic theory knocked it off its throne. Basically, a better explanation was found.

I'd better end this before it gets any longer... :)

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

Does anyone remember the original purpose of this folder? 8)

I made this because I am BORED. It's an old joke; I feel like punishing myself for taking the time to make this comic by subjecting myself to ridicule from others. (Namely, y'all.)

[Click to view comic: 'Random Comic! I Apologize for This One. Really.']

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"Old" is the old new.